140 EX/28
EXPLANATORY NOTE
I. Introduction
To construct peace in the minds of men - that is the mandate of UNESCO. Never before has our work been needed so much. The world has reached a turning-point in history. It is a moment of opportunity for global co-operation for peace. It is a moment that should not be lost.
It has become clear that military force cannot solve the global problems of violence and injustice. Military force can only continue the vicious cycle.
We need peace-building, not just peace-keeping, as stated by United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros Ghali. We need peace culture, not war culture, as stated at Yamoussoukro, and now we should make the ideas operational. We should put the ideas into action. in this framework, I suggest the following four-point plan:
make an agreement with the United Nations Security Council to fund a Culture of Peace Programme with 1 per cent of the peace-keeping budget;
carry out this Culture of Peace Programme in the zones where United Nations peace-keeping forces (the blue berets) are already deployed or where a situation has developed that threatens to require such intervention in the future.
administer this Culture of Peace Programme by an international centre under the joint control of UNESCO and the United Nations Security Council;
use the talents of all existing United Nations progrmmes, especially those of UNESCO, on a rotating basis, so as to avoid creating a permanent staff.
II. Proposed Culture of Peace Programme for United Nations peace-keeping
UN peace-keeping, greatly expanded in recent years, needs a strong component programme of peace culture. The blue berets, by themselves, cannot produce peace. This is supported by the recent remarks of the United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Ghali, that: ' ...we are now moving in the field of peace-keeping from a peace-keeping operation to peace-building. In other words, we are not involved only in maintaining peace but we are also involved in constructing or building peace'.
Definition of peace culture. The 1989 International Congress on Peace in the Minds of Men in Yamoussoukro called for '...peace culture based on the universal values of respect for life, liberty, justice, solidarity, tolerance, human rights and equality between women and men'. This was expanded in the Yamoussoukro proceedings to include '...the widest possible participation by all, both individuals and groups, in the life and culture of the society to which they belong'. And the UNESCO General Conference at its twenty-sixth session in 1991 noted that '...within the UN system, UNESCO has been entrusted with a special ethical mission in the promotion of a democratic culture that is conducive to the effective application of human rights and the establishment of a culture of peace'.
Programme objectives. To heal the social wounds of war with local activities of reconciliation and co-operation in countries where Security Council peace-keeping operations are already being implemented or may be anticipated because of developing violence. A formal contractual relationship for the programme in each country would be negotiated, and in those cases where United Nations peace-keeping forces were deployed, written into the initial peace-