About us

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.

The Campaign is a non-formal network comprised of formal and non-formal educators and organizations, each working in their own unique ways to address the goals above.

This form allows Campaign participants to focus their energies towards meeting the goals and needs of their constituents – while at the same time promoting and making visible the growing global network of educators working for peace.

The Campaign helps to connect educators and facilitate the exchange of ideas, strategies and best practices through its website and newsletters.

• International Association of Educating Cities
• International Association of Educators for Peace
• International Association of Educators for World Peace
• International Peace Bureau
• International Teacher
• International Youth Cooperation (The Hague)
• Living Values: An Educational Programme
• Mandate the Future/Worldview International Foundation (Colombo)
• Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Woman’s Association
• Peace Boat
• Pax Christi International
• Peace Child International
• Peace Education Commission
• International Peace Research Association
• UNICEF
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees
• Youth for a Better World International

• Act 1 Presentations (USA)
• ActionAid Ghana
• All Pakistan Friendship and Peace Council (All Pakistan Youth Wing)
• Amnesty Nepal, Group-81
• Aotearoa-New Zealand Foundation for Peace Studies
• ASEPaix, Association Suisse des Educateurs à la Paix (Switzerland)
• ASHTA NO KAI (India)
• Asociacion Respuesta (Argentina)
• Association of Young Azerbaijani Friends of Europe
• Assumption College (Philippines)
• Awareness One (Nigeria)
• Azerbaijan Women and Development Centre
• Big Brothers Big Sisters- Kerryville (USA)
• Buddha’s Light Universal Welfare Society (BLUWS) (Bangladesh)
• Canadian Alliance for Youth and Children’s Rights (CAYCR)
• Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace
• Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiations
• CEAL- Ciudardes Educadoras America Latina (Argentina)
• CEDEM-Centre d’Education et de Developpement pour les Enfants Mauriciens (Mauritius)
• Center For Globalization Studies, University BK (Serbia, FR Yugoslavia)
• Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies (CRPS) (Philippines)
• Center for Peace Education, Miriam College (Philippines)
• Center for Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation (Philippines)
• Centre for the Study of Forgiveness and Reconciliation (United Kingdom)
• Centre for the Study of Peace (Ireland)
• CETAL- Network Culture of Peace (Sweden)
• CEYPA-Civic Education Youth Programme in Albania
• Child and Women Rights Society (Bangladesh)
• Children and Peace Philippines JMD Chapter
• City Montessori School (CMS, India)
• Concord Video and Film Council (UK)
• Concerned Youth for Peace (CONYOPA, Sierra Leone)
• Canossian Schools in the Philippines
• Cosananig Organisation (Nigeria)
• Creative Response to Conflict (USA)
• Culture for Peace Foundation (Spain)
• CRAGI, Conflict Resolution and Global Interdependence (USA)
• D@dalos Sarajevo – Association for Peace Education
• Développement Rural par la Protection de l’Environnement et Artisanat (Cameroon)
• Don Bosco Educational Association of the Philippines DBEAP
• Education for Peace Institute of the Balkans (Bosnia- Herzegovina)
• Education for Peace Project (Landegg International University, Switzerland)
• Educadores para a Paz (Brazil)
• Electoral Institute of South. Africa
• Elimu Yetu Coalition-Kenya
• ESR National Center Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (USA)
• Foundation for Peace and Development (Ghana)
• Fundacio per la Pau (Spain)
• Fundación Casa De La Juventud (Paraguay)
• Fundacion Gamma Idear (Colombia)
• Global Harmony Foundation (Switzerland)
• Helplife Foundation (Ghana)
• Grupa “Hajde Da…” (Belgrade Youth Centre for Tolerance and Peace Development)
• GUU Foundation Community Based Rehabilitation (Uganda)
• Halley Movement (Mauritius)
• Hessisches Landesinstitut für Pädagogik (Germany)
• Human Rights Committee (Serbia)
• Human Rights Education Academy of Nepal
• Human Rights Education Programme (Pakistan)
• Human Rights Eye & Education Center (HREEC, Cameroon)
• Iligan Center for Peace Education and Research (Philippines)
• Indian Institute for Peace, Disarmament and Environmental Protection
• Institute for Planetary Synthesis (Spain)
• International Holistic Tourism Education Centre-IHTEC (Canada)
• International Mission for Peace (Sierra Leone)
• International Peace Research Association (Japan)
• International Youth Link Foundation (Ghana)
• International Youth Parliament/Oxfam Australia
• International Society For Human Values (Switzerland)
• Institute For Peace and Justice (USA)
• Institute of Education and Peace (Greece)
• Jane Addams’ Peace Association Inc (USA)
• Jigyansu Tribal Research Centre (India)
• Khmer Youth Association (Phnom Penh)
• Kids Meeting Kids (USA)
• Landegg International University (Switzerland)
• League In Friendship Endeavour (India)
• Learning and Development (Kenya)
• Lebanese American University Center for Peace and Justice Education
• Mandate the Future (Sri Lanka)
• Multiethnic Children and Youth Peace Centers (MCYPC) (Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia)
• National Federation of UNESCO Associations of Nepal
• Narvik Peace Foundation (Norway)
• NDH-Cameroon and African Network of Grassroot Democracy
• Nepal Institute for United Nations and UNESCO
• Nepal National UNESCO Academy
• Network Culture of Peace (CETAL) (Sweden)
• Nova, Centro para la Innovacón (Spain)
• Office of Peace in Horn of Africa OPIHA (U.A.E./Somalia)
• Pan-African Reconciliation Council (Nigeria)
• Parbatya Bouddha Mission (Bangladesh)
• Partnerships and Exchanges Programme for Development (Togo)
• Pax Christi Flanders (Belgium)
• Pax Educare- The Connecticut Center for Peace Education
• Paz y Cooperación (Spain)
• Peace 2000 Institute (Iceland)
• Peace Advocates Zamboanga (Philippines)
• Peace Education Academy of Nepal
• Peace Education Center (United States)
• Peace Education Institute (Finland)
• Peace Pledge Union (UK)
• Peace Project Africa (South Africa)
• Peace Research Centre (Cameroon)
• Peace Research Institute-Dundas (Canada)
• Peaceful Solution Society of Ghana
• People’s Parliament (Leskovac, Yugoslavia)
• Philippine Action Network on Small Arms PHILANSA
• Plowshare Center (USA)
• Proyecto 3er. Milenio (Argentina)
• Quaker Peace and Service (UK)
• Research Academica for Humanism and Jaiprithvi (RAFHAJ, Nepal)
• Rights Works (USA)
• Robert Muller School (USA)
• Sakha Ukuthula (South Africa)
• Samaritan Public School (India)
• Save the World (Nepal)
• Seminario Galego de Educacion para a Paz (Spain)
• Service Civil International-International Voluntary Service (SCI-IVS USA)
• Significant Music (Canada)
• Society For Democratic Reforms (Azerbaijan)
• Society for Human Development (Bangladesh)
• Support Center for Associations and Foundations (Belarus)
• Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society
• Teaching for Peace Workshop (Denmark)
• Triratna Welfare Society (Bangaladesh)
• Vientos del Sur (Argentina)
• United Nations Association of New Zealand
• United Nations of Youth Foundation (The Netherlands)
• Unesco Etxea (Spain)
• Winpeace (Women’s Initiative for Peace, Turkey)
• World Commission for Peace & Human Rights Council (Pakistan)
• World Voices (UK)
• Youth Approach for Development & Cooperation (Bangladesh)
• Young Christian Students of Nigeria
• Youth Forum For Peace and Justice (YFPJ-Zambia

