B
PROGRAMME OF ACTION ON A CULTURE OF PEACE
The General Assembly,
Bearing in mind the Declaration on a Culture of Peace adopted on 13 September 1999,
Recalling its resolution 52/15 of 20 November 1997, by which it proclaimed the year 2000 as the "International Year for the Culture of Peace", and its resolution 53/25 of 10 November 1998, by which it proclaimed the period 2001-2010 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World";
Adopts the following Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace:
A. Aims, strategies and main actors
1.
The Programme of Action should serve as the basis for the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World.
2.
Member States are encouraged to take actions for promoting a culture of peace at the national level as well as at the regional and international levels.
3.
Civil society should be involved at the local, regional and national levels to widen the scope of activities on a culture of peace.
4.
The United Nations system should strengthen its ongoing efforts to promote a culture of peace.
5.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization should continue to play its important role in and make major contributions to the promotion of a culture of peace.
6.
Partnerships between and among the various actors as set out in the Declaration should be encouraged and strengthened for a global movement for a culture of peace.
7.
A culture of peace could be promoted through sharing of information among actors on their initiatives in this regard.
8.
Effective implementation of the Programme of Action requires mobilization of resources, including an extra-budgetary and voluntary fund whereby governmental and private agencies can provide financial support for its implementation.
B. Strengthening actions at the national, regional and international levels by all relevant actors
9.
Actions to foster a culture of peace through education:
Education is the principal means of promoting a culture of peace. This includes not only formal education in schools, but also informal and non-formal education in the full range of social institutions, including the family and the media. The very concept of power needs to be transformed - from the logic of force and fear to the force of reason and love.
(a)
Reinvigorate national efforts and international cooperation to promote the goals of education for all with a view to achieving human, social and economic development and for promoting a culture of peace;
(b)
Ensure that children, from an early age, benefit from education on the values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life to enable them to resolve any dispute peacefully and in a spirit of respect for human dignity and of tolerance and non-discrimination;
(c)
Involve children in activities designed to instill in them the values and goals of a culture of peace;
(d)
Ensure equality of access to education for women, especially girls;
(e)
Encourage revision of educational curricula, including textbooks, bearing in mind the 1995 Declaration and Integrated Framework of Action on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy3 for which technical cooperation should be provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization upon request;
(f)
Encourage and strengthen efforts by actors as identified in the Declaration, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, aimed at developing values and skills conducive to a culture of peace, including education and training in promoting dialogue and consensus-building;
(g)
Strengthen the ongoing efforts of the relevant entities of the United Nations system aimed at training and education, where appropriate, in the areas of conflict prevention and crisis management, peaceful settlement of disputes, as well as in post-conflict peace-building;
(h)
Expand initiatives to promote a culture of peace undertaken by institutions of higher education in various parts of the world, including the United Nations University, the University for Peace and the project for twinning universities and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Chairs Programme.
10.
Actions to promote sustainable economic and social development:
It is increasingly recognized that in the long term, everyone gains from the implementation of sustainable human development for all. The poverty and exclusion of some increases the vulnerability of all. This represents a major change in the concept of economic growth which, in the past, could be considered as benefitting from military supremacy and structural violence and achieved at the expense of the vanquished and the weak.
(a)
Undertake comprehensive actions on the basis of appropriate strategies and agreed targets to eradicate poverty through national and international efforts, including through international cooperation;
(b)
Strengthen the national capacity for implementation of policies and programmes designed to reduce economic and social inequalities within nations through, inter alia, international cooperation;
(c)
Promote effective and equitable development-oriented and durable solutions to the external debt and debt-servicing problems of developing countries through, inter alia, debt relief;
(d)
Reinforce actions at all levels to implement national strategies for sustainable food security, including the development of actions to mobilize and optimize the allocation and utilization of resources from all sources, including through international cooperation, such as resources coming from debt relief;
(e)
Undertake further efforts to ensure that the development process is participatory and that development projects involve the full participation of all;
(f)
Include a gender perspective and empowerment of women and girls as an integral part of the development process;
(g)
Include in development strategies special measures focusing on needs of women and children as well as groups with special needs;
(h)
Strengthen, through development assistance in post-conflict situations, rehabilitation, reintegration and reconciliation processes involving all engaged in conflicts;
(i)
Incorporate capacity-building in development strategies and projects to ensure environmental sustainability, including preservation and regeneration of the natural resource base;
(j)
Remove obstacles to the realization of the right of peoples to self-determination, in particular of peoples living under colonial or other forms of alien domination or foreign occupation, which adversely affect their social and economic development.
