Last week's main events
UPEACE Signed and Institutional Agreement with Universidad VERITAS in Costa Rica
On 10 May 2006, The University for Peace and Universidad Veritas, a local university in Costa Rica that specializes in architecture; graphic, image, product and space design, digital animation; film making, and photography, signed an Institutional Cooperation Agreement. This agreement will allow the students of the School of Graphic Design, to interpret the work that UPEACE does through its programmes in a poster that will be exhibited at UPEACE in a few weeks. Eighteen students, the director of the School of Graphic Design, and the vice president for academic and postgraduate affairs and research of Universidad Veritas visited the University in order to obtain first-hand information on the work they will be evaluated on. Mr. Georges Tsaï welcomed the group and Dean Amr Abdalla explained the programmes of the University. Professor Eliana Carvalho, who helped answer many of the Veritas’ students questions, also attended the meeting.
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A panel on Human Rights and the HIV/AID Crisis held
at UPEACE
On 11 May 2006, UPEACE hosted a special panel presentation on the framework of the course “The Human Rights and the HIV/AID Crisis”. The course is part of the MA in International Law and Human Rights. The panel presentation took place at 1:30pm in the Council Room.
Professor Hassan El Menyawi welcomed the students, staff and participants to the activity. He also introduced special guests such as Rosylyne Borland from the International Organization for Migration (OIM). She lectured on “Migration-Refugees population and HIV”. Heidy Jiménez from UNESCO spoke on the topic “Education and HIV”. Professor Kaveh Khooshnood from Yale University and Yadira Martinez, Vice President of ASOVIHSIDA.
The main purpose of the activity was to share ideas and have the opportunity to listen to all the lectures as well as to provide a space for dialogue and express different ideas and thoughts.
5km Campus Walking and Running Trail (CWRT)
On 9 May 2006, the opening ceremony of the 5km Campus Walking and Running took place outside the UPEACE cafeteria. Students from the MA in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, Professor Ronnie de Camino, Vice rector Georges Tsaï and some other members of the staff, inaugurated a 5 km walking trail.
Besides exploring the beautiful land that UPEACE offers, the NRSD student’s initiative aimed at bringing together staff and students, adopting a more balanced lifestyle, getting to know UPEACE’s environment, and making UPEACE better known by regular visitors to UPEACE.
The 5 km trail offers beautiful views and a variety of trees, plants and animals. In the near future, there are plans for establishing a nursery with medical and aromatic plants that could be sold in the Ciudad Colon Fair and obtain funds for UPEACE.
A democratic Steering Committee (ST) was established to help organize the overall work in a more participatory manner. The ground-breaking took place on 1 April attended by 7 volunteers (Colleen, Geoff, Advera, Lisa, Cheikh, Cristobal and Gilberto) to clean section 1 and 2; followed by the 2nd one on Sunday, 23 April attended by 15 volunteers (Colleen, Geoff, Ida, Dan, Ahmed, Jeff, Ethan, Sylvia, Boaz, Robert, Molly, Lauren, Rashna, Cheikh & Oscar). The whole trail (5km) was cleaned.
Brown Bag Seminar
On 9 May 2006, Mr. Dirk Marks, Senior Adviser on information security at the Foreign Affairs Security Service in The Netherlands, addressed a group of students and staff on the topic “Information security in the face of increasing global IT threats”. The brown bag seminar took place in classroom #1.
During the brown bag session, many topics were discussed such as hacking, phishing, trojans, botnets and contemporary threats to computer systems worldwide. Besides these new threats to information security, there are many more traditional ones reason why it was discussed the history of intelligence gathering with such illustrious spies as Mata Hari and Robert Hannsen. They also talked about the Watergate scandal, terrorism manuals and spies at the United Nations.
Besides computer-related threats, the presentation covered other information security issues such as cellular telephones, in relation to professional information gathering activities by intelligence agencies, terrorist organizations and corporate espionage.
Dirk Marks, a Registered Security Expert, is Senior Adviser on information security at the Foreign Affairs Security Service in The Netherlands. A graduate in Security Management from The Hague University, he has been in the foreign service over 25 years, serving in Europe, the Far East, Middle East, Africa and the United States.
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Student Life
Cara MacAdam
Current student
Peace Education
I knew coming to UPEACE this year was going to be challenging; academically, intellectually, and otherwise. But looking back after nine months, I can see that the challenges came from all directions, not only from classroom number two.
First, there was the challenge of the big hairy spiders. Then the challenge of the ant hill that threatened to collapse my house from the inside out. The latest challenge involves what to do with all the carcases of the beetles that pile up under my windows. The plethora of bugs has only been one small, yet astoundingly diversified, part of the UPEACE experience.
The best part about this year for me has been discovering all the small joys of living here that I could not have anticipated. Like figuring out who makes the best gallo pinto in town (my landlady, Lupita Montero, by the way). Or calculating when I have to leave campus in order to make it home before my laptop gets drowned in a torrential downpour. Or learning that I can survive on a diet of mangoes and avocados. And that it is worth it to wake up before noon on Saturday mornings to get the best pickings of the farmer's market. I've learned to navigate ditches in my sandals during a rainstorm. I've memorized the bus schedules to Puerto Viejo. I've trained myself to get in and out of the Auto Mercado at Multiplaza and back to Ciudad Colon in under two hours.
I have been inspired and overwhelmed by the love, brilliance, hilarity, and courage of my classmates, not to mention their unsurpassed ability to give hugs at just the right moment. And though I may never be able to fully articulate just exactly what Peace Education is, I do know I'm going to be trying to create it for the rest of my life.
