The UN Addresses how Education can Tackle the Roots of Conflict

By: Summer Yasmin

“I am neither Armenian nor Greek but a citizen of the world” said Socrates some 2500 years ago. The immortal philosopher was one of the first to voice the idea that knowledge sustains peace. Although times have changed, world dynamics have not. This very notion became a central bench mark at the United Nations General Assembly on September 14, 2012. Top officials of the United Nations said that education is a key factor in global change and peaceful resolution, during the “Culture of Peace” forum this past Friday. The UN established the Culture of Peace program in 1999 and since then has used it as a platform to promote global education.

“Through education, we teach children not to hate. Through education, we raise leaders who act with wisdom and compassion. Through education, we establish a true, lasting culture of peace,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. There is general agreement amongst social researchers that education raises individual well-being and improves social cohesion. Wide spread and accessible education has been associated with life satisfaction, tolerance and a higher chance of peaceful co-existence. Simply put; to know is to understand to understand is to accept. The ability to accept differences is a vital skill, necessary in building global tolerance among the World’s citizens. The United Nations program emphasizes that this skill is best established at a young age in children. “To fundamentally tackle the roots of conflict, we need to promote an understanding of our common humanity,” Said Ban, adding that Education is an essential means through which this can be accomplished.

On this same point General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser stressed that the prevention of physical war was not in itself a long term solution but that the idea of war has to be re-assessed by a “culture of peace”

“The youth of today deserve a radically different education – one that does not glorify war but educates for peace,” he said. “The cause of peace needs to be understood not only in the passive sense of the absence of war, but also in the constructive sense of creating conditions for equality and social justice.”

Although recent international events and the UN’s discussions have given it a fresh vigor, “Peace Education” is not a wholly new concept. It first appeared in the writings of ancient philosophers like Socrates, authors such as Tolstoy and Thoreau as well as social learning scholars like Mahatma Gandhi. In the modern world it is already being implemented in schools based on the principals of the Maria Montessori, John Dewey and Paulo Freire. Peace Education is based on the principal that worldwide harmony can be achieved because the factors that define it are universal; the development of non-violent conflict resolution skills and the realization that a shared future is the preferred future. Based on this ultimate goal, Peace Education is channeled into 5 main subjects: International, developmental, environmental, human rights and conflict resolution education from the individual, community and global perspectives. The most striking aspect of this is that these ideas have been shown to be comprehensible and affective in children as young as 3 years of age. This fact testifies that hate and bigotry are by-products of the socio-cultural values we grow up with and carry into adulthood.

Thus, the UN’s ideals are well grounded however the challenges are also paramount. To initiate global change based on these principals the UN will have to gain cooperation and support internally. A feat easier said then done given the drastically differing circumstances in which countries worldwide currently exist. This will be a major barrier for the Culture of Peace program along with resources especially in places where basic education is considered a luxury of sorts. But to shift focus to world’s youth is definitely the initiation of a long term change; the future, after all, does belong to them. Teachers Without Borders puts it best in their signature statement

“If wars begin in the human mind, then it is through our minds – through education – that war can be vanquished by peace.”