Ei-iE

The Second World Congress of Education International, meeting in Washington D.C., U.S.A., from 25 to 29 July 1998:

Notes that:

1. Real or potential conflict areas continue to exist in the Middle East and other regions of the world;

2. Even after the EI First World Congress, numerous innocent women and children were victimised in ethnic conflicts, for instance in Bosnia, despite the strong wish for peace of many peoples in the world;

3. Many boy soldiers were killed in the battlefield in the course of separatist movements for independence in such regions as Chechnya;

4. Armed force is still used to sacrifice many human lives in ethnic conflict or in efforts by dictatorial governments to maintain their regimes in such areas as Rwanda;

5. Iraq is faced once again with armed conflict;

6. Citizens are becoming victims of armed conflicts in many parts of the world.

All member organisations of EI recognise the fact that further promotion of peace education for world disarmament is most important for the pursuit of international peace, and recommend that:

7. EI members and their affiliates should continuously bear in mind and recall the records and histories of all the world wars and massacres which have occurred in the 20th Century;

8. Peace education programmes for disarmament should be developed with the initiative of UNESCO in order to promote the concrete learning of peace education in the schools throughout the world;

9. EI member organisations should check whether peace education for disarmament is provided for in their countries, as well as the contents of teaching materials and curricula;

10. EI member organisations should exchange information on peace education for disarmament and on educational programmes promoting democracy, and EI should encourage such exchanges;

11. EI should support trade unions and civil organisations engaged in activities for peace and disarmament. EI should also ask its affiliates to support domestic organisations engaged in such activities;

12. EI should ask all countries possessing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons capable of mass destruction to take appropriate measures to eliminate such weapons;

13. EI should commit itself to doing its best for international peace activities linked with education in the field of human rights while promoting democracy. El should ask the countries of its affiliates to develop activities in line with the objectives, recommendations and constitutions of UNESCO, the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention Concerning the Rights of the Child, and recommendations concerning education for international understanding and cooperation, human rights and fundamental freedoms. These educational activities should be incorporated into the content of education and training, educational resources and materials, school and university life, pre-service and in service training of teachers, etc.;

14. El supports the peace education movement based on these principles, and proposes that EI affiliates take up this movement.