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The need:
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. Top
How the campaign works:
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.
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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. Top
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