Peace Education in Colombia

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

Excerpts from extensive analysis at Peace Education Campaign Country Maps

The development of peace education in Colombia is shaped by the complex history of armed conflict, internal displacements, and the ongoing efforts to construct a lasting and inclusive peace. Targeted efforts addressing its challenges have resulted in Colombia emerging as a global leader in peace education.


Training for young volunteers at the University of Toloma. Ibagué, Toloma. November 2019. (Photo: Schools of Peace Foundation archive)

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played and continue to play a significant role in strengthening peace education in Colombia, with their active engagement at the local level, collaboration with communities, and creation of resources for effective programs. Furthermore, a key aspect of peace education in Colombia is its local approach, with programs and initiatives tailored to meet the needs of local communities. . . .

One of the primary formal initiatives for peace education in Colombia is “La Cátedra de Paz,” which aims to create and consolidate a space for learning, reflection and dialogue on the culture of peace and sustainable development that contributes to the general well-being and improvement of the quality of life of the population, established by Law 1732 of 2014, and regulated by decree 1038 of 2015. . . . .

Non-formal peace education efforts in Colombia are led by numerous NGOs that engage directly or indirectly in peace education through educational programs, teacher training, community initiatives, and extensive research. They have a great impact in strengthening institutional commitments to peacebuilding, often acting as intermediaries between the government sector and educational institutions, as well as mobilizing other actors who are not formally linked to the educational sector.

Social organizations actively support the documentation of experiences and insights, contributing to a deeper understanding of the methods and underlying reasons that make peace and human rights integral to the educational sector. . . .

In Colombia a territorial approach to peace education has been one of the major trends that have emerged in the country. . . . The territorial approach has been implemented using various strategies, often leveraging local resources and asking teachers and communities to analyse the conflict dynamics in their specific settings. This ranges from initiatives to prevent recruitment into criminal gangs and improve economic conditions to initiatives that focus on strengthening local communities and conflict resolution.

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Question for this article:

Where is peace education taking place?

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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Peace Education Organizations, Models & Projects in Colombia

Overview initiatives/organizations connected to different approaches
Historical memory
Territorial
Intersectional/gender
Ethnic/intercultural
Human rights
Ethic and conflict resolution
Civil participation, democracy, and citizen competencies
Teacher training
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

UN Women Leaders Network to convene a diverse group of women leaders worldwide to advance women’s rights and leadership

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from UN Women

The UN Women Leaders Network was launched this week on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly. It is UN Women’s first permanent network of its kind, composed of intergenerational and intersectional women leaders, and its members represent the change needed in the traditional image of leadership today.

The network includes both emerging and more established leaders across ages, regions, and professions. The network will work together to promote the increase and advancement of women in leadership and decision-making spaces worldwide, and functions as a platform to a diverse group of women leaders to discuss and exchange ideas, solutions and experiences as leaders, community-builders and decision-makers.

Chaired by the Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Sami Bahous, and created in partnership with the Government of Iceland, the UN Foundation, and the Council of Women World Leaders, the network will operate in support of UN Women’s work on women’s leadership. As the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action approaches in 2025, and world leaders are being called on to recommit to gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment, the network will serve as champions for diversity in leadership.

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Questions related to this article:

Does the UN advance equality for women?

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The network includes leaders such as:

Amanda Nguyen, CEO and Founder, Rise;
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius (2015 – 2018);
Aya Chebbi, Former African Union Special Envoy on Youth and
      Founder of Nala Feminist Collective;
Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank;
Hibaaq Osman, Founder and Chairperson, ThinkTank for Arab Women,
      the Dignity Fund, Karama and the Centre for the Strategic Initiatives of Women;
Janet Mbugua, Author, Advocate and Founder, Inua Dada Foundation;
Joyce Banda, President of Malawi (2012 – 2014);
Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia (2010 – 2013);
Julieta Martinez, Climate Justice and Gender Equality Youth Activist;
Kathleen Hanna, Musician, Author and Feminist Activist;
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Civil Rights Advocate, Scholar and Co-Founder
      and Executive Director, African American Policy Forum;
Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2011;
Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown Institute of
         Women, Peace and Security, GeorgetownUniversity;
Roxane Gay, Author, Professor and Advocate;
Tarja Halonen, President of Finland (2000 – 2012).

A full list of the current leaders can be found here.

Once fully mobilized, the network will consist of a group of 100 women leaders.