11.
Actions to promote respect for all human rights:
The elaboration and international acceptance of universal human rights, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has been one of the most important steps towards the transition from a culture of war and violence to a culture of peace and non-violence. It calls for a transformation of values, attitudes and behaviours from whose which would benefit exclusively the clan, the tribe or the nation towards those which benefit the entire human family.
(a)
Full implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action;4
(b)
Encouragement of development of national plans of action for the promotion and protection of all human rights;
(c)
Strengthening of national institutions and capacities in the field of human rights, including through national human rights institutions;
(d)
Realization and implementation of the right to development, as established in the Declaration on the Right to Development5 and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action;
(e)
Achievement of the goals of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004);6
(f)
Dissemination and promotion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at all levels;
(g)
Further support to the activities of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the fulfilment of her or his mandate as established in General Assembly resolution 48/141 of 20 December 1993, as well as the responsibilities set by subsequent resolutions and decisions.
12.
Actions to ensure equality between women and men:
As recognized by the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995), there is an inextricable linkage of peace with equality between women and men. Only this linkage of equality, development and peace can replace the historical inequality between men and women that has always characterized the culture of war and violence.
(a)
Integration of a gender perspective into the implementation of all relevant international instruments;
(b)
Further implementation of international instruments that promote equality between women and men;
(c)
Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women,7 with adequate resources and political will, and through, inter alia, the elaboration, implementation and follow-up of the national plans of action;
(d)
Promotion of equality between women and men in economic, social and political decision-making;
(e)
Further strengthening of efforts by the relevant entities of the United Nations system for the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women;
(f)
Provision of support and assistance to women who have become victims of any forms of violence, including in the home, workplace and during armed conflicts.
13.
Actions to foster democratic participation:
The fostering of democratic participation and governance is essential for the development of a culture of peace and non-violence. This is the only way to replace the authoritarian structures of power which were created by and which have, in the past, sustained the culture of war and violence.
(a)
Reinforcement of the full range of actions to promote democratic principles and practices;
(b)
Special emphasis on democratic principles and practices at all levels of formal, informal and non-formal education;
(c)
Establishment and strengthening of national institutions and processes that promote and sustain democracy through, inter alia, training and capacity-building of public officials;
(d)
Strengthening of democratic participation through, inter alia, the provision of electoral assistance upon the request of States concerned and based on relevant United Nations guidelines;
(e)
Combating of terrorism, organized crime, corruption as well as production, trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs and money laundering, as they undermine democracies and impede the fuller development of a culture of peace.
(f)
A systematic programme of research needs to be undertaken on the experiences of national truth and reconciliation commissions which have been established following armed conflicts, often in the context of national peace accords. Drawing lessons from these and other institutional initiatives which treat social justice as a means to reconciliation, new initiatives and institutions may be developed.
(g)
The United Nations System should strive to promote governance by democratic principles and non-authoritarian structure and decision-making. The major objectives of reform should include a 'culture of management' in which dialogue, participation and consensus-building take precedence over hierarchical authority; conflict transformation and cooperation over institutionalized competition; power-sharing by women and men over male domination, and sharing of information over secrecy. By emphasizing the life-long learning of skills in cross-cultural communication, negotiation, organizational learning and transformational leadership, new educational initiatives such as the United Nations Staff College can infuse the values, attitudes and behaviours of a culture of peace into management practice at every level of the system.
14.
Actions to advance understanding, tolerance and solidarity:
There has never been a war without an 'enemy', and to abolish war, we must transcend and supersede enemy images with understanding, tolerance and solidarity among all peoples and cultures. Only by celebrating the tapestry of our diversity, the common threads of human aspiration and social solidarity that bind us together, and by ensuring justice and security for everyone who makes up the warp and woof of the cloth, can we truly affirm that we are weaving a culture of peace.
