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IV. CONSOLIDATED REPORT ON A CULTURE OF PEACE
1. The transition from the culture of war to a culture of peace was taken up as a priority by the twenty-eighth session of the General Conference of UNESCO in 1995. Having considered the initial experiences of the Culture of Peace Programme which it had established in 1993, the General Conference declared that this transition was the greatest challenge facing the world at the end of the twentieth century and dedicated UNESCO's Medium-Term Strategy for 1996-2001 to its promotion [3]. This was seen as the contemporary expression of the Constitutional mandate of UNESCO which declares that peace requires more than political and economic arrangements of Governments; peace must be founded upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of humankind [7].
2. In December 1995, the United Nations General Assembly placed a culture of peace on its agenda for the first time by adopting resolution 50/173, welcoming with appreciation the resolution concerning a culture of peace recently adopted by the UNESCO General Conference. It requested the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Director-General of UNESCO, to report to its 51st session regarding progress of educational activities in the framework of the interdisciplinary project entitled 'Towards a Culture of Peace'. Further, having received and welcomed the said report, the 51st session of the General Assembly in its resolution 51/101 requested the Secretary-General, in coordination with the Director General of UNESCO, to report to its 52nd session on the progress of educational activities within the framework of the transdisciplinary project entitled 'Towards a culture of peace', including the preparation of elements for a draft provisional declaration and programme of action on a culture of peace.
3. The UNESCO Transdisciplinary Project 'Towards a Culture of Peace' was revised and strengthened by the twenty-ninth General Conference in October 1997. The framework of this project has three main lines of activity: 1) education and training for peace, human rights, democracy, tolerance and international understanding, including elaboration and dissemination of teaching materials and pedagogical aids in different languages; 2) policy-oriented research, advocacy action, and exchange and dissemination of information; and 3) and capacity-building and technical support for national, subregional, regional and international projects.
4. Having received the elements for a draft provisional declaration and programme of action on a culture of peace (A52/292), the 52nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, in November 1997, requested the Secretary-General, in coordination with the Director-General of UNESCO, to submit a consolidated report containing a draft declaration and programme of action on a culture of peace to the General Assembly at its 53rd session, which is the origin of the present document.
5. The present report, as requested by General Assembly resolution 52/13, describes only those actions taken under the UNESCO transdisciplinary project, 'Towards a culture of peace'. However, numerous other activities and projects of the United Nations system and other organizations are contributing to the promotion of a culture of peace without having been designed or designated as such. By identifying and implementing them as contributing to a culture of peace, their impact and synergy may be strengthened. It is in this light that the concluding section of this report includes the proposals for the programme of action received from the United Nations system and other international organizations.
6. The development of the concept of the culture of peace, therefore, has both theoretical and practical value. It provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes the importance of addressing the deep cultural roots of war and violence, and it constitutes the basis for a coherent strategy for a transformation to a culture of peace and non-violence. In this respect, the present report, including a draft declaration and programme of action on a culture of peace, may represent a significant step in the building of a global United Nations strategy of articulated, mutually reinforcing actions for the building of a culture of peace and the prevention of violent conflict.
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