The Hague Appeal for Peace was one of the very first organizations to champion the creation of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and has been a longtime supporter and source of inspiration through its president, Cora Weiss. It is an international network of organizations and individuals dedicated to the abolition of war and making peace a human right. The Global Campaign for Peace Education was launched at the Hague Appeal for Peace conference in May 1999. After the conference, Hague Appeal for Peace took the responsibility of coordinating the Campaign.
The Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE) seeks to develop the capacities, in teachers and learners, to face challenges of unprecedented proportion: the continued development of weapons of mass destruction, armed conflicts between states and ethnic groups, the spread of racism, gender inequality, community violence, the huge and widening gap between the rich and the poor throughout the globalized economy, massive violations of human rights and the degradation of the environment.
This initiative intends to foster the culture of peace in communities around the world. It has two goals.
- First, to build public awareness and political support for the introduction of peace education into all spheres of education, including non-formal education, in all schools throughout the world.
- Second, to promote the education of all teachers to teach for peace.
Campaign Statement:
A culture of peace will be achieved when citizens of the world understand global problems; have the skills to resolve conflict constructively; know and live by international standards of human rights, gender and racial equality; appreciate cultural diversity; and respect the integrity of the Earth. Such learning can not be achieved without intentional, sustained and systematic education for peace.
The urgency and necessity of such education was acknowledged by the member states of UNESCO in 1974 and reaffirmed in the Integrated Framework of Action on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy in 1995. Yet, few educational institutions have undertaken such action. It is time to call upon ministries of education, educational institutions and policy makers to fulfill the commitments.
A campaign to facilitate the introduction of peace and human rights education into all educational institutions was called for by the Hague Appeal for Peace Civil Society Conference in May 1999. An initiative of individual educators and education NGOs committed to peace, it is conducted through a global network of education associations, and regional, national and local task forces of citizens and educators who will lobby and inform ministries of education and teacher education institutions about the UNESCO Framework and the multiplicities of methods and materials that now exist to practice peace education in all learning environments. The goal of campaign is to assure that all educational systems throughout the world will educate for a culture of peace.
Web site: http://www.haguepeace.org/
