UPEACE and Harvard Business School collaborate on innovate course offering
From March 18th – 25th , the UPEACE Centre for Executive and Professional Education offered a unique week-long seminar entitled ‘Social Entrepreneurship in Latin America’. This course was developed in collaboration with the Social Enterprise Club of Harvard Business School and incorporated visits to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, CRES Butterfly Farm, National Institute for Biodiversity (INBio) and Doka Coffee Estate, where Fair Trade coffee is grown.
It was primarily a field-based course to allow participants to meet ‘real-life’ social entrepreneurs in Costa Rica. Participants also visited the community cooperative Nacientes Palmichal and finished the week in Manuel Antonio, visiting Si Como No, a successful sustainable tourism hotel.
One main objective of the week was to convey to the participants that the worlds of “working for the betterment of society” and “generating income” are in fact compatible, and that bringing business-like skills and discipline to the social sector is very necessary. Of the 8 participants that flew-in for this seminar course 7 were students from Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Several of the activities also included UPEACE faculty, staff and students, including a panel titled, ‘Doing Good Business’ on the opening day that was held in the Council Room.
The Centre will be following up this course with its next offering beginning in June, on ‘Nonprofit Leadership’. A similar field-based structure is envisioned. For more information, please see www.centre.upeace.org
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Second International Course on Gender and Conflict
The Department for Gender and Peace Education of the University for Peace, with the support of the Africa Programme, is organizing the Second International Course on Gender and Conflict: Human Rights and Transitional Justice. This course is offered in coordination with the Pan-African Centre for Gender, Peace and Development of Femmes Africa Solidaritè (FAS).
The Second International Course will take place in Mbodiène, Dakar on 9 to 13 April 2007, the Programme includes the participation of Professor Elize Delport, Matthew Norton, George Wachira and Kelly Muddell.
This short course will bring together practitioners, researchers, and people working with regional and international institutions and NGOs to improve their skills on gender and peacebuilding. The teaching approach will be interactive and participatory in order to bring participants to share experiences and knowledge and to create a network for addressing gender issues on peace agenda.
The aims of this workshop are:
- To present and discuss specific aspects of gender and conflict management and transformation
- To clarify terms, definitions and key concepts of human rights and transitional justice
- To examine the gender dimension in transitional justice and violations of human rights during conflict and its transformation
- To empower women as actors of change
- To examine the use of multimedia materials.
- To share experiences and lessons learned
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UPEACE Produces a New Teaching Toolkit
By Dina Rodriguez,
Head of Department
Department of Gender and Peace Education (DGP)
In 2004 the University for Peace launched the programme, “Sharing Knowledge for Peace.” One of the main components of the programme was the Teaching Toolkits Project. The purpose of the project is to disseminate the teaching and learning activities that take place during the courses offered by UPEACE (at headquarters campus and in other locations) to a significantly wider audience.
The Teaching Toolkits are developed for professors from universities and NGO leaders who wish to supplement their own teaching with a set of multimedia materials. The Toolkits are composed of DVDs in which UPEACE professors lecture and discuss different issues of interest with students; CD-ROMs with additional material to complement the readings of the course, and written material with the Professor’s Guide and the Study Guide.
Recently the Department for Gender and Peace Education, with the support of the Africa Programme and the collaboration of the Pan-African Centre for Gender, Peace and Development, has produced a new teaching toolkit on “Gender, Peace Processes and Transformation in Africa.”
This multimedia material was created out of the First International Course on Gender and Peacebuilding, which took place in Dakar in July 2006 and organized by the Department for Gender and Peace Education, the Africa Programme and Femmes Africa Solidaritè.
The highlight of this carefully constructed material is that everything has been done by the UPEACE faculty and staff. UPEACE has the capacity, good will, equipment, instruments and talent to produce first-class teaching materials that would allow it to reach more people in the world than those who are attending courses at the headquarter campus in Costa Rica and in places where UPEACE gives classes. With this production UPEACE is fulfilling one of the institutional pillars.
Most UPEACE members can recognize their special touch in the Toolkit for Teaching: “Gender, Peace Processes and Transformation in Africa.” This multimedia material represents what a group of colleagues can do in this institution. We can proudly say: “we have done it and done it well, from the beginning to the end.”
