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Posted: May 22 2007,15:59 by David Adams
from INTERNATIONAL - Fundacion Cultura de Paz |
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The
following project proposal has been developed by Cecile Barbeito
(Spain), David Adams (USA), Alicia Cabezudo (Argentina), Lia Diskin
(Brazil) and Robyn Stewart (Canada).
Measurement of the
Culture of Peace at a local level
Project summary
The
project aims at forming local groups in cities of different
continents to measure the advances or lack of progress of culture of
peace in their local contexts.
Justification
Measuring culture of peace. In the year 1999, the United
Nations called for an International Decade for a Culture of Peace
and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010) and
adopted a Declaration and Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace
(A/53/243 Resolution). Since then, efforts have been made for
advancing towards a Global Movement for a Culture of
Peace.
To evaluate those advances –and especially those
promoted by civil society, a mid-term evaluation was made in the
year 2005. At that time, 700 organisations from around the world
gave their opinion about the advances of the Movement for a Culture
of Peace. The document that resumes the inputs of those
organisations, the World report of Culture of Peace
(http://decade-culture-of-peace.org), concludes that the culture of
peace is advancing around the world, but that we lack quantitative
indicators for this progress; there is a need of developing
indicators to make the measurement of the evolution of the movement
for a Culture of Peace possible.
Actually, there exist some
previous attempts to develop national indicators of a culture of
peace, although none of them has been further developed:
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES TO
DEVELOP INDICATORS OF A CULTURE OF PEACE
1) In UN document
A-56-319, UNESCO promised to develop indicators, although the
promise has never been followed up. Here are excerpts from the
document:
33. With regard to mobilization of the UN system,
the High-level Committee on Programs of the Administrative Committee
on Coordination in response to a request from UNESCO, has called on
all agencies to nominate focal points to work with UNESCO in the
preparation of indicators and reports for the implementation of the
Programme of Action.
59. As an initial phase of this process,
UNESCO will seek to identify, from among available statistics and
data, indicators to cover the Programme of Action that can be shared
with all actors so as to prepare the midterm progress
report...
60. Culture of Peace indicators should be dynamic
and forward-looking. As it is relatively new, the concept of a
culture of peace is still evolving as a result of practical
activities and lessons learned. Therefore the various actors in the
global movement for a culture of peace will be invited to contribute
fully to the preparation of the reports to the General
Assembly.
2) In June 2001, a conference was held in
Seoul, Korea, to develop national indicators for a culture of peace,
by a group that had already developed and published a traditional
study of peace indicators (armaments, development, etc). The
conference was followed up at the UNU in Tokyo (see
below).
3) On September 28, 2001, a conference was held
at Clark University in the US on indicators for a culture of peace.
The conference, organized by Professor Joseph DeRivera, agreed to
develop national indicators and hold a follow-up conference to
result in a book. A follow-up conference was held in October 2006
and Professor Rivera has himself published several articles based on
his point of view, and including a few contributions from
others.
4) In September 2002, a follow-up to the Seoul
meeting was held at the United Nations University in Tokyo an a
rather detailed plan was considered for gathering quantitative
indicators for a culture of peace during the Decade. However, there
has never been any follow up to this conference.
* * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This project, therefore, fits
within the framework of the International Decade for a Culture of
Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010) and
the attempt of measuring its evolution.
At a local level. The
option of applying indicators at a local level is mainly due to the
following reasons:
As it has just been mentioned, there have
been previous attempts to measure peace / culture of peace at
the national level with great difficulty in the past, using
nationally collected statistics in the areas of militarization,
economy, society, etc collected by national governments.
However, it has not been possible to avoid that national
indexes of a culture of peace, though, are easily politicized and
manipulated for political purposes.
Local indicators,
on the contrary, guaranty a greater respect for cultural
specificities. As common national indicators are applied the same
way in all countries, it is difficult that they are able to take
into account each country’s idiosyncrasy.
In addition,
working at a local level has the great advantage to involve and
mobilize people from different fields into the movement of culture
of peace. This way, the design of the indicators in each local
context can be a reason to build the grassroots base for the global
movement for a culture of peace.
General
objective:
* To advance the Global Movement for a Culture of
Peace
Concrete Objectives:
* To evaluate municipal
policies to increase the culture of peace at the city level
By measuring indicators for the eight areas of the culture
of peace at the local level, and looking at trends in these measures
over several years, it will be possible to identify weaknesses at
the city level that need to be corrected by policy changes, projects
and campaigns. It can also help to identify strengths, and therefore
to collect “best practices” of culture of peace policies at a local
level.
* To mobilize specific people at the city level in
cultivating a culture of peace.
The indicators project
provides a concrete task to these commissions by which they can
mobilize and organize specialists in their city. Those specialists
who are involved in the eight programme areas of a culture of peace
do not usually see their work as part of a coherent whole which we
call culture of peace. By involving these people in measuring
indicators in their specialties we draw them into the culture of
peace commissions and interdisciplinary networks.
* To
provide data and experiences about culture of peace to mass media,
educators, tourism agencies and ministries, political personalities,
etc.
By making this data available, it can be used by those
different actors to pass the information on to broader audiences.
* To raise consciousness for people at local, national and
international levels to better understand the culture of peace, its
components, the interactions of its components, its advances and the
obstacles to its progress.
Despite the 75 million signatures
on the Manifesto, the UN Declaration and Programme of Action, and
the Civil Society report from 700 organizations, there has been
almost no mass media coverage of the culture of peace, and most
people are totally unaware of it. The indicators project can
contribute to making the issues known by more people, especially
through the third point above. If you believe that history is made
by people as a result of their consciousness and subsequent
collective action, then this is an essential step in the
transformation from culture of war to culture of peace.
* To
promote critical thinking and reflection on the relation of
Democracy, Human Rights, etc. to Culture of Peace and
living.
Project description
The annual measurement of
a culture of peace index at local level should ideally be undertaken
under the direction of mixed governmental / civil society
commissions in participating cities, towns, provinces and small
states, along the model of the Sao Paulo Culture of Peace Council
and the New Haven Peace Commission. Those commissions should be
composed of both elected officials and representatives of civil
society organizations. Elected officials provide the democratic
accountability, while civil society organizations provide the long
term commitment to the issues. The responsible organization does not
do the measures, but recruits specialists to do the
measures.
The index should reflect progress (or lack of
progress) in the eight program areas of a culture of peace
recognized in the United Nations Programme of Action on a Culture of
Peace (General Assembly resolution A/59/143). Each of these eight
areas should be given equal weight:
1. culture of peace
through education
2. sustainable economic and social
development
3. respect for all human rights
4. equality
between women and men
5. democratic participation
6.
understanding, tolerance and solidarity
7. participatory
communication and the free flow of information and knowledge
8.
disarmament
The precise measure(s) employed for each of the
8 areas should be determined separately by each participating
locality, in order to ensure that the measures are easily done and
are culturally relevant. By making the same measurement over many
years, each locality should be able to quantify progress and to
determine the strengths and weaknesses of local initiatives and
influences from national and international changes.
Although
each locality would decide on its own measures, a central website
will be established to provide suggestions for measures, and, over
time, the results and experiences with these measures by the various
participating localities. |
