Searching for a New Approach to Peace and Conflict Studies

Abstract of presentation

A Planetary Context for 21st Century Education:
  Earth Charter and Education

Abelardo Brenes, Ph.D.
Research Fellow, University for Peace
Special Advisor, Earth Charter International

The presentation will refer to various dimensions of an integral approach to peace, particularly security and harmony.  Hypothesis will be offered as to why the security paradigm and the ‘war on terrorism’ have overridden the positive peace agenda.  These questions will be contextualized within the framework of the U.N. Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence and Peace for the Children of the World and the U.N. Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.  Within this context the Earth Charter explored as a document that expresses a shared global ethic, whose principles can provide promising orientation for empowering the harmony dimension of peace to face the urgent interrelated planetary challenges.  A case study from the Latin American context will be presented of use of the Earth Charter in non formal education processes to overcome structural roots of peacelessness through moral inclusion.