A/HRC/39/31
59.
Finally, Mr. Rojas-Aravena stressed the importance of effectively implementing the
Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, with a focus on human
security and advancement towards the goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
The culture of peace should be strengthened within the framework of the United Nations
through the progressive development of a culture of prevention, cooperation, the rule of law
and the construction of solid institutions. Developing the right to peace required creating
State policies to dismantle the existing culture of war, which meant educating for
coexistence, inclusion, participation, cooperation, reconciliation, democratic governance
and freedom. In order to increase the number of students from different nationalities
represented at the University for Peace, States were requested to consider establishing
scholarship programmes for their nationals.
60.
Ms. Boly Barry began by noting that Nelson Mandela had called education the most
powerful weapon for transforming the world. As Special Rapporteur on the right to
education, she reaffirmed the Deputy High Commissioner’s call for a holistic vision of
peace. Furthermore, she highlighted that the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, which also included in its article 13 the right of everyone to education,
promoted equality of opportunity. However, more than 1 billion human beings around the
world did not enjoy the right to education. She noted that most of them were women,
highlighting that there was a correlation between exclusion and inequality.
61.
Peace was not the lack of conflict in a given territory; it also related to spirituality
and love between and among human beings. Ms. Boly Barry commended UNESCO for its
work on global citizenship education and a culture of peace and called for the development
of more norms and standards surrounding spirituality. Since in times of war there was fear
of others, both individually and collectively, that fear needed to be addressed, notably
through education as a fundamental pillar of societies.
62.
Ms. Boly Barry recommended that UNESCO continue with its vision in pursuing
Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality education). Furthermore, States should bear in
mind peace and spirituality. In many countries civil society organizations had developed
useful activities and experiences in pursuing a culture of peace. Information on such work
in educating for peace should be better disseminated. In that context, educational outreach
and the involvement of children, youth and women should be increased. For many years,
women had been marginalized in peacebuilding processes and they should be brought back
into peacebuilding. Finally, she recognized the important work by academics to develop
best practices, for example in transitional justice and education, and she called for better
dissemination at the international and national levels of such best practices.
63.
In the following discussion, the representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
recommended that academic institutions promote the notion of a pacifist State and closely
examine the propagation of the glorification of war and apologies of war in view of their
impacts on societies and the negative consequences for economic, cultural and social
development.
64.
The representative of the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law
reiterated the following civil society proposals, which had been made in September 2017:
(a)
All peoples and individuals had a right to a comprehensive peace and human
rights education within the framework of the Declaration and the Programme of Action on
a Culture of Peace and dialogue among cultures;
(b)
Education and socialization for peace was a sine qua non for unlearning war
and building identities disentangled from violence;
(c)
Everyone had the right to denounce any event that threatened or violated the
right to peace, and to participate freely in peaceful activities for the defence of the right to
peace;
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