Early History of the Culture of Peace

I arrived at UNESCO in January 1993 and by January 26, with the help of an assistant, Myriam Karela, I submitted to the Director-General a set of materials that provided a basic plan of action, including a timetable, paragraphs for the upcoming biennial UNESCO budget and programme, a draft action programme for the May Executive Board and budgeted pilot project based on it, draft letters to the UN Secretary-General and UN agencies, and proposed lists of experts to be consulted and eminent persons to be invited to a high-level meeting. The Director-General responded quickly (dated 9 February) with an overall comment that "the text of the drafts is excellent" and agreement to place a priority for a pilot project in El Salvador, to be followed by another one in Mozambique.

The draft action programme was based on the new concept of "cross-conflict participation" later tested in the El Salvador project. In the days that followed Mayor's approval, the programme was faxed to 28 specialists drawn from the list submitted to Mayor and supplemented by additional African specialists as he had requested. By 25 February detailed replies had been received from 19 of them, and their suggestions were incorporated into the draft action programme (see Annex III). Not surprisingly, as I had chosen many of the specialists based on how their work contributed to cross-conflict participation, their comments supported and strengthened the concept.

Experts at Yamoussoukro. Among those consulted to develop the program were Thierno Bah (front center), Elise Boulding, Morton Deutsch, Felipe MacGregor, and Riitta Wahlstrom.

The draft action programme was also discussed at the first meetings of a Culture of Peace Working group, whose members Myriam and I personally solicited from the various sectors at UNESCO headquarters. The working group met five times and included the participation of a number of people who were to remain involved with culture of peace over the coming years, including Alain Modoux, Elizabeth Khawajkie and Katerina Stenou.

Reflecting the comments of the specialists and the working group, a draft 141 EX/16 was submitted to the Director-General on 23 February, with a handwritten note stating that it was the result of a meeting with the ADG/SHS (Ms Fournier) and DIR/SHS/HRS (Mr Symonides). After the Director-General responded that it was too academic and too long, a revised version was submitted on 19 March which was five pages shorter and without the previous academic reference to psychological factors. It was accepted and sent to the Board as 141 EX/16.

The response of Board, meeting in May 1993, was negative. There was reservation about the reliance on cross-conflict participation; the French representative (backed by Canada) indicated that it is "alien to our approach." Very few were satisfied with the specialists that had been chosen - needless to say, they were not the specialists that they already knew and supported and they did not represent every region and point of view. Already a conflict was emerging between the Board and the Director-General as some members of the Board felt that he was by-passing the sectors and establishing parallel structures - a conflict that would only deepen over the next few years especially concerning the culture of peace. In the end, they requested a revised document for their next meeting in October.