Education for peace

What does education for peace mean?

It should not be considered as an additional discipline, but rather as an instrument to transform every formative field in a path of peace. A path where children's creativity and autonomy are developed to address their problems, learning how to dialogue and experiment, in order to increase their awareness of their own resources and responsibilities as don Milani said.

Educating for peace, therefore, is promoting practical actions within a specific context, starting from interpersonal relationships without overlooking, more general issues such as the development model, resource distribution, and power management. It is important to make concrete actions to transform a globalised society starting from the bottom up, where lack of rights and inequalities often make the word "peace" meaningless.

Why education for peace?

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.”(Unesco Constitution)

This quotation would be enough to understand the extreme importance that education for peace should have in the learning processes of every inhabitant of the Earth.

Therefore, the Universal Declaration on the Human Right to Peace, which was approved in 2016 by the United Nations General Assembly, is extremely timely and important; a document in which, for the first time, it is established that all human beings have the right to enjoy peace. It also recognises that peace is not just lack of war, but a fundamental human right that requires "a positive and dynamic participatory process in which dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are resolved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation" (A/C.3/71/L.29, Preamble). Of the five articles of the Declaration, the fourth is devoted to peace education in order to "strengthen the spirit of tolerance, dialogue, cooperation and solidarity among all human beings".