TRAINING OF TRAINERS SEMINAR

Religious Identity, Islam and Peacebuilding

Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 13-16 June 2006

Following the course development seminar on “Religious Identity, Islam and Peacebuilding” held in Dushanbe in February 2006, a training of trainers seminar took place during 13-16 June 2006 as the next important step of a Norway-funded project. The aim of the seminar was to finalize the course curricula developed during the first seminar in February, to train educators, trainers and civil society representatives on using the academic and training models and to discuss with participants how to best apply various teaching resources for practical teaching and training. The specific educational objective of the course on “Religious Identity, Islam and Peacebuilding” consists of developing and spreading concepts and skills for dealing with conflicts through alternative mechanisms for dispute resolution which spring from a combination of authentic Islamic knowledge and traditions, and  contemporary academic and practical resources fro the field of peace and conflict studies.

Among the participants were high-level representatives of the Tajik government, religious leaders, academics and NGO, media and civil society representatives from different localities of Tajikistan and Central Asia. Seminar participants discussed sensitive and complex issues of identity and Islam in the Central Asian context, and Islam’s relation to the state, and gave various contextual interpretations of  Islamic sources concerning conflict and peacebuilding. One of the most important aspects of the seminar was its focus on applying key concepts from Peace and Conflict studies to the academic teaching and training on the issues of identity, religion and Islam. Participants also discussed in depth the question of how authentic Islamic traditions could positively influence conflictive environments and provide constructive solutions to the challenges Central Asia is now facing.

As a result of the highly engaged and motivated efforts of thirty-five academics, experts, “secularists”, clerics and local civil society leaders from Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries, the draft syllabus on the topic of “Religious Identity, Islam and Peacebuilding” was discussed and finalized. It is now ready to be applied both for academic teaching at the university level and in madrassas, and for training civil society, government officials and municipal and NGO representatives in Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries. Several of the most qualified seminar participants who acted as co-trainers during the seminar are now ready to independently teach and train this course throughout Central Asia in their own languages, and to build their own seminar teams for applying this knowledge in their various teaching and training activities.

The participants of the seminar strongly endorsed the intention of the UPEACE Central Asia Programme to conduct a series of specialized training seminars for various target groups, including Islamic communities from different localities in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, madrassa students, media representatives and other crucial actors such as government officials (civil servants, military personnel, police and judiciary representatives).  They stressed the uniqueness of this effort of the University for Peace to explore peacebuilding from both Islamic and secular perspectives and to discuss progressive views on Islamic values by combining modern social science approach with traditional research methods.

These teaching and training courses integrate local knowledge and expertise resulting from the curriculum development process. They also serve the overall aim of the Central Asia Programme to develop educational instruments and teaching methodologies to promote Education for Peace and to build human capacities through fostering “a culture of peace” at all levels of education in Central Asia. In the second stage of this project, this modular course will be developed into multimedia teaching packages tailored to Central Asian academic and training needs. The course materials will be compiled, edited and translated into English, Russian and Central Asian languages; filmed lectures, clips & bar charts will be recorded on DVDs; and a teaching manual will be generated on how to use such materials and integrate specialized peace-building subtopics of greatest relevance to Central Asian students, polity and society.

This project represents the next step toward the overall goal of the UPEACE Central Asia Programme to build capacities for conflict prevention in the region. The focus of this current project is to respond to the urgent needs of Central Asian societies to constructively involve its Islamic majority population in preventing, resolving and transforming conflict by developing respective skills and disseminating knowledge, with a special emphasis on using Islam’s own values and principles of peacemaking and peacebuilding.

The Central Asia Programme of the University for Peace would like to express its sincere appreciation to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its generous support, which has enabled the realization of this important programme activity.

Executive Committee Eleventh Session

The Eleventh Session of the Executive Committee was held last Friday, 23 June in Geneva.  Our office at Chemin du Rivage served as the host Secretariat of this Session.  Rector Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Vice Rector Georges Tsaï,  Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun, and Ms. Ruth Dreifuss attended the meeting.  The other two members: Mr. Maurice F. Strong and Mr. Sverre Lodgaard, due to last minute complications in their schedules, had to participate via conference call, reason why the meeting was chaired by the Vice President of the Council, Ambassador Sahnoun.   In the words of the Rector, this meeting was excellent since the Executive Committee had not met since September 2005.