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global, United Nations, WOMEN'S EQUALITY,

Head of Nuke Abolition Group Decries Gaza Suffering After Winning Nobel Peace Prize

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Julia Conley from Common Dreams

Calling for peace in war zones around the world and an end to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, a grassroots group organized by survivors of the United States’ atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Nihon Hidankyo was established in 1956 after a number of local organizations of hibakusha, the Japanese name for “bomb-affected people,” joined together.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, the group’s leader, was three years old when the U.S. killed 100,000 people in Hiroshima with a nuclear weapon, and his message after learning Nihon Hidankyo was the 2024 Peace Prize winner was straightforward.

“I am not sure I will be alive next year,” said  Mimaki, 82. “Please abolish nuclear weapons while we are alive. That is the wish of 114,000 hibakusha.”

Mimaki focused not only on the plight of the estimated 650,000 Japanese people who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, but also people—particularly children—facing war now.

“It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists,” said  Mimaki. “For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won’t end there. Politicians should know these things.”

“In Gaza, bleeding children are being held [by their parents],” he added. “It’s like in Japan 80 years ago.”

Mimaki said he had believed “the people working so hard in Gaza” would be awarded the Peace Prize, referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which was also nominated.

The U.N. agency has struggled  to continue providing humanitarian services to Palestinians in Gaza this year after unverified claims by Israel that 12 UNRWA workers were involved in a Hamas-led attack last year prompted countries including the U.S. to suspend its funding. A majority of countries—but not the U.S., the agency’s biggest donor—have restored funding after an independent probe found Israel had not provided evidence  for its accusations.

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Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

(continued from left column).

Kazumi Matsui, the mayor of Hiroshima, said that with the average age of hibakusha now 85, “there are fewer and fewer people able to testify to the meaninglessness of possessing atomic bombs and their absolute evil.”

“People in coming generations must know that what happened is not just a tragedy for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but one that concerns all humanity that must not be repeated,” said Matsui.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its efforts to ensure countries comply with the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, applauded  the Nobel Committee for recognizing Nihon Hidankyo’s “lifelong work to bring the world’s attention to what nuclear weapons actually do to people when they are used.”

Several years after the nuclear bombings, rates of leukemia diagnoses rose considerably  in Japan among survivors. After a decade, other cancers were also detected at higher-than-normal rates. Pregnant women who were exposed to radiation from the bombings also had higher rates of miscarriage and their infants were more likely to die.

Cancer rates have continued to increase among hibakusha throughout their lives.

“It is particularly significant that this award comes at this time when the risk that nuclear weapons will be used again is as high, if not higher, as it has ever been,” said Melissa Parke, executive director of ICAN.

As Nihon Hidankyo was honored “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again,” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) announced  it would be holding its annual nuclear exercise, “Steadfast Noon,” on October 14 over Western Europe.

On “Democracy Now!” on Friday, Joseph Gerson, president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security, said  the award “could not come at a better time.” [See CPNN ]

“What most people don’t understand is the increasing danger of nuclear war at this point,” said Gerson. “Among all the nuclear powers, the threshold for nuclear use is decreasing, and all the nuclear powers are in the process of so-called ‘modernizing’ their nuclear arsenals. This is a very dangerous moment.”

“We must, as the hibakusha say, recognize that human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist,” Gerson added, “and we have to work for their abolition.”

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East Asia, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast,

‘Keep Your Eye On Calendar, Palestine Will Be Free’: Arundhati Roy’s PEN Pinter Prize Speech

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from the Timeline Daily

“They fight on because they know that one day—From the river to the sea Palestine will be Free. It will. Keep your eye on your calendar. Not on your clock. That’s how the people – not the generals – the people fighting for their liberation measure time,” asserts Arundhati Roy, the noted Indian author and activist, during her PEN Pinter Prize acceptance speech delivered on October 10 at the British Library.

After announcing her name for the prize that English PEN established as an annual award in honor of playwright Harold Pinter, Roy declared her share of the prize money will be donated to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.

During her award acceptance speech after he thanked the members of English PEN and the jury for the Prize, Roy began by greeting Egyptian author and activist, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, writer of courage, and her fellow awardee. She said she was speaking of her friends and comrades in prison in India—lawyers, academics, students, journalists – Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima, Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut we well as thousands of incarcerated people in Kashmir and across the country.

