UPEACE Rector appointed Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN)

The University for Peace (UPEACE) is proud to congratulate its Rector, Ms. Julia Marton-Lefèvre, who was recently selected to lead the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the world’s leading conservation authority.

Ms. Marton-Lefèvre will remain as the Rector of UPEACE until the end of the year and move on to Switzerland in January to take up her new position as Director General of the IUCN.

The UPEACE Council will hold its Fifteenth Session on 5-7 October and will be discussing the new governance of the University.

The UPEACE family would like to thank Julia for her significant contribution to the furtherance of the University’s goals, and to congratulate her for this appointment and wish her luck in this new endeavour !

Director General of Immigration met with academic institutions at UPEACE

Last Tuesday 19 September, the Director General of Immigration, Mr. Mario Zamora Cordero, met with several academic institutions, at UPEACE headquarters, to discuss the effects that the new Costa Rican Immigration Law is having on student temporary permits.

Mr. Zamora was accompanied by his advisor, Mr. Douglas Campos, who is in charge of following up on the proposed ideas to establish a set of bylaws that will regulate all immigration procedures that academic institutions must perform on behalf of their students.

The outcome of the meeting was positive thanks to Mr. Zamora’s willingness to find a solution to the problem as soon as possible. In his welcome remarks, UPEACE Vice Rector, Mr. Georges TsaЇ, referred to the positive attitude that both, the Minister of Public Security, Fernando Berrocal and DG of Immigration have demonstrated towards finding a way of regularizing the status of several students in Costa Rica.

A second meeting will be held at UPEACE on Tuesday 26 September, to continue the discussions with the academic sector in order to meet the deadline of 15 October that was established to publish an executive decree that will regulate the relations between academic institutions and the General Directorate of Immigration.

A total of 20 institutions were represented:

UPEACE celebrates the International Day of Peace

The International Day of Peace was first established in 1981 by a resolution 36/67 of the United Nations General Assembly to coincide with its opening session every September. In 2001 the resolution 55/282 was strengthened to fix the date annually on 21 September and for it to be a day of nonviolence and cease-fire. The resolution was adopted unanimously by the Member States of the General Assembly. (www.un.org) Click here to find resolution A/RES/36/67

 On a message addressed to UPEACE staff, Georges Tasi, Vice rector said:

“ We all know that unfortunately the world is not a fully peaceful and safe place. Conflict situations are happening in many places of the word every day, which jeopardize the peace and security of millions of citizens.

I truly believe that the mission of the University for Peace to “provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings a spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress”, provides us the opportunity of making the world a better and safer place, through education.

On this very special day I would like to thank each and every one of you for joining UPEACE, as staff members or students, and encourage you to continue working to strengthen the human capacities to prevent conflict. I think this is the best way we can commemorate this International Day of Peace”.

Vice rector Georges Tsai and other UPEACE staff assisted in the morning to an activity held in the National Cultural Center (CENAC)….. (Link to PDF speech)

Students also held a ceremony at UPEACE Cafeteria, to commemorate the date.

Festival of Cultures is comming!