Notes from our Alumni

UPEACE mention at Peace Encounters in Paris

At the 2nd International Salon for Peace Initiatives, which took place between 2nd  -5th  June, 2006 at  Cite des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris, France UPEACE was mentioned as a positive development in the context of the Workshop on "Peace sciences: an instrument for the future?"  
The International Salon of Peace Initiatives, a true fair hosting more than 200 peace organizations mainly from France and the francophone world,  and the International Encounter “Actors of Peace for a Culture of Non-Violence” (workshops, roundtables, movies, games, interactive seminars etc)  were organized by the French Coalition for the Decade within the UN International Decade for the promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence. The Salon and the International Conference highlighted the numerous dimensions of the culture of peace and non-violence: education, justice, non-violent resolution of conflicts, mediation, human rights defense, environmental respect and development, disarmament, equality between men and women.

Among the many themes discussed and experienced through interracitve workshops:

Among the intervenants:

• Mr. David Adams, Fundación Cultura de Paz
• Ms. Hildegard Goss-Mayr, Niwano Peace Prize Laureate, IFOR (Austria)
• Mr. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, President of SERPAJ-AL (Argentina)
• Mr. Rajagopal, Vice-president of the Gandhi Peace Foundation (India)
• Mr. Jean Vanier, founder of the Arch Community (Canada / France)

Moderators:
• Christian Renoux, President of the French Coalition and of the International Coalition for the Decade / MIR (IFOR France) and Arielle Denis, editor of Planète Paix
• Ms. Teresa Campos Chong, Center of Community Education of the High Provinces of Cusco - CECPA, partner of the Secours catholique - Caritas France (Peru)
• Mr. Ivan Marovic, Otpor, partner of ICNC (Serbia)
• Mr. Jean-Marie Muller, MAN / ICP Committee (France)
• Mr. Eleume Narciso Ramos, Association des Conseils Communautaires du Bas Atrato - ASCOBA (Columbia)
• Mr. Alessandro Rossi, European coordinator of Nonviolent Peaceforce (Italy)

UPEACE alumna Andra Tanase (IPS 2005) currently engaged as TRANSCEND International Secretary and Programme Director at PATRIR (Peace Action Training and Reasearch Institute of Romania) was invited to participate as guest speaker at two workshops hosted by APRED (Association for Non-Militarization) where she presented the mission and activities of UPEACE, European Peace University and TRANSCEND Peace University and the PiDoPEace (People's Initiative for Departments and Ministries of Peace).  The information on Peace Studies universities and development of the field per-se was received with much interest not only by practitioners and researchers, but also by institutions' representatives (such as a representative from France's Ministry of Education) and  by prospective students.

The participation of UPEACE to such an event in the future could prove to be extremely fruitful for networking and recruitment.

1 Foro Educativo de la Comunidad de La Carpio

Culminating a cycle of cooperation of UPEACE with the school and community of La Carpio, an urban marginalized community of 30,000 inhabitants in the west of San José, the 1st Educational Forum of La Carpio was held on June 23rd.  It was co-sponsored by Consejo Comunal de la Carpio (CODECA), Escuela Finca La Caja, and University for Peace.  The general goal of the Forum was to bring together diverse communal and non-communal organizations, from governmental, civil society, humanitarian, and religious sectors to share their experiences in formal, non formal and informal education and begin creating a common vision of partnerships for the future.

This Forum culminates almost two years of outreach support of UPEACE, through its M.A. Programme in Peace Education, which included seven workshops for the school, six workshops for CODECA, three encounters with presidential candidates, an environmental situation analysis—with the support of the Department of Environment, Peace, and Security—a survey of human need satisfaction and priorities, and a cultural festival to celebrate the multiplicity of nationalities of La Carpio, with a predominance of Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans.  The event was attended by officials such as Mrs. Cecilia Arias Sánchez, sister of President Arias and member of Fundación Manos Solidarias, the Vice Minister of Education, Mrs. Alejandrina Mata, the Director of the Intituto de Fomento Cooperativo (INFOCOOP), Mrs. Patricia Jiménez, and the Legislator Federico Tinoco.

During the first plenary section, the president of Fundación Manos Solidaros, Mrs. Olga Cañas de Guardia, shared the fund-raising effort and the blueprints for a new three-story school; representatives of the School presented their new educational model, designed as a result of the series of workshops which UPEACE held in 2005 and also the support of the National University.  This model incorporates The Earth Charter and The Integral Model of Peace Education, developed by UPEACE.  It also reflects key principles of Peace Education, in which an educational institution contributes to potentializing other actors as educational agents in a broad learning community perspective.  Dr. Abelardo Brenes, representing the Peace Education Programme expressed that to him and other staff and students at UPEACE La Carpio represented an example of peaceful coexistence and cooperation between Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans sharing common struggles for survival in extremely difficult circumstances.  In this respect he added that it also can be considered as a reminder that there is an unfinished peace agenda in Central America.  He finished by stating that working in La Carpio had also brought immense learning benefits for UPEACE students in particular.