1996-2004

• 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 non-formal 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.

Civil Society held the largest international peace conference in history on May 11-15, 1999, the centenary of the First Hague Peace Conference in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Conference

On May 18, 1899; 108 delegates from 26 countries gathered in The Hague’s beautiful Huis den Bosch in response to an invitation issued the previous August by Nicholas II, the young Czar of Russia, to hold an international conference to discuss ways of halting the arms race.

Civil Society held the largest international peace conference in history on May 11-15, 1999, the centenary of the First Hague Peace Conference in The Hague, Netherlands. Nearly 10,000 people from over 100 countries gathered in The Hague’s Congress Center in response to an appeal launched by the International Peace Bureau (IPB), the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), and the World Federalist Movement (WFM). During the five-day gathering, participants discussed and debated – in over 400 panels and workshops – mechanisms for abolishing war and creating a culture of peace in the 21st century.

The project was led by an Organizing Committee made up of roughly 30 international organizations. The purpose of The Hague Appeal for Peace 1999 was to raise in a serious and realistic way, questions as to whether or not at the end of the bloodiest century in history, ” humanity can find a way to solve its problems without resorting to arms, and is war still necessary or legitimate given the nature of weapons currently in arsenals and on drawing boards worldwide, and can civilization survive another major war?”

Participants included hundreds of civil society leaders and representatives from 80 governments and international organizations – including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Prime Ministers Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh and Wim Kok of The Netherlands, Queen Noor of Jordan, Arundhati Roy of India, and Nobel Peace Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Rigoberta Menchú Tum of Guatemala, Jody Williams of the United States, José Ramos Horta of East Timor and Joseph Rotblat of the United Kingdom.

Conference Vision

It was the worst of centuries and the best of centuries…

The past 99 years have seen more death, and more brutal death, from war, famine, and other preventable causes than any other time span in history. They have seen the tender flame of democracy snuffed out again and again by crazed dictators, military regimes and colossal international power struggles. They have seen the widening of the gulf between the favored of the earth and the wretched of the earth and the growing callousness of the former toward the latter.

