If anything constructive comes from the disasters of Ukraine, it may be the turning up of the volume on the call for the abolition of war. As Rafael de la Rubia observes, “the real conflict is between the powers that use people and countries by manipulating, oppressing and pitting them against each other for profit and gain… The future will be without war or not at all.”
The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict Peace Education Working Group calls upon leaders of educational institutions, universities and schools to implement peace education to address misinformation, foster social cohesion, and support healing from trauma.
The Global Campaign for Peace Education has curated a collection of perspectives, analyses, and stories of nonviolent resistance to the war in Ukraine.
This statement and appeal situates Ukraine in the context of the world’s multiple humanitarian crises and the need to address them from the perspective of our common humanity, valuing equally all members of the human family.
We call on all whom we can reach to send their own requests to Secretary-General Guterres to go to Moscow and Kyiv to establish an immediate ceasefire and advance serious peace talks sponsored by the UN, representing the world’s people who want and need peace.
As the war in Ukraine poses challenges to civil society actors, the Berghof Foundation (a GCPE partner) provides ideas for reflection for all those who are working for a peace-oriented future.
Yurii Sheliazhenko, Executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, illuminates the importance of peace education to overcome fear and hatred, embrace nonviolent solutions, and support the development of peace culture in Ukraine. He also examines the problem of a militarized global order and how a perspective of nonviolent global governance in a future world without armies and borders will help to deescalate Russia-Ukraine and East-West conflict threatening nuclear apocalypse.
Ray Acheson argues that to confront the compounding crises in Ukraine, war and war profiteering must end, nuclear weapons must be abolished, and we must confront the world of war that has been deliberately constructed at the expense of peace, justice, and survival.
Werner Wintersteiner argues that even after the Russian attack, peace is the only option in Ukraine. Building on his analysis, the GCPE invites readers to consider the peace research perspective, to explore what is missing from the current discourse, and to contemplate those system changes might be needed to enable the achievement of a just peace settlement.
A team of Teachers College Columbia University students advocating for Afghanistan calls attention to the commonalities of war induced humanitarian crises as suffered now in Ukraine and in many countries.
GIZ Civil Peace Service country programme Ukraine seeks an advisor to work with six partner organizations on various topics of peace education on the national and regional level, supporting the national school reform aimed at transforming Ukrainian schools into an empowering and peaceful environment.
The country programme of the Civil Peace Service (CPS) is designed to support the overcoming of social polarities in Eastern Ukraine through peace education measures. Application deadline: September 9.