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	United to End Genocide by Tom Andrews USA   Claude Gatebuke, is a Rwandan human rights activist, who survived a civil war and genocide in Rwanda. His memories of his home country devastated by violence drive his commitment to ending genocide.   Claude is a graduate of our Carl Wilkens Fellowship program (class of 2010). He is committed to building a sustainable anti-genocide constituency in Nashville, TN where his family now lives and in Memphis, where he attends law school. He has worked with local teachers and students to raise awareness about the ongoing conflicts in Burma, Congo and Sudan – in April, 2011 Claude brought together students from Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt and FISK, and adults from the greater Nashville area for a skills development and advocacy workshop.   Earlier, Claude spoke at a congressional briefing on a report documenting atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He related his own experience of the brutality of the Rwandan genocide and his motivation for continuing to empower himself and community members as grassroots advocates: “I can still see the terror in my mother’s eyes when we were ordered to dig our own graves.”   Claude is a member of Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Congo, raising awareness on the humanitarian crisis taking place in the Congo. As the East Coast Operations Officer for Africamix, he has organized festivals to raise awareness for abused and neglected children.   “I know that I was put on earth to make the world a better place. I know that standing up for human rights and improving the lives of fellow humans is my calling. Genocide is one of the worst forms of human rights abuses in the world. Being able to work effectively across traditional divides to end genocide goes a long way in making the world a better place” – Claude Gatebuke   United to End Genocide, is the largest activist organization in America dedicated to preventing and ending genocide and mass atrocities worldwide. We are faith leaders, students, artists, investors and genocide survivors, and all those who believe we must fulfill the promise the world made following the Holocaust — "Never Again!" Visit the related web page
	Talking about Peace by University for Peace Costa Rica   Chatting about Peace, by Vicky Rossi.   An interview conducted by Vicky Rossi with Ms Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Rector of the University for Peace, and Prof. Abelardo Brenes who is Head of the Peace Education Programme, University for Peace.   Vicky Rossi: Regarding the attainment of "peace", the UPEACE Charter states that "the best tool for achieving this supreme good for humankind, namely education, has not been used". Could you further expand on this statement?   Julia Marton-Lefèvre: State sponsored education systems pursue "education goals", the knowledge, skills and values that are to be transmitted through the schools to prepare students to support, live in consistency with and, where appropriate, work toward the social purposes that guide and inform mainstream curriculum.   In most countries these goals have been on social purposes for promoting nationalism, militarism, productivism, and consumerism.   Peace education openly acknowledges its purpose as education to facilitate the achievement of peace and a related set of social values, largely through learning to recognize, confront and practice alternatives to the multiple forms of violence.   In that this purpose is not the generally accepted primary purpose of most educational systems, peace education calls for an examination of existing purposes and assumptions and welcomes the addressing of the same challenges to its own purposes and assumptions.   Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, in a speech made at the Advisory Meeting of the Academic Program of the University for Peace, 23 March 2001, stated that:   "Achieving decent, just and peaceful relations among diverse human groups is an enterprise that must be constantly renewed - and education for peace is a fundamental part of that enterprise. Yet the world"s record on education for peace has been weak indeed… That is why, in the next generation, we have a mission to stimulate large numbers of students on every continent to reflect seriously on human conflict, its causes and its consequences, and ways to prevent its deadly outcome".   Inspired by this message, UPEACE has interpreted that it can help meet this challenge by addressing the critical shortage of skilled people in conflict prevention and management, particularly in developing countries; and developing education for peace directed to people in all walks of life and in all regions of the world, from primary school upwards, to transform values and attitudes, to reduce prejudices, and to address critical environmental issues.   Vicky Rossi: Would you agree that "peace" is not merely the absence of war and if so what would your definition of peace be?   Julia Marton-Lefèvre: Definitely, "peace" is much more than the absence of war. The definition of "peace" given by the Earth Charter is a good starting point: "peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part."   This person-centred definition recognizes that peace is an end in itself and entails living with integrity, security, balance, and harmony - with self, others, and nature to achieve self-realization.   A person-centred definition is a useful reference point and also reflects the human rights framework it is built upon. From the point of view of our relationships, this definition assumes that each person lives within multiple dimensions of interrelationship and that we share a common responsibility to live in peace in all of them.   Vicky Rossi: What are some of the main characteristics of an educational system and curriculum based on the concept of education for peace?   Prof. Abelardo Brenes: Using the concept of "holism", peace education makes clear the integration and interdependence of all components of a given system. It observes both the direct and indirect relationships between forms of violence at all levels as well as the values, practices, and necessary conditions needed to overcome them.   Peace education is overt about its intentions to educate for the formation of "values" consistent with peace and the norms that uphold it.   Peace education identifies that social problems, at all levels, local through global, are as much a matter of ethics as they are of structures and that sustainable change must be rooted in commitment to social values. Course goals and objectives should be values explicit, demonstrating how the specific values concerned in each area relate to more general value goals. Inquiry opens the curriculum to revealing multiple perspectives or problems and to assessing a range of alternative solutions, seeking a holistic perspective, emphasizing interrelationships.   Peace education seeks to nurture peace related "virtues and capacities" for broader transformative purposes. Virtues and capacities are seen as individual qualities within each person, a basis of the ability to learn and to behave consistently with the values that inform peace education as a potential lifelong mission. Peace education is especially concerned with those virtues and capacities that inform peace action.   Peace education attempts to cultivate learnings that "transform" worldviews and inspire learners to actively pursue the transformation of the present culture of violence through considerations of alternatives. Peace education strives to demonstrate the futility of violence through the cultivation of peace related values, virtues, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Visit the related web page
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