But the years have also witnessed the power of the people to resist and overcome present oppression as well as age-old prejudices of gender against gender, race against race, religion against religion, and ethnic group against ethnic group. These years have witnessed an explosion of scientific and technical knowledge which make possible a decent life for all who inhabit this planet, the formulation of a set of universal rights which, if taken seriously, would translate that possibility into reality, and the infancy of a system of global governance which, if allowed to grow, could guide this transition.

We, members and representatives of people’s organizations from many cultures and spheres of society, mindful of the dual history of this century, issue the following appeal to ourselves and to those who profess to lead us: As the global community moves into the 21st century, let this be the first century without war.Let us find ways and implement the ways already available to prevent conflict by removing its causes, which include the unequal distribution of the world’s vast resources, the hostility of nations and of groups within nations toward each other, and the presence of ever more deadly arsenals of conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction. When conflicts arise, as they inevitably will despite our best efforts, let us find ways and implement the ways already available to resolve them without resort to violence.Let us, in short, complete the work of the Peace Conference held in The Hague a century ago by returning to the vision of general and complete disarmament which flickered briefly on the world stage after the last World War.

This will require new structures for peace and a fundamentally strengthened international legal order. Specifically, let us find the moral, spiritual and political will to do what our leaders know must be done but cannot bring themselves to Abolish nuclear weapons, land mines and all other weapons incompatible with humanitarian law, Abolish the arms trade, or at least reduce it to levels compatible with the prohibition of aggression enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations; Strengthen humanitarian law and institutions for the period of transition to a world without war; Examine the causes of conflict and develop creative ways of preventing and resolving conflict; and overcome colonialism in all its forms and to use the tremendous resources liberated by an end or reduction of the arms race for the eradication of poverty; neocolonialism; the new slavery; and the new apartheid; for the preservation of the environment; and for the benefits of peace and justice for all.

In pursuing these goals, let us commit to initiating the final steps for abolishing war, for replacing the law of force with the force of law.

Discussion & Action

Discussions and action were motivated by the following themes:

• Failure of Traditional Approaches
• Human Security
• Soft Power
• All Human Rights for All
• Replacing the Law of Force with the Force of Law
• Taking the Initiative in Peace-Making
• Bottom-Up Globalization
• Democratic International Decision-Making
• Humanitarian Intervention
• Financing for Peace and Starving the Funds for War

The conference launched the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century, a set of 50 recommendations for the abolition of war and the promotion of peace. The Agenda (UN Ref A/54/98) was formed out of an intensive democratic process among the members of the HAP Organizing and Coordinating Committees and hundreds of organizations and individuals. The Agenda represents what civil society organizations and citizens consider some of the most important challenges facing humanity for the 21st century. It highlights four major strands:

•  Root Causes of War & Culture of Peace
•  International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law and Institutions
•  Prevention, Resolution, and Transformation of Violent Conflict
• Disarmament and Human Security

Download the “Hague Agenda”

• English
• Arabic
• Italian
• Spanish
  
• Chinese
• Norwegian
• French
• Russian

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.

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

The Tirana Conference

Dear Hague Appealers,

We have recently concluded a successful conference in Tirana, Albania where a group of educators came together with representatives of ministries of education and issued a Tirana Call for Peace Education, which follows. We hope you will circulate this to your colleagues and post it.

The diversity of conferees was terrific. We had remarkable young people who will clearly be part of the leadership wherever they are in the future; we had governmental and non governmental people, we had the UN represented, women and men, north and south, every continent was represented, the best formal and non formal educators, and terrific organizers. We brought together the people who have been with the Global Campaign for Peace Education with new people, and with the four partners from our unique partnership with the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs. Now we have new friends to continue to work with the programs in Cambodia, Peru, Niger and Albania so they can be sustained with professional resources.

Also please find speeches delivered by Under- Secretary General Anwarul Chowdhury, Michael Cassandra of the UN DDA, greetings from Prof. Betty Reardon, a list of participants and a message from me.

Thank you for your continued interest in the work of the Hague Appeal for Peace and for your own contribution to peace in this world, which is now of even increasing importance.

Sincerely,
Cora Weiss, President
October 2004

Conference Papers & Reports

• The Tirana Call for Peace Education
• Welcome Speech by Anwarul Chowdhury
• Opening Address by Cora Weiss
• Greetings by Betty Reardon
• Statement by Michael Cassandra
• List of Participants
• Full Report

Micaela Segal de la Garza is a multilingual educator who focuses on peace education and communication. Mica enjoys teaching Spanish courses at a comprehensive public high school in Houston, where she previously served as faculty advisor for the student-run yearbook staff and publication. Other classrooms include the great outdoors where she teaches elementary-aged children at a local nature center, and the global classroom where she coordinates projects with the Global Campaign for Peace Education. She’s a people-person who studied her Masters in International Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I in Spain and completed her undergraduate degree, a triple-major in Spanish, Communication, and International Studies, at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She continues her learning and builds her learning community with the International Institute on Peace Education.