System-Wide Activities
UPEACE organizes
a Curriculum Development Workshop on Education in Sudan
In cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the University for Peace (UPEACE) Africa Programme organised a Curriculum Development Workshop on education for peace in Sudan at the new conference centre of the Ministry in Khartoum on 3 and 4 May 2006.
The workshop was addressed by H. E. Dr. Peter Nyot Kok the Minister of Higher Education, who gave a 45 minutes presentation on the experience of Sudan in resolving the conflict in southern Sudan and the role of higher education in nurturing peace and development.
The workshop was attended by vice chancellors, directors of peace centres, professors and research students representing the following Sudanese universities: University of Khartoum, University of Juba, Ahfad University for Women, Sudan University for Science and Technology, University of Alfashir, University of Zalingei, Ahlia Omdurman University, University of Neelain, Tegana College, Dilling University, Africa International University, and Open University.
Civil society organisations, research and studies centres, and international organisations participated also in the workshop. The following attended the workshop: The Centre for Social Studies, Women Centre for Peace and Development, Centre for Future Studies, Future Trends Foundation, Sudanese Union of Youth, Arab-African Youth Council, Women and Children Department in the Ministry of Social Affairs, UNDP, and the Civil Affairs Department at the United Nations Mission in Sudan.
The final session included a summary of discussions, recommendations and concluding remarks and the way forward by Dr. Jean-Bosco Butera.
Professor Abelardo Brenes participated as co-rapporteur in a Round Table in Austria
From 24-26 April 2006, Professor Abelardo Brenes participated as co-rapporteur in a Round Table entitled "Procuradores y Ombudsmen de Derechos Humanos en Latinoamérica y Europa". It was one of the activities within an International Seminar on "Regional Integration, International Cooperation between the European Union and Latin America in relation to poverty, development and democracy" which took place in Vienna, Austria. The activity was organized by the Instituto Austriaco para América Latina, with the support of the Austrian Development Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was the fourth of a series of seminars, whose purpose was to provide recommendations for the Austrian Government in its role as President of the EU during 2006 and as host for the Eu--Latin America Summit which is taking place in Vienna during the present week.
The previous seminars had taken place in 2005 in Buenos Aires, Bratislava and Granada, Nicaragua. The Round Table lasted two days and was moderated by Manfred Nowak, Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights at the University of Vienna and Peter Kostelka, Ombudsman for Austria
Present in the plenary were representatives of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, such as Lydia Saadat and of the EU, such as Lorenzo Anton Sanos, Counselor for Horizontal Issues for Latin America
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Visiting Professors
Professor Ugo Farinelli 
From 10-26 May 2006, Professor Ugo Farinelli will be teaching the course “Science and Technology for Environmental Security”. Professor Hassan El Menyawi is also teaching this same course in collaboration with Professor Farinelli. This course belongs to the MA in Environmental Security.
This course will provide students with an overview of the capabilities of scientific and technological innovation to contribute to critical environmental security themes including energy, pollution, transportation, and freshwater.
For each of these themes, the course will examine briefly the state-of-the art in different technologies, including both what is already available and what can be expected as the result of on-going research and development efforts. The conditions for the applicability of these technologies will be explored for different situations, with special regard to the poorer countries. Links between energy, pollution and water, and environment and security will be discussed, and connections will be established with the content of other courses devoted to security aspects, such as "Energy Security and Climate Change" or "Water, Security and Peace". This will include environmental and health degradation issues, conflicts over oil and water resources, and trans-boundary pollution. Key issues in the international debate, such as nuclear energy, or the geo-political aspects of fossil fuel resources, will be discussed.
Professor Farinelli holds a MS in Electrical Engineering, Politecnico di Torino and a P.hD ("Libera docenza") in Nuclear Physics.
Professor Kaveh Khoshnood
From 2-12 May 2006, Professor Kaveh Khoshnood taught the course “Human Rights and the HIV-AIDS Crisis”. He taught this course in collaboration with Professor Hassan el Menyawi. The course belongs to MA in International Lwas and the Settlemente of Disputes.
This is a specialized course examining the human rights dimensions of HIV/AIDS. Now a global pandemic, HIV/AIDS has come to the attention of varying international organizations and is being increasingly seen as a threat to nation-states around the world. In light of critical global trends and developments, the question of how human rights interact with the HIV/AIDS pandemic becomes a crucial issue. The first course named as such the objective of “Human Rights and the HIV/AIDS Crisis” (hereinafter referred to as “HIV/AIDS and Human Rights”) is to open new spaces to examine the linkages between HIV/AIDS and human rights.
The course will allow for the completion of a human rights report. Creation of the report exposes students to varying topics in a balanced, inter-disciplinary manner. It explores human rights case law involving HIV/AIDS issues, international organizations and the transnational aspects of HIV/AIDS and human rights, the epidemiology and preventive strategies of HIV/AIDS, and ultimately how all of these topics link to human rights.
Professor Khoshnood is an infectious disease epidemiologist and his primary research interests are the epidemiology, prevention and control of HIV and Tuberculosis among drug users, prisoners and other at risk populations in the United States and in resource-poor countries. Professor Khoshnood mentors researchers from China, India, Russia, and South Africa in HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis related research. Professor Khoshnood's other interests are the examination of the links between health and human rights and the ethical dilemmas in research involving vulnerable populations.