30th General Conference on Culture of Peace
Synopsis of Plenary Remarks by Member States
Provided to Director-General Federico Mayor by David Adams, November 1999

(continued from previous page)

The Tashkent Declaration on a Culture of Peace, issued by the UNESCO Executive Board, was specifically recalled by Uzbekistan.

As a contribution to the culture of peace, Georgia announced that it is submitting a Resolution for an inter-sectoral, subregional project "Caucasus". Kenya called for support for the Great Lakes Forum and Culture of Peace Network initiatives to reduce conflict in its subregion.

Both Ecuador and Peru spoke about their recent peace accord as a major act for a culture of peace. El Salvador expressed its indebtedness to UNESCO for helping it attain peace, and its pride to have recently signed an agreement whereby the UNESCO office in El Salvador will promote a regional culture of peace programme. Guatemala recalled its peace accord of 1996 as the development of a culture of peace in its country, and that culture of peace will be one of the major aspects of its educational reform. Palestine called for a culture of peace in the region based upon peace between Palestinian and Israeli people and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people for self determination and an independent state with its capital in Jerusalem.

Benin suggested that the concept of the culture of peace should be joined to its "Siamese twin" - "a culture of the fair sharing of bread". Turkey warned that the gap between North and South must be bridged through education and the transfer of technologies in order to make it possible to establish a culture of peace.

The Human Right to Peace was specifically mentioned and supported by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Finally, it was a common theme that the departing Director-General Federico Mayor should be highly credited for his role in initiating and making the culture of peace a priority for UNESCO and the rest of the world. This was stressed by Benin, Comoros, Ecuador, El Salvador*, Equatorial Guinea, India, Madagascar*, Mali, Mexico, Palestine, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Samoa, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania*, Tonga and United Arab Emirates.

(end)

next page
home page