New UPEACE Council Members
The new Government of Costa Rica, in office since 8 May 2006, has appointed its two ex-officio members to the Council of the University for Peace: Mr. Fernando Berrocal, current Minister of Security, and Mr. Francisco J. Aguilar-Urbina, President Emeritus of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights, who has recently been appointed as Ambassador of Costa-Rica to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Mr. Berrocal, a Lawyer with studies in Economy and Philosophy, has also served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations in New York, Vice President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, President of the G-77 of the United Nations, Minister of the Presidency (1982-84), and most recently, professor of International Public Law and International Organizations at La Salle University Law School in Costa Rica.
Mr. Aguilar-Urbina holds a Master of Laws in International Law from Harvard Law School and studies in International Humanitarian Law, Conflict Resolution, International Juridical Studies, among others. He has served as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in human rights-related issues, Director of the Supporting Services and Director of the Legal Advise Division in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva. He has also served as Minister Counselor of the Costa Rican Embassy to the United States and Consul General of Costa Rica in Washington, D. C. He has also been a professor at UPEACE, at Universidad Latina, and Universidad Nacional Autónoma.
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UPEACE and Nippon Foundation working together
The Japanese Nippon Foundation as well as its supervising Ministry have recently approved a proposal for a UPEACE International Peace Studies Dual Campus Masters Programme. The objective of the programme is to provide students from Japan and other Asian countries with an opportunity to study in an internationally recognized, intensive, and rigorous MA programme complemented with an English language-training module.
The students will engage in an intensive Peace Studies content-based language-training module (in the Philippines) prior to the International Peace Studies coursework. Students would then spend their first term of the MA and part of the second term at UPEACE headquarters in Costa Rica. Afterwards, they would undertake coursework at Ateneo de Manila during part of the second term and the entire third term. The last component of the programme is an internship and final report in lieu of a Master’s thesis that will be also done in the Philippines.
The duration of the Masters programme is of 19 months. The Nippon Foundation would support the programme from April 2007 for a period of five years.
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Short Course on Gender and Peacebuilding held in Senegal,
17-21 July 2006
On the week of 17-21 July 2006, Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) and the University for Peace (UPEACE) organized the first Short Course on Gender and Peacebuilding. This activity took place in Mbodiène, Senegal. In November 2005 UPEACE and FAS signed an agreement of collaboration and partnership leading to the creation of a MA in the Pan African Centre for Gender, Peace and Development.
A total of 30 participants from 21 countries around the African continent attended the Course. They were University professors, practitioners, researchers, professionals working with Regional and International Institutions and NGO’s. Mr. Mohammed Dionne the Principal Secretary from Senegalese Prime Minister Office inaugurated the Short Course; he declared, “War stimulates the most depreciable human instincts, the most inhuman. Women are the ones suffering the most dreadful consequences of armed conflicts”.
Professors from FAS, Bertha Kadenyi Amisi, Jessica Nkuuhe, Bineta Diop, Aminata Dieye and UPEACE Edith Natukunda-Togboa, Jean-Bosco Butera, Sherrill Whittington, Ecoma Alaga and Dina Rodríguez delivered an interactive and participatory course and workshops encouraging participants to share their experiences and knowledge and to create a network for addressing gender issues on peace agenda in Africa. During the short course, the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was discussed among participants, they were committed to the promotion and enforcement of this document through different instances of the African Union, recognizing the need to include women into peace negotiation tables.
Participants visited the Training Centre for Senegalese soldiers, where they prepare soldiers who will members of the UN peacekeeping operation missions. The inclusion of the gender perspective into this kind of military activities was discussed and participants had the opportunity to analyze the relation among theory and reality in the formation of the peacekeeping operation forces. The Short course was closed with the words of Ms. Aminata Tall, Minister of State from the Office of the President of the Republic. Also, the Ambassador from Egypt attended the closing and offered US$30,000 in equipment for the implementation of the Pan African Center on Gender, Peace and Development. The course was video-taped with the purpose of producing a teaching kit to share with other institutions what the offering in the University’s face-to-face courses.
FAS, UPEACE and the University of Dakar held a meeting on Tuesday 18 July, with the purpose of discussing the possibility of organizing in the future the MA Programme in Gender and Peacebuilding.
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UPEACE Professor travels to Middle East
Victoria Fontan, UPEACE Faculty member at UPEACE, just returned from a one month visit to the Middle East that included Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq.
In Baghdad, she continued her research on the role of humiliation in the grass-root generation of support for terrorism and insurgency. She then presented her work at the Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution symposium in Prague, Czech Republic, before embarking on a three day visit to Lebanon. While the primary purpose of her trip was to prepare a USIP-sponsored event on the Lebanese Hezbollah, she also participated in the international relief effort in Lebanon. In Beirut, she facilitated the delivery of 40 tons of emergency medical assistance to the American University Hospital, in co-ordination with LA-based NGO Operation-USA (www.opusa.org) and the King Hussein Foundation of Jordan.
She also provided the EU Civil Protection Team with local NGO contacts. Lastly, representing Professors Without Borders (www.professorswithoutborders.net), she initiated talks with the Public Relations Office of American University of Beirut on the possibility of sending foreign faculty to the AUB and other institutions currently depleted of foreign staff.