Speaking about the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza, the Indian author said the US and Israel unflinching ongoing “televised genocide in Gaza and now Lebanon in defence of a colonial occupation and an Apartheid state”

Describing the fatalities of over 42000 lives including women and children, Roy stated the US and Europe have prepared the ground for another situation to assuage their collective guilt for their early years of indifference towards one genocide—the Nazi extermination of millions of European Jews.

“Hostilities could end right this minute. Israeli hostages could be freed, and Palestinian prisoners could be released. The negotiations with Hamas and the other Palestinian stakeholders that must inevitably follow the war could instead take place now and prevent the suffering of millions of people,” she affirmed.

The Indian author goes on saying that like every state that has carried out ethnic cleansing and genocide in history, “Zionists in Israel – who believe themselves to be “the chosen people”—began b by dehumanising Palestinians” before driving them off their land and murdering them.

Roy quoted statements of former Israeli ministers to show how the Jewish state treated Palestinians as a justification to dehumanise them. Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin called Palestinians ‘two-legged beasts’. Yitzhak Rabin called them ‘grasshoppers’ who ‘could be crushed’. Golda Meir, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel said ‘There was no such thing as Palestinians’.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

(continued from left column).

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the so-called famous warrior against fascism, said, ‘I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time’ and then went on to declare that a ‘higher race’ had the final right to the manger. Once those two-legged beasts, grasshoppers, dogs and non-existent people were murdered, ethnically cleansed, and ghettoised, a new country was born, Roy said, quoting the zionists and their supporters

Roy went on how the West and their media support, arm, applaud Israel, despite floods of evidence for Israeli brutalities. “No wonder Israeli soldiers seem to have lost all sense of decency,” she says, adding that for them the history only began when the Hamas attack Israel on October 7, killing Israeli civilians, triggering the ongoing genocidal war.

“I refuse to play the condemnation game. Let me make myself clear. I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be,” Roy says. Noting that when US President Joe Biden met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet during a visit to Israel in October 2023, he said, ‘I don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist,’ Roy says she is not going to  declare myself or define myself in any way that is narrower than her writing.

The celebrated Indian writer then poses some questions; I ask you, which of us sitting in this hall would willingly submit to the indignity that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been subjected to for decades? What peaceful means have the Palestinian people not tried? What compromise have they not accepted—other than the one that requires them to crawl on their knees and eat dirt?

Roy then asserts Israel is not fighting a war of self-defence. “It is fighting a war of aggression. A war to occupy more territory, to strengthen its Apartheid apparatus and tighten its control on Palestinian people and the region.”

Roy says not all the power and money, weapons and propaganda on earth can any longer hide the wound that is Palestine. She notes the polls to shows that majority of  the citizens in the countries whose governments enable the Israeli genocide have made it clear that they do not agree with their government’s support to the Zionist atrocities, including a younger generation of Jews. She cites increasing number of protest in the Europe against Israeli aggression in Gaza.

“The war that has now begun will be terrible. But it will eventually dismantle Israeli Apartheid. The whole world will be far safer for everyone – including for Jewish people – and far more just. It will be like pulling an arrow from our wounded heart,” the award winning author said, underscoring that the war could stop today if the US government withdrew its support of Israel.

“When Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a map of the Middle East in which Palestine has been erased and Israel stretches from the river to the sea, he is applauded as a visionary who is working to realize the dream of a Jewish homeland. But when Palestinians and their supporters chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, they are accused of explicitly calling for the genocide of Jews,” Roy said.

The PEN Prize awardee concluded her speech expressing her conviction that From the river to the sea Palestine will be Free.

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Europe, HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast, South Asia, , ,

Han Kang declines press conference, refuses to celebrate Nobel prize while people die in wars

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article friom Korea Times

Han Kang, the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in literature, has declined to hold a press conference, citing the global tragedies of the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Palestine conflict.


Han Kang, the Korean recipient of 2024 Nobel Literature Prize.
The Atlantic

Her father, the renowned novelist Han Seung-won, 85, conveyed her message during a press conference at the Han Seung-won Literary School in Jangheung, South Jeolla Province.

“(Han Kang) told me, ‘With the war intensifying and people being carried out dead every day, how can we have a celebration or a press conference?’ She said she won’t hold a press conference,” he said.

After the Nobel Prize in literature was announced on Thursday evening, Han Seung-won spoke with his daughter and advised her to select a publishing house to hold a press conference.

Initially, she agreed, saying she would “give it a try,” but changed her mind overnight.