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Internships at the Foreign Affairs Ministry
Last 22 March Carlos Cordero and Ronald Obaldía from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, visited UPEACE, and explained to students the interest of the Ministry of offering some internships to UPEACE students.
The internships will be in the modality of distance internships and the students were requested to submit her/his curriculum vitae with an explanation of the topic they would be interested in working on. After receiving this information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will put the student in contact with the person or persons that will receive their work. For more information, please contact Flor Cubero at fcubero@upeace.org
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International Seminar on Operationalizing Mediation Support. Lessons from Mediation Experience in Latin America and the Caribbean
Dr. Victor Valle, Dean for Latin America and the Caribbean attended the International Seminar on Operationalizing Mediation Support, where some 35 representatives from around the region participated.
The seminar, sponsored by the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA), Latin American School for Social Sciences and the Government of Canada had the objective of addressing the most pressing demands of mediation in Latin America and the Caribbean from the perspective of mediators.
According to Ms. Angela Kane, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs participants were “…experienced mediators from the United Nations, our partner organizations in the region, eminent scholars, key donors and civil society representatives”.
FLACSO will produce a non-attributive report to reflect the main issues discussed during the two-days seminar. In addition, DPA’s Mediation Support Unit will produce guidance and training materials drawing on the lessons and best practices identified during the consultations, and we will build our Media Support Unit in a way that meets your expressed needs.
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Award Granted to Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath
The University for Peace has the honour to announce that Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Chair of the International Academic Council (IAC) of the University, has received India's National Civilian Honour of Padma Shree.
This award is given by the Government of India generally to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and public life.
Dr. Gopinath is the Principal of the Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi.
On behalf of all the UPEACE staff and students we would like to congratulate Dr. Gopinath for this accomplishment.
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UPEACE Professor appointed as SUNY Distinguished Professor 
UPEACE visiting professor Makau Mutua, has been appointed SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest rank that the State University of New York (SUNY) can confer on a professor.
Makau Mutua is a Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Center at The State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law where he teaches international human rights, international business transactions, and international law. Professor Mutua has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Iowa College of Law, and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law. He is also co-director of the Programme on International and Comparative Legal Studies of the UB Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy. He was educated at the University of Nairobi, the University of Dar-es-Salaam, and at Harvard Law School, where he obtained a Doctorate of Juridical Science in 1987. Professor Mutua was Co-Chair of the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law.
At UPEACE, Mr. Mutua teaches two courses: The African Human Rights System and Human Rights and Religion.
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Learning and Teaching On-Line
As part of the preparations for the UPEACE Distance Education On-Line Programme, Dr. Linda Johnston from Kennesaw State University visited UPEACE last week (March 19 – 23) to deliver a one-week training workshop about On-Line Instructional Design.
The course included both the theoretical and practical perspectives of the topic. It was attended by a good group of 15 members of staff and faculty. Each participant had a laptop to follow the instructions and practice many times each one of the commands. One of the most relevant aspects of the training was that the participants were able to feel comfortable using Moodle and understood that this is a useful instructional tool that would allow them to create a new teaching environment. Among participants there was great interest for sharing the learning that took place during this week with other members of the academic and administrative community who couldn’t attend classes for different reasons but who wish to learn about its development.
Dr. Johnston has a Doctorate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and has extensive experience in teaching on-line. She is willing to continue the training online with those who attended the workshop to support them in the development of the MA on-line in Peace and Conflict Studies.
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News from our alumni
Marcia Aguiluz
MA in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes
Class of 2004 
I am now working at the Mesoamerican office of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).
This office is responsible of Mexico and Central America. CEJIL is an organization that offers an integrated program of defense, free legal consulting, education and oversight of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights.
As a lawyer at CEJIL I am responsible for Honduras and Nicaragua, which means that I have to monitor the human rights situation in each country as well as to select representative cases that exemplify abuses and whose resolution could impact the implementation of international human rights norms be it through its effect on the areas of law, domestic practices, individuals cases or state policies. In this picture, I am on field trip in Honduras with HIV positive children.
I like very much what I am doing here because I can help people and I can apply what I learned at UPEACE. I also want to express my gratitude for all your help and support while I was studying there and after.
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