Founded at the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference - 1999
The Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE) was launched at the Hague Appeal for Peace conference in May 1999. Click here for more on the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference >>
After the conference, the Hague Appeal for Peace took the responsibility of coordinating the Campaign. It has since been coordinated by the Peace Boat, the Peace Education Center at Teachers College Columbia University, and Global Education Associates. It is presently coordinated by the National Peace Academy.
The GCPE has since emerged as a non-formal, international organized network that promotes peace education among schools, families and communities to transform the culture of violence into a culture of peace.
Tirana Call
The Tirana Call is a significant outcome of the conference "Developing Democracy Through Peace Education: Educating Toward a World Without Violence;" held in Tirana, Albania in October 2004. To read more about the conference please click here >>
The call is a pledge for the integration of peace education into all forms of education and a commitment to the 1995 UNESCO Framework for Action; the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; and the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century.
It was endorsed by the Ministries of Education of Palestine, Peru, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia and United Nations Representatives Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Under Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States; and Michael Cassandra of the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs.
The Tirana Call for Peace Education
Accomplishments
- Collaborative effort (1996 - 1999) to bring together 10,000 individuals and organizations in the Hague, Netherlands, which launched 12 campaigns worldwide to foster nonviolent alternatives to war
- Established a website that provides
- peace education curricula, translations of curricula in various languages
- channel of communication for international network
- Increased partnerships to disseminate information and resources to over 15,000 people
- Published teacher training manuals including
- Learning to Abolish War: Teaching toward a culture of peace
- Peace Lessons from Around the World
- Peace and Disarmament Education: Changing Mindsets in Niger, Albania, Peru and Cambodia
- Annual Conferences with international peace educators (2004 was held in Tirana, Albania)
- Partnered with Ministries of Education in Africa, Asia, Europe, New Zealand and South America
- Formed a unique partnership project with the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs to integrate disarmament and peace education programs in both formal and nonformal settings of Albania, Cambodia, Niger and Peru which have been adopted by each of their Ministries of Education
- Conducted over 200 workshops and presentations in classrooms, communities, national and international fora.