THE SEVILLE STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE

"The same species who invented war is capable of inventing peace."

Support Network c/c David Adams, Wesleyan Psychology Dept
Mlddletown. Connecticut USA 06459

NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1, JULY. 1991

--- Increasingly we hear the call to abolish all war. Statements and
declarations are arriving almost monthly in my mail. A partial list is
printed on the opposite side of this page, along with the addresses
where the texts may be obtained. Two statements are enclosed in this
newsletter, both by Nobel Peace Prize winners. They represent the
religious and scientific/medical communities which are at the forefront
of the growing consciousness for peace.

--- Dr. Bernard Lown, Nobel laureate and co-president of the International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear war has called for an enlargement
of the task from the abolition of nuclear weapons to the abolition
of any and all wars. He puts the challenge in response to the horrors
of the war in the Gulf, on the one hand, and the opportunity afforded
by the decrease in the Cold War, on the other hand.

--- Writing on behalf of religious groups throughout the world, the
Nobel laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has taken part in the
drafting of a Universal Declaration on Non-Violence. It is enclosed
here along with various explanatory materials.

--- The work we began at Seville is playing an important role in
this developing world consciousness for peace. The Statement has been
published as an appendix in English in the newest book by signatory
Riitta Wahlstrom. The book is entitled Peace Education Meets the
Challenge of the Cultures of Militarism and is No, ll in the Miniprint
series of the School of Education in Malmo, Sweden (March. 1991). The
Greek version was recently published by Dimitra Papadopoulou in the
newsletter "Messages" of the World Young Women Christian Association,
January-March, 1991. And the German language version was published in
Padagogik und Frieden, No. Z, 1991, by the Arbeitsgruppe-Dokumentations-
stelle Friedenserziehung of the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin. The
Statement is being disseminated by the Asociacion de Estudios Baha'is
of Chile at a series of seminars on violence which they have helped to
organize. And British readers have found the Statement to figure
prominently in a debate on the op~ed pages of the Times in response to a
letter which claimed that an instinct for war is biologically programmed
into the human species. This is described in a news note in the recent
issue of Anthropology Today sent to us by Keith Suter of Australia.

--- Our work promises to intensify in the coming year. The Unesco
brochure on the Seville Statement is now in press. As soon as it is
out we will be in touch with all of you to help with its dissemination.
As Peter Okoh, Director of the African Peace Research Institute, says
in the enclosed letter, this dissemination will be important as it
"will complement present efforts For global peace." Also, the followup
conference on the social and cultural causes of violence is now being
planned to take place at the beginning of next year in Denmark, under
the direction of Unesco and the Center of Peace and Conflict Research.
Details will be forthcoming.

Peace,

David Adams