violence (direct, structural)
A range of friends and neighbors—Jews, Muslims —are under assault. How can we stay safe? How can we protect each other? Kalaya’an Mendoza, director of mutual protection for Nonviolent Peaceforce, discusses how we can all navigate this moment together.
The Archbishop of Morelia explained that through the Michoacán Council for the Search of Peace and Reconciliation, “We carry out educational models… to generate a culture of dialogue, reconciliation, mediation in the resolution of conflicts and the construction of peace.”
“The underlying emphasis in peace education is on understanding violence, and exploring alternatives to violence. It is vital to remember that violence is not restricted to physical harm but also includes psychological harm, emotional abuse, discrimination, exclusion, denial of opportunities, exploitation, criminalization of identities, etc. Violence is part of our everyday reality.” – Chintan Girish Modi
What could have been done to prevent the worst atrocities happening in Syria? A new animated explainer briefly explores the role a Department of Peace could have played. We don’t propose to have the final answers, but we do hope to spark creative thinking.
Based on research in Trinidad, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams argues that ‘school’ violence is reduced to ‘youth’ violence, and that the predominating discourse about what constitutes school violence itself, and its drivers/‘causes’, takes on a limiting and individualizing nature. As a result, the principal interventions that emanate from such a discourse are correspondingly narrow and therefore fail to reveal the structural violence in which youth violence in schools is embedded. William’s posits this discursive violence as a lingering coloniality, which is a blockade to sustainable peace education in Trinidad’s schools.
Hanan Al-Hroub, a primary class teacher who grew up in Deheishe refugee camp, Bethlehem, has been shortlisted to the top 10 international teachers nominated for the one million dollar 2016 Global Teacher Prize, organised by the Varkey Foundation. The inspirational teacher was regularly exposed to acts of violence. She went into primary education after her children were left deeply traumatized by a shooting incident they witnessed on their way home from school. With so many troubled children in the region, Palestinian classrooms can be tense environments. Hanan embraces the slogan ‘No to Violence’ and uses a specialist approach she developed herself, detailed in her book, ‘We Play and Learn’.
Elizabeth and Lionel Traubman (2015) argue that pre-deciding about violence, beginning at home and then rippling out globally, is the most urgent need of our time. It is our best hope in this era of widespread atomic, biological, and chemical weapons when even a few people can do a lot of harm. Whether with physical punishment or all-out war, the stunning paradox of our time is that rejecting violence and dignifying our adversary – not humiliating, harming, or excluding – is the response that gets the best results.
(Original article: Mark Potterton, Business Day Live, Nov. 18, 2015) THE American public was momentarily shocked when a student opened fire, killing nine people and injuring nine others in a …
Can school mass shootings also happen in South Africa? Read More »
(Original article: UNICEF – Learning for Peace, Nov. 11, 2015) Speaking at the recent New York launch of a new UNICEF and FHI 360 study which concluded that the likelihood …
Examining the Linkages between Education Inequality and Violent Conflict Read More »
(Original article: The Lane Report, Nov. 20, 2015) Louisville, Ky. – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences …
CDC awards UofL $5.7M to fund youth violence prevention research center Read More »
(Original article: Vision of Humanity, 10-22-2015) Positive Peace is a transformational approach to achieving development, resilience and peace. It offers an alternative perspective to identify and measure long-term investments that create …
(Original article: Prof. Dr. Alicia Cabezudo, Arigatou International) Education for peace and respect for human rights become particularly relevant today as the values that they entail are conflicted by daily …