In the second part, five classrooms were used to learn about the work of diverse organizations, discuss on commonalities and to provide recommendations for future work.  Four of the students of the M.A. in Peace Education shared their Service Learning Projects in La Carpio.  Laurel Barton and Arianna Gilbert introduced student Lady Mejía Ruiz, who together with her peers had produced a video documentary of the daily life of youth in La Carpio, their concerns and dreams.  Kazutoshi Yoshino shared his work with 20 students who visited UPEACE for cultural exchange with UPEACE students from 30 countries, which helped them realize that there are many nationalities in the world and that this could be an asset rather then a reason to feel ashamed, as has been the case until now for children and youth in La Carpio.  Finally, Mohammad Kalam Azad talked about his work with women who are heads of households and gave his recommendations on microcredit proyect schemes based on his experience in Bangladesh and on the Islamic view of charity which seeks to support the underprivileged in finding solutions to their livelihood needs.  The general discussion that followed focused on the importance of supporting youth in expressing their voice and developing skills of participation, on edicational approaches for overcoming xenophobia, and on generosity as the source for overcoming deep socioeconomic inequities.

La Carpio Video Project
By Laurel Barton

This year students in the Peace Education program were offered the opportunity to work in multiple educational settings in order to gain hands on practice putting the theories and methods of educating for peace into a real situations here in Costa Rica. The various  projects and schools included El Rodeo School, United World Colleges(SOS), the American International School, UPeace itself, The Peace Army of Costa Rica, the San Jose Unesco office, and a workshop held in Toronto on Peace Education in Islamic contexts attended by Dodie, Zahid and Azad. Also the community of La Carpio was presented as an opportunity for us to learn about the many challenges in this impoverished- but spirited community of 30,000 people.

In addition to the cross-cultural workshops organized by Koe Yoshino, which many UPeace students participated in, Laurel Barton and Arianna worked with a group of teenagers in La Carpio on a video project which explored 3 key areas of peace educating in action: needs of the community, with a special focus on the youth, assets of the community, which emphasized the many organizations and individuals working for positive change, and rights of children and teenagers in light of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The youth made the decision to create this video project, guided us to areas of La Carpio that they felt were significant to illustrate social and environmental issues, and they also did most of the filming.

 It is with great satisfaction and honor that we, in the Peace Education programme and the youth of La Carpio were able to share the video and our work together with a forum of many organizations and members of the government last June 23. The project was also enabled by the professional video editing abilities of Gerardo Romero and Alex Rivera, and the translation expertise of Abelardo Brenes.

Meet UPEACE staff

Dr. Anouk Guiné
Anouk Guiné is Assistant Professor of the Department of Gender and Peace Education. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies and British Studies, Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France,  and a MA in Gender Studies and American Studies, from Paris 8 University, Saint Denis, France. 
Prof. Guiné’s research interests include citizenship theories, sociology of human rights, theories of multiculturalism, racialization, refugee studies, migration studies, gender-related persecutions and asylum, women’s movements and ¨state feminism¨, gender and development.
Her last appointments included:

Student life
Peace Journey [1]
By Koe Yoshino

Excuse me!  I am looking for peace.  Where is peace?
I see no peace either ahead of me or behind me.  Where is peace?
Yes, there is peace.  Peace is always too close to see.
So, where is peace?  I traveled throughout the world, but I didn’t find it yet.
What is your name?
Laurel.
Laurel, why are you looking for peace?
Because I want to live in peace.

So, are you looking for peace in order to live in peace?
Yes, I am.
Do you see yourself peaceful?
…. I don’t know.
Do you know how you look like?
Yes, I see my face through a mirror.
But, how do you see your mind?
Let’s see….is it how I feel?  I think I can see my mind because it is my mind.
Good.  What does your mind say about peace?
Hmmm…well, peace is may be how I feel.
Right. So, where is peace?
Oh! so, peace is in my mind?  Wow, I didn’t know that.  Is peace in my mind?
Yes, it is.
Fantastic!  Now I find where peace is, and I can live in peace.
Yes.  Peace is always too close to see.  Sometimes we pay too much attention to what lies around us and we are blind to what lies within us.
Right.  I was looking for peace always somewhere else.
Sometimes you see it nowhere, but it is still there as long as you are peace.  Peace is whether you can transform yourself to be peace.