The Culture of Peace Programme Unit is working with the Associated Schools Project on a new approach to the problem of violence in major urban centres. The Interregional Project of Schools to Promote Community Conflict Management in Violence-Prone Urban Areas' is being developed to link up a network of schools located in cities plagued by violence where programmes are developed to train students, teachers and other staff, parents and the surrounding community in methods of mediation and non-violent conflict resolution. In these schools training in mediation and conflict management will be an integral part of the curriculum and the activities of schools and surrounding communities. Because unemployment is at the root of much of the urban violence, another priority of the programme is skills training and job placement for the students.
UNESCO Chairs are being established at universities linked to the Organization's UNITWIN network with programmes specifically devoted to the teaching of human rights and a culture of peace. For example, in South Africa, a UNESCO Chair for the Culture of Peace has been established at the University of Durban-Westville. Related chairs have also been set up recently at Sao Paulo University, Brazil and the University of Oran, Algeria.
Specific communication projects have been established recently in several countries to contribute directly to a culture of peace. In Rwanda, Burundi and the republics of the former Yugoslavia, for example, the Organization contributes to UN peace-building efforts by supporting independent media and helping rebuild structures on the principles of press freedom and pluralism. In Rwanda, where the radio station Mille Collines' broadcast the propaganda of violence during the 1994 genocide of 500,000 people, UNESCO, in co-operation with Reporters Sans Fronti�res, has supported the establishment of Radio Gatashya, which means literally 'the swallow that brings good news'.

The station, which began broadcasting in August 1994, provides Rwandan refugees in nearby countries with information concerning food, water and medicine distribution. With the help of the French non-governmental organization Equilibre' over 3000 portable radios were dispatched to the refugees so that they can listen to the station.
The long-term development of independent media in Rwanda is also being given support. This includes daily and weekly publications and assistance to the government in order to transform the national radio-television into a public service station with an editorial policy independent from political and ethnic powers.
In Burundi, where there is risk of bloodshed similar to that which took place in Rwanda in 1994, journalists are being sensitized by UNESCO on the role that non-partisan and pluralist information can and should play in the peace process. Some 60 decision-makers and representatives from all currents of the media - private press, public media, and institutional press - took part in a seminar organized by UNESCO and the International Programme for the Development of Communication. The seminar took place in May 1995 at the House of Peace in the capital city of Bujumbura which is the home of the UNESCO National Culture of Peace Programme as described in a later section.
The Burundi seminar issued recommendations to the Government of Burundi, to the National Council of Communication and to the international community at large, appealing to them to ensure that the media be allowed to function normally, without censorship, undue regulations or other obstacles to the free flow of information. As an immediate result the Ministry of Communication has made available premises for a new Press Club. UNESCO will provide equipment for training and newspaper operations so that journalists can meet there and discuss issues freely.

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