'Attaining peace starts with peace education' | EduCeleb
Press Release
23rd April 2019
Early in April, about 700 people from various sectors in the society such as educators, leaders of politics and religions, women and youth groups, global peace activists, and journalists gathered in Pentagon Events in Bucharest to discuss the practical approaches for realising peace through peace education.
With the theme ‘The role of teachers forpeace education’, 2019 Peace Education Conference was an event that presentedthe progress of the peace curriculum customized for European background and thedirection of developing a culture of peace backed by international law forpeace.
Heavenly Culture, World Peace,Restoration of Light (HWPL) organized the programme in conjunction with aninternational NGO under UN ECOSOC, organized by Master Peace, a youth group ofRomania, and sponsored by International Peace Youth Group (IPYG).
“This is a very complex subject,” ateacher, Dumitru Marius-Gabriel said. He proposed the need to teach peaceeducation early to children.
Marius-Gabriel who also teaches at MaiTechnical High-school of Ploiesti has operated the peace education for years.
“But just like all journey starts with afirst step, raising the awareness of peace should be done for the most basiclevel. Through this education, children understood that they have the power todo good acts on their level.
“They can actually change their livesand the lives of their family in the future. I try to make them see theimportance of the value of respect, helping others, and tolerance that createbetter students as righteous adults,” he added.
He commended the organisers for theopportunity provided.
“Working with HWPL for this projectbrought me much joy and fulfillment because I could blend my normal lessonswith the message of peace. I realized how important it is for us, teachers, tobecome a role model of our students. I’d like to add this peace educationexists to create a peaceful world for future generation to cease all wars. Furthermore,this education should spread not only to our students but to all the studentseverywhere. They are the future of our peace,” he added.
One of the distinguishing aspects ofthis education was the collaboration between a local organization and aninternational NGO to proceed with the curriculum. The teachers belong to MasterPeace, a local Romanian youth group, have carried out the peace education. Andthe curriculum and materials for peace education were provided by aninternational peace NGO called HWPL.
According to the official of HWPL, thepeace education is designed with the aim of to leave peace as a legacy to thefuture generations by raising the awareness of the importance of realizingpeace and fostering a culture of peace. It recently provides the books, whichcontains the worldwide peace activities and peace agreements that HWPL hascarried out, to the schools and libraries to encourage every citizen toparticipate in peace work.
As a part of peace initiatives, morethan 200 educational institutions in 21 countries including Romania, Republicof South Africa, India, Israel, Kosovo, the Philippines are designated as HWPLPeace Academies to train the educators and students with the value of peacebeyond boundaries, races, and religions.
Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL said, “Asyou can see the name of our organization, “Heavenly Culture” refers to thehighest culture from heaven above worldly cultures that can realize peace byharmonizing all the people in the world. Even if you are born in a family or ina country with great wealth, you may feel infernal when there’s no peace inyour family or your country. The first start is important, so the peaceeducation should start from the family, and then to the schools and society.Everything you see, hear, feel, and learn should be engaged with peaceeducation. We can call it practical peace education. And it starts with themindset that we can achieve peace. HWPL aims to create a world like this.That’s the reason why we designed the peace materials and textbooks underseveral times of advice so that we send the materials to every educationalinstitute to help encourage peace education.”
Since last year, Romanian schools andorganizations including Comuna Sotrile College, 1  Mai Technical High-school of Ploiesti, and MasterPeace have signed MOUs for further participation-based peace education and activitiesthat customized for European culture using the peace materials provided by HWPL
“What HWPL is proposing is the new wayof seeing topics such as anti-bullying, non-violent communication, andcollaborative activities that are very important currently in the Romanianeducational system. The HWPL peace curriculum emphasizes the value oftolerance, care, social equality, peace, justice, cooperation, solidarity, andhuman right that can create a culture of peace. It helps us define peace andits value that would lead the students to the leaders of peace. I’d also liketo stress that the students should be peace messengers and work for realizingpeace with this systematic peace education.” Maglan Isabe, a student of MihaiViteazu National College, expressed her impression of the HWPL peace education.
Mr. Dragomir Marian, President of MasterPeace, said “My belief, that made me work with HWPL with its peace educationcurriculum, is that education in personality, skill, value, and attitude isimportant for social, economic, and political development in any country. Thisrole is well articulated in the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” No. 4containing a quality education for all to promote lifelong learning. This is alsoshared by the article 10, “Spreading a culture of peace”, in the Declaration ofPeace and Cessation of War (DPCW) which mentions that education is important topromote respect and mutual understanding among different religions, ideologies,and ethnic groups.”
The DPCW consisting of 10 articles and38 clauses addresses principles of conflict resolution and internationalcooperation for peacebuilding such as respect on the international law,peaceful dispute settlement, and spreading a culture of peace. Currently, it isin the process of submitting this declaration as a resolution to the UN inorder to develop it into a legally binding document, while citizens around theworld are supporting it by participating “Peace Letter Campaign”.
“Articles1 to 5 of the DPCW deal with preventing conflicts, articles 6 and 7 are aboutresolving conflicts, and articles 8 to 10 present the measures for the sustainablepeaceful global society. This declaration is different from existing clauses ofinternational law because it offers a comprehensive solution and compassingprinciples for conflict resolution according to the international order,” saidMr. Young Min Chung, Director of the IPYG.
“The future is counting on us tocomplete the world of peace. Let’s take what we’ve learned from the peaceeducation and put it into our lives as peace citizens. World peace can beachieved with the DPCW that will lay the foundation of international law towardworld peace. I invite you all to join the “Peace Letter Campaign”.” He urgedfor the participation for establishing a legally binding internationalframework for peace based on the DPCW.