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Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

(Article continued from the column on the left)

“Her perspective has shifted from being a writer living in Korea to a global (writer’s) consciousness. I, however, could not shake off the feeling of being the father of a prizewinner living in Korea, so I ended up arranging this press conference,” he said.

Han Kang also discouraged her father from holding a celebratory banquet at the literary school.

Her father said, “I was planning to throw a party here for the local people, but my daughter told me not to do it. She said, ‘Please don’t celebrate while witnessing these tragic events (referring to the two wars). The Swedish Academy didn’t give me this award for us to enjoy, but to stay more clear-headed.’ After hearing that, I was deeply troubled.”

After receiving news of her award in a phone call with the Nobel committee on Thursday, Han Kang expressed that she was “very surprised and honored,” but has not made any further statements.

Multiple publishing houses, including Changbi Publishers, which published her notable novels “Human Acts” (2014) and “The Vegetarian” (2007), and Munhakdongne Publishing, which published her poetry collection and novel “The Wind Is Blowing” (2010), had suggested holding a press conference, but as of Friday afternoon, she had not responded.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.

(Thank you to Transcend Media Service for bringing us this news.)

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East Asia, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Mexico supports the launch of the Third World March for Peace and Nonviolence

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Olivier Turquet on the website of The World March

The Colegio Jesús de Urquiaga I.A.P. in Mexico City joined the Third World March for Peace and Nonviolence (The 3MM). They showed their support by holding two ceremonies dedicated to Peace and Nonviolence in which the entire educational community participated (500 primary and preschool students and 200 secondary and high school students).

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(Click here for the original article in Spanish.)

Questions related to this article:
 
Latin America, has it taken the lead in the struggle for a culture of peace?

(Continued from left column)

The two ceremonies were very emotional ceremonies as the need to unite voices was discussed, not only to denounce injustices, the horrors of war and violence, but to show the positive actions of the community to ensure that the new generations live in a world of peace and harmony. The importance of exalting values ​​such as respect and tolerance to build a culture of peace and non-violence that guarantees unity among peoples was also discussed.

In addition to the heartfelt words of the students, human symbols of Peace and Non-violence were formed. A poetic performance about the tragedy that individuals experience in violence and revenge was symbolized by a human chain. There was also a song for Peace (Imagine by John Lennon) and a joyful and hopeful dance performance called the human conquest of peace. which The activities join in spirit the start of the March on October 2 in San José, Costa Rica, the international day of non-violence and the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.

It is worth noting that in addition to the ceremonies, a graphic exhibition prepared by the students themselves was held, showing the types of violence, raising awareness about the normalization of violence; an original recipe book for peace and inspiring phrases about building a culture of peace and non-violence.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Latin America

Mexico: Libraries, key to building a peace-building citizenship

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Laura Lucía Romero Mireles in Gaceta UNAM (translation by CPNN)

For peace, the great challenge is to transform the current culture of violence into one of dialogue, understanding and solidarity, characterized by respect for life and the dignity of people, social harmony founded on the principles of freedom, justice, democracy and solidarity, and rejection of all forms of violence,. This is the conclusion of the first session of the VI Virtual Forum Agenda 2030, libraries as drivers of a peaceful and sustainable future.

The keynote address was delivered by Ana Dolores Barrero Tiscar, director of the Culture of Peace Foundation in Spain. She said that developing a culture of peace is the only way to address the complexity of current needs and insecurities. However, carrying out this transformation is not an easy task, because violence has existed since the beginning of humanity; it is learned, socially constructed throughout history.

In her address, she mentioned that the United Nations Agenda 2030, in its 17 sustainable development goals and its 169 targets – which aim to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for all people – recognizes the transversal and multidimensional scope of the culture of peace.

At the opening ceremony, Verónica Elena Solares Rojas, deputy director of Education, Training and Updating for Sustainability of the University Coordination for Sustainability, representing Tamara Martínez Ruiz, secretary of Institutional Development, highlighted that libraries are key players in building an environmental, peace-building, informed and proactive citizenry, by providing access to scientific, humanistic, reliable and quality knowledge.

More and more higher education institutions and spaces for the dissemination of knowledge around the world are recognizing their central role in the transition towards sustainability, she added at the meeting held from September 25 to 27.

UNAM, in its Institutional Development Plan, proposes sustainability as a cross-cutting axis for its substantive tasks. “Education strategies cannot be carried out without the existing material resources that are in the library collections; thus, from the Coordination we seek to strengthen education for sustainability at all levels.”

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(click here for the original version in Spanish).

