Culture of Peace- Transcript

The following definition, which combines the approaches taken by two important UN resolutions: the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace adopted in 1999; and the 1998 UN resolution on the culture of peace:

A culture of peace is an integral approach to preventing violence and violent conflicts, and an alternative to the culture of war and violence based on education for peace, the promotion of sustainable economic and social development, respect for human rights, equality between women and men, democratic participation, tolerance, the free flow of information and disarmament.

Humanity is now facing challenges unparalleled in its history. Many of these problems are global in nature, such as climate change, ever-decreasing biodiversity, depletion of the earth’s fresh water, and overpopulation. Such global challenges call for global solutions and require cooperation on a scale unprecedented in human history. In a hyper-connected world, the sources of many of these challenges are multidimensional, increasingly complex and span national borders. For this reason, finding solutions to these unprecedented challenges fundamentally requires new ways of thinking.

Without peace, it will not be possible to achieve the levels of trust, cooperation or inclusiveness necessary to solve these challenges. Therefore, peace is the prerequisite for the survival of humanity as we know it in the 21st century.

Our goal is to build peaceful and resilient societies. Implementing our Vision of Peace will be transformational in that it is a cross-cutting factor of progress, making it easier for businesses to sell, entrepreneurs and scientists to innovate, individuals to produce, and governments to effectively regulate.

In addition to the absence of violence, Positive Peace is also associated with many other social characteristics that are considered desirable, including stronger economic outcomes, higher resilience, better measures of well-being, higher levels of inclusiveness, and more sustainable environmental performance.

Positive Peace is systemic and requires new thinking to be properly understood. Systems thinking opens new ways of understanding nations and how they evolve. In systems, relationships and flows are more important than events. Events or problems represent the outcomes of the relationships and flows. Therefore, it is important to look at the multidimensional concept of Positive Peace as a holistic, systemic framework. Positive Peace and systems thinking comprise an overarching framework for understanding and achieving progress not only in the level of global peacefulness but in many other interrelated areas, including better economic progress and social advancement.

Positive Peace creates an optimal environment in which human potential can flourish.

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