(a)
Implement the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance and the Follow-up Plan of Action for the United Nations Year for Tolerance8 (1995);
(b)
Support activities in the context of the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations in the year 2001;
(c)
Study further the local or indigenous practices and traditions of dispute settlement and promotion of tolerance with the objective of learning from them;
(d)
Support actions that foster understanding, tolerance and solidarity throughout society, in particular with vulnerable groups;
(e)
Further support the attainment of the goals of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People;
(f)
Support actions that foster tolerance and solidarity with refugees and displaced persons, bearing in mind the objective of facilitating their voluntary return and social integration;
(g)
Support actions that foster tolerance and solidarity with migrants;
(h)
Promote increased understanding, tolerance and cooperation among all peoples through, inter alia, appropriate use of new technologies and dissemination of information;
(i)
Support actions that foster understanding, tolerance, solidarity and cooperation among peoples and within and among nations.
15.
Actions to support participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge:
Freedom of opinion, expression and information, recognized as an integral aspect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, is a vital factor in the strengthening of peace and international understanding. It is needed to replace the secrecy and manipulation of information which characterize the culture of war.
(a)
Support the important role of the media in the promotion of a culture of peace;
(b)
Ensure freedom of the press and freedom of information and communication;
(c)
Make effective use of the media for advocacy and dissemination of information on a culture of peace involving, as appropriate, the United Nations and relevant regional, national and local mechanisms;
(d)
Promote mass communication that enables communities to express their needs and participate in decision-making;
(e)
Take measures to address the issue of violence in the media, including new communication technologies, inter alia, the Internet;
(f)
Increase efforts to promote the sharing of information on new information technologies, including the Internet.
16.
Actions to promote international peace and security:
Actions to promote international peace and security as conceived in the Charter and developed in the practice of the United Nations are synergistic and mutually reinforcing to actions for a culture of peace. International peace, in the sense of the absence of war and the presence of security between nations, is a necessary condition for the establishment of a culture of peace. At the same time, however, only the establishment of a culture of peace can provide an effective basis for the prevention of war and violence and the ensuring of long-term security.
(a)
Promote general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, taking into account the priorities established by the United Nations in the field of disarmament;
(b)
Draw, where appropriate, on lessons conducive to a culture of peace learned from "military conversion" efforts as evidenced in some countries of the world;
(c)
Emphasize the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in all parts of the world;
(d)
Encourage confidence-building measures and efforts for negotiating peaceful settlements;
(e)
Take measures to eliminate illicit production and traffic of small arms and light weapons;
(f)
Support initiatives, at the national, regional and international levels, to address concrete problems arising from post-conflict situations, such as demobilization, reintegration of former combatants into society, as well as refugees and displaced persons, weapon collection programmes, exchange of information and confidence-building;
(g)
Discourage the adoption of and refrain from any unilateral measure, not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, that impedes the full achievement of economic and social development by the population of the affected countries, in particular women and children, that hinders their well-being, that creates obstacles to the full enjoyment of their human rights, including the right of everyone to a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being and their right to food, medical care and the necessary social services, while reaffirming that food and medicine must not be used as a tool for political pressure;
(h)
Refrain from military, political, economic or any other form of coercion, not in accordance with international law and the Charter, aimed against the political independence or territorial integrity of any State;
(i)
Recommend proper consideration for the issue of the humanitarian impact of sanctions, in particular on women and children, with a view to minimizing the humanitarian effects of sanctions;
(j)
Promote greater involvement of women in prevention and resolution of conflicts and, in particular, in activities promoting a culture of peace in post-conflict situations;
(k)
Promote initiatives in conflict situations such as days of tranquillity to carry out immunization and medicine distribution campaigns, corridors of peace to ensure delivery of humanitarian supplies and sanctuaries of peace to respect the central role of health and medical institutions such as hospitals and clinics;
(l)
Encourage training in techniques for the understanding, prevention and resolution of conflict for the concerned staff of the United Nations, relevant regional organizations and Member States, upon request, where appropriate.
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