Questions for this article:

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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Elsa Margarita Ramírez Leyva, general director of Libraries and Digital Information Services, described these facilities as living centers where learning, innovation, creativity, recreation, and enjoyment coexist, and which until now have been places of peace and harmony.

In this Directorate and the 140 libraries that make up the UNAM library and information system, she added, they have long been contributing to sustainable development through different actions. An example of this is that they all facilitate efficient and broad access to physical and digital collections, and open access resources, which also benefits other communities.

Rocío Cázares Aguilar, head of the Acquisitions Department of the National Library of Mexico, explained that for some years now this agency has had an annual program of donation of bibliographic materials to the Eastern Preventive Men’s Prison, and it has been very successful.

“We have received comments from inmates commenting on how their lives have changed by being sent stimulating materials of interest, of a legal or literary nature, which encourages us to continue sowing those seeds of peace among those citizens who also have the right to the information and recreation that libraries can offer.”

The coordinator of the Graduate Program in Library Science and Information Studies, Lina Escalona Ríos, commented that from the library education “we reflect on what we have done for the training of professionals, teachers and doctors, who must contribute to the achievement of the objectives of peace and sustainability.”

For his part, Gerardo Zavala Sánchez, coordinator of the College of Library Science and Archives, of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, stressed that the education of librarians in training is relevant at this historical moment, and it is necessary to have a comprehensive vision in the quality study plans and programs, where respect and harmony between society and the planet must be paramount.

Máximo Román Domínguez López, president of the National College of Librarians, highlighted the commitment to society to rebuild the social fabric with the active participation of librarians, and how libraries can be agents of peace in a country where violence prevails.

Finally, Daniel Jorge Sanabria Barrios, president of the National College of Librarians, highlighted the commitment to society to rebuild the social fabric with the active participation of librarians, and how libraries can be agents of peace in a country where violence prevails.

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Honduras: IUDPAS and World Vision Certify 27 Professionals with the Diploma in Culture of Peace

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

A blog by Ilda Corea of ​​the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (translation by CPNN)

The University Institute for Democracy, Peace and Security (IUDPAS), of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), in conjunction with World Vision Honduras, awarded the Diploma in Culture of Peace, certifying 27 professionals who benefited from the training process and are trained to be agents of change in society.

The event was attended by the head of the Academic Vice-Rector’s Office, Lourdes Murcia; the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Carmen Julia Fajardo; the coordinator of the Peace area of ​​IUDPAS, Esteban Ramos, and the director of projects of World Vision, Sady Alonzo.

The dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences assured that this academic programs confirms the firm commitment that UNAH has with society to address today’s social realities.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version).

Question for this article:

Culture of peace curricula: what are some good examples?

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“Through the continuing education programs that the Faculty of Social Sciences has, through the two institutes, we try to strengthen the skills of the people who are working every day,” said Fajardo.

The diploma, carried out by the Peace area of ​​IUDPAS, offered participants theoretical and practical knowledge necessary to promote participatory processes for the construction of peace, conflict transformation and education for peace, promoting the development of a set of values, attitudes and key behaviors for care, respect for life and rejection of violence in all its manifestations.

The diploma course lasted 128 hours, distributed in the following eight modules: Theory of peace and violence; Education for transformative peace; Art and play in education for transformative peace; Emotions and subjectivities; Participatory methodologies and non-violent action for transformative peace; Gender, masculinity and diversity; Conflict, dialogue and non-violent communication and Analysis of current events and participatory experiences of peace building.

Student Cristely Abigail Flores commented: “This training process has taught us that it is in the group that we can make actions for change and not in individuality, because that is where peace as such is reflected.”

Since its creation, the IUDPAS has made available to the Honduran population non-formal education programs aimed at strengthening the capacities of professionals from different disciplines in matters of democracy, peace and security.
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EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Colombia: The functions of the Congressional Peace Commission are strengthened

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from the Senate of the Republic of Colombia

This week, the Senate Plenary formally consolidated the Legal Commission for Peace. This comes after several years of efforts to ensure that this commission became part of the legal commissions that exist in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.


With Law 2405 of 2024, the Legal Commission for Peace and Post-Conflict was formally created.

As a member and president of the Commission, Senator Iván Cepeda, from the Coalition of the Historic Pact, explained, “It is a decision that has advantages, it has the possibility that the decisions that are taken, have greater binding force in Congress, different from the decisions of before.”

(Article continued in right column)

(click here for the original version in Spanish).

