Monograph pages 36-37

he new approach of UNESCO, which led to the establishment of the Culture of Peace Programme in 1994, is being greatly expanded in the Medium Term Strategy of UNESCO for the years 1996-2001. The Strategy considers the culture of peace as the contemporary expression of the Constitutional mandate of UNESCO which calls for it to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Therefore, in the 1996-1997 biennium, plans have been made to expand the scope of the Programme into a new transdisciplinary project, entitled Towards a Culture of Peace. The project builds upon the many contributions already being made by the various sectors and field units of the Organization to the culture of peace, including a number of innovations made since the Programme was established.
In this section, a brief overview will be given first to the activities which UNESCO, since its inception, has implemented under its various educational, scientific cultural and communication programmes and which provide a significant direct or indirect contribution to a culture of peace. Then, consideration will be devoted to innovative intersectoral projects that have been initiated in the past two years and which are being incorporated into the new transdisciplinary project. In addition, examples are given from related activities in natural sciences and by UNESCO field offices. Finally, although they are officially independent of the Organization, mention is made of the worldwide network of UNESCO Clubs, Associations and Centres, which are devoting their efforts to a culture of peace in the coming years.

UNESCO's Constitution declares

That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed;

That ignorance of each other's ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war;

That the great and terrible war which has now ended was a war made possible by the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual respect of men, and by the propagation, in their place, through ignorance and prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequality of men and races;

That the wide diffusion of culture, and the education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern;

That a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous, lasting and sincere support of the peoples of the world, and that the peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.

The culture of peace is the contemporary expression of the Constitutional mandate of UNESCO.

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