"Africa's newsmedia: the vision, the need and the responsability" conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya
On 7-9 August the conference "Africa's newsmedia: the vision, the need and the responsability" took place in Nairobi, Kenya. The outcomes were very positive.
For the Conference a document was produced on the series "The Peace Builders", which was published by the Daily Nation newspaper showcasing profiles of Africans heroes who have worked towards peace in the region. If you would like to look at this document please click here.
The Conference had an excellent press coverage.If you would like to look at some of the articles published please click here
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Institute on Peace Education 2006: “Toward a Planetary Ethic: Shared and Individual Responsibility”
The International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) 2006 took place from 31 July 2006 - 5 August at the UPEACE Campus in Costa Rica. It was jointly organized by the Peace Education Center at Teachers College, Columbia University (USA) and the M.A. Programme in Peace Education of the University for Peace.
The IIPE is a multicultural, cooperative learning opportunity in which peace educators learn from each other about substantive peace issues and interactive teaching approaches. The IIPE is also an opportunity for networking and community building among those who educate and work for a culture of peace in the host region and other world regions. The annual program consists of interactive plenaries, practical workshops, reflection groups, and visits to community projects. This year’s IIPE brought together 70 participants from 28 countries to address the theme Toward a Planetary Ethic: Shared and Individual Responsibility. Thirteen of the participants were the members of the 2005-06 class of M.A. students in Peace Education at UPEACE.
The Programme opened with a formal welcome by Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Rector of UPEACE, Abelardo Brenes, Director of the M.A. Programme in Peace Education, Mirian Vilela, Director of the Earth Charter Center in Sustainable Development Education at UPEACE, Wolfgang Reuther, Representative of UNESCO for Central America, and Leonardo Garnier, Minister of Education of Costa Rica. Five Plenary Panels presented perspectives on the key inquiries derived from the general theme: 1) Toward a Planetary Ethic: Individual and Shared Responsibility; 2) Toward a Planetary Ethic: Universal and Differential Responsibility; 3) How Can We Foster Human Responsibility? 4) Peace Education Contributions to Fostering Human Responsibility; and 5) Planning for the Future.
Within the framework of these daily themes, 53 workshops were offered by the participants, which provided a rich opportunity for mutual learning and exploration of multiple cooperative potentials. Participants also shared their experiences in nine reflection groups that met daily and had an opportunity to present what the week had meant for them in a final plenary held in the afternoon of August 5th. A cultural night also provided an opportunity for sharing joy and inter cultural learning.
Participants also had an opportunity to visit one of three field trip sites: Nacientes de Palmichal, known for its non-formal education strategies in rural sustainable development; La Carpio and Rincón Grande de Pavas, two urban marginalized communities in the West of San José, where UPEACE has been involved in peace education activities; and CEUNA, a private educational institution in San Rafael de Heredia noted for mainstreaming Education for Sustainable Development.
Post IIPE follow-up will include forging partnerships and networks to work towards the fulfillment of the goals of the U.N. related educational action frameworks, in particular the Millennium Development Goals, the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World, Education for All, the Decade for Literacy, and the Decade for Sustainable Development Education. A video documentary and a proceedings book are in preparation for the purpose of sharing this extraordinary learning experience with the international community.
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NOTES FROM OUR ALUMNI
Ben Hess, IPS class of 2006
"I recently accepted a position with the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, that strives to improve the quality
of life for migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families in the US through training, education, and advocacy. It also provides a link between federal agencies (and their funding) and member organizations throughout the United States. We are involved in a
variety of advocacy issues, including farmworker job training programs, child labor, and immigration reform.
I will be editor of AFOP's national newsletter (Washington Newsline) and other publications. Because it is a small office, I'll also be involved in grantwriting and communications work. I am excited about the opportunity and look forward to reconnecting with UPEACE alumni in the DC area."
The final chapter but the new chapter of UPEACE
By Koe Yoshino
At 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday at UPEACE, it seemed I was the only student in this campus. It was very quiet, yet peaceful. I started to walk out for a little break. I found no one in the computer lab, but some computers were still on. I felt an impulse to turn them off due to environmental conservation for energy resource of the Earth, so I made it. I hoped my friend, Geoff would be happy with my achievement. As I came back to the classroom, I finally saw someone, a UPEACE cat, but she ran away as I approached. Unlike the cat, I could not run away from my mission so I came back to the classroom to restart the thesis. Now, I am in Classroom #4 facing the large world map, which caused me to think about my friends returning to their countries. The world is big, but small. I think that all the students took the best value of the campus life this year as an eternal bond for all of us. I feel we are somewhat still connected with this common mission for peace. We may be separate, but never separated. We keep performing our unique roles at the same stage of the world. Yes, we are still on the same stage for our entire life. And, our spirits at each region always resound to inspire each of us to keep our progress exhilarated. The last fort of the peace education students is finally leaving one by one. The campus is getting small, but getting large again as I meet some new students who are arriving. There is hope all the time in front of us. There must be hope even in the midst of struggles, because we are the hope. Be proud, graduates of University for Peace! We are the ones who carry the honorable mission to cause tremendous change in this world toward peace. Our responsibility is as huge as the universe, but don’t worry, we can carry it on because we have the potential to make it, and we proved it at UPEACE. Throughout the rest of our life we will continue with utmost effort to create value for world peace, and will always reflect fondly on our time at UPEACE for fostering such a determination in us.