Questions for this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

(Article continued from left column)

This Legal Peace Commission has a fundamental role in supporting the mechanisms of implementation of the peace agreements, as well as the realization of actions of a humanitarian nature, for the preservation and maintenance of peace.

In this way, studies and analyses of the social reality of the country can also be carried out, which contribute to promoting actions within the framework of the Culture of Peace, as well as the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

The commission will be composed of eleven senators from the following political parties: Iván Cepeda and Aida Quilcué (Historical Pact), Liliana Benavides and Germán Blanco (Conservative Party), Fabio Amín (Liberal Party), Angelica Lozano (Green Party), Paloma Valencia (Democratic Center Party), David Luna (Radical Change Party), Norma Hurtado (U Party), Lorena Ríos Cuellar (MIRA-Colombia Justa Libres Party), Sandra Ramírez, Omar Restrepo, Pablo Catatumbo, Imelda Daza Cotes and Julian Gallo (Comunes Party).

The measure received the endorsement in the Plenary of 60 congressmen who agree on the construction of a peace policy that will contribute to the cessation of conflict by armed groups outside the law that persist in the national territory.

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Mexico: Is peace possible or is it just an illusion?

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Luis Reyes from Universidad Iberoamericana (translation by CPNN)

The Department of Interdisciplinary Reflection of the Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO) presented the book Reconciliation: A Possible Path to Peace, by Dr. Mónica Chávez Aviña, a work that addresses the context of violence that people, families and communities experience daily in Mexico. The book provides a reflective dialogue with different authors who have addressed the origin and the causes of the violence. causes of this scourge, where it began to develop and whether it is possible to eradicate it.


Photo: Luis Reyes

Is peace an illusion or a naive utopia? Is reconciliation and forgiveness possible? Is there hope or is everything already lost? These are questions that the text written by Dr. Chávez Aviña seeks to answer. The context is the wave of violence that looms daily in the country makes us look at the terror that has been experienced for a month in Culiacán or the recent execution of the mayor of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos Catalán, at the hands of organized crime.

During the presentation held at the Martín Buber Auditorium of the IBERO, the moderator was Maestro (Mtro.) Alberto Segrera Tapia, who gave the floor to several personalities who were invited to make comments and reflections on the volume.

Maestro (Mtra.) Lucila Servitje Montull said that, as a response to violence, reconciliation is complex; it is a personal and social problem that originates from unjust structures and the serious lack of justice for reparation of damages.

“What Monica chooses is reconciliation as a response to violence (…) When violence is not recognized, one is complicit in injustice. Monica underlines that we can speak of a resentful memory, but also of a happy memory, which can recover the past, follow the present and glimpse into the future.”

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(click here for the original version in Spanish).

Questions for this article:

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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Miguel Álvarez Gándara, National Human Rights Award 2017, pointed out that the logic that dominates today is that of force, where patriarchy, exploitation of resources, neoliberalism and dispossession are exercised with violence and who has to change this situation is the power, which is totally exhausted.

“The possibility of forgiveness is in reconciliation (…) Where we are capable of dialogue, we initiate processes of reconciliation. Dialogue has depth because it has to do with the causes, not only with the effects. Peace is a process that does not come from outside, it is built from within with local actors,” he said.

The Director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Reflection, Dr. Fernando de la Fuente S.J., reflected that there is no reconciliation without justice because it is evident that the person who commits harm must compensate for it. However, he pointed out that Dr. Chávez Aviña’s text rethinks this situation from different angles and provides an alternative for reconciliation.

“That is fundamental. If we do not believe this, we will not be able to move forward and open ourselves to hope. We must narrate from the truth so that we can empathize with the suffering of the victims, know the social causes that led to these unjust and violent acts so that they are not repeated. In some way this is present throughout the text,” he stressed.

Dr. Chávez Aviña, author of the book, explained that the text asked questions that challenge and try to give different answers so that whoever reads it can dialogue with different authors and propose reconciliation as a possible path to peace.

She pointed out that there are still many challenges to achieve this, such as caring for people in vulnerable situations and connecting with people, groups, foundations and educational centers to build a culture of peace, ensuring that people live with dignity and their human rights are respected.

“Reconciliation first implies moving from silence to words based on truth. We have to transmit hope to the next generations and create a culture of peace, where we can live with reconciliation, fraternity and solidarity. We must commit ourselves to creating new narratives of justice, of reconciliation to create bridges that make this horizon possible,” she noted.
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