PeaceBuilding for a Culture of Peace
5.0 Challenges in Applying the Culture of Peace Doctrine and Peace-building
Alliance
- "Peace can be temporarily negotiated at the top, but ultimately, it is the people
who make peace last." (Sonia K.Han)
- efforts to stigmatize armed conflict have not been successful, and it is the void in the
processes to do so which are at fault.
- The objective of solidifying in the global culture, a right to peace based on
non-violent interactions, is an abstract concept which can not be tested at present in any
concrete manner.
- The assertion that culture can be changed through the conscious efforts of individuals
will be acknowledged as a possible challenge to peace-building for a Culture of
Peace...such a transformation is not only possible but ripe...Taking the cultural
characteristics of peace and non-violence from the abstract realm to the pragmatic is at
the same time the aim of
peace-building for a Culture of Peace, and its ultimate hazard.
- These tasks involve structural adjustments to principles of democratic representation to
reduce the risk of abuse or concentration of power by the ruling parties.
- "Let there be no doubt: there are some very basic standards of human behaviour,
violations of which are simply unacceptable. Fundamental human
rights are a product of human nature." Annan
- Tolerance and understanding are dependent upon the dissemination of information which
deconstructs myths of the 'other' as well as promoting recognition of commonality between
communities. The education highlighting similarities between communities is hoped to
reveal shared solidarity.
Activities for Culture of Peace programs may include:
1. International projects for school children promoting intercultural understanding.
2. Fostering multilingualism and cultural expression by minorities and indigenous people
in multicultural societies.
3. Promoting values which consolidate intercultural dialogue for peace and which secure
the participation of women and young people.
4. Intercultural projects for dialogue and exchange between cultural areas.
- The challenge lies in co-existing non-violently while respecting differences and not
fearing annihilation of one community by another because of the difference. However, in
instances when differences seem so entirely irreconcilable and the pursuits of competing
communities are discrepant, the prospects for active non-violence to achieve in the long
run what violence
may attain in the short run is difficult to justify. Restructuring the mentalities of war
with the mode of thought tasks while satisfactorily addressing doubts about why agreement
has been reached in the first place is a vulnerable choice. The vulnerability lies, as in
all stages of transformation of structures and mentalities, in launching violent
responses.
- Combating propaganda and the distribution of discriminatory inferences in media which is
controlled by subjective actors are the transformative tasks.
- "We at the United Nations are convinced that information has a great liberating
power waiting to be harnessed to our global struggle for peace, development and human
rights...it is ignorance that makes enemies of men."
Annan
- Proposing an international network of information and thus awareness,combats the
"secretive regimes harnessed to construct weapons of war...utilized for profit
regardless of the social consequences." Adams
- communities must be prepared to deal with the presentation of contentious suppositions -
as they will undoubtedly emerge. If communities can react non-violently to disagreements
which emerge out of the expression of opinions or ideas to which they disagree, then peace
can be concluded to be an active part of their respective cultural fabrics. The
elimination of
differing opinions, ideologies, and strategies is by no means the objective of Culture of
Peace, however, the response by communities to such occurrences is the target of
transformation.
- However, as peace-building for a Culture of Peace can not be imposed from above nor can
foreign aims be transposed onto the local communities, if the local communities exists in
a structure of gender divisions there is little to be done besides the education of
alternatives.
- The challenge here is the implementation of universal ethics and morals regarding the
status of all individuals within any given society.
- Confronting inferiority and inequality of women emphasizes improved access to education
which would provide practical empowerment as well as stimulating exchange of ideas
regarding improving equality for women.
- Empowering women in their private situations and in the attainment of rights is the
first step to proliferating awareness of their enhanced role within societies.
- There are seven basic principles to reconciliation:
1. Acknowledgement of the harm or injury each party has inflicted on the other.
2. Sincere regret and remorse for the injury.
3. Readiness to apologize for one's role in inflicting the injury.
4. Readiness of the conflicting parties to let go of the bitterness and anger caused by
the conflict and the injury.
5. Commitment by both parties not to repeat the injury.
6. Sincere effort to redress past grievances and compensate to the extent possible the
damage caused.
7. Entering into a new, mutually enriching relationship.
- The common thread in the seven principles is the admission of responsibility and the
willingness to transform.
- Acknowledging the stimuli which compelled the parties to the conflict to take up force
as a viable solution can be laden with complexities as the effects of the violence itself
can manipulate memory and morality. The underlying causes of conflict may include:
1. Poverty and economic inequalities.
2. Ethnic and religious conflict and nationalist movements.
3. Environmental degradation and the scarcity/misallocation of natural resources.
4. The marginalization of indigenous populations.
5. The role of the media in perpetuating violence.
6. Irresponsible and unstable political leadership/political institutions with
unrestricted war-making powers/weak civil institutions.
7. The failure to protect all human rights, including civil, political, environmental and
socio-economic rights.
- The challenge lies in the perception of the leadership of peace promoters to gauge
readiness for elevation to the next steps in the reconciliation processes. Sufficient
attention will need to be paid to the atmosphere of readiness and this can be conducted by
active involvement with the individuals within the communities being targeted for
transformation.
- The debate surround the potential of peace to provide a profitable substitute, one which
those currently benefiting from the readiness for war and violence would be willing to tap
into.
- the challenge ... involves convincing those who appear to lose the most financially in
such a transformation.
- The willingness of external sources to contribute to the creation of programs which are
to be wholly indigenous and beyond their manipulation and control is a problem. Not being
able to stipulate the conditions in which funds are granted is counter to the current
structures of loans and aid particularly by the IMF and World Bank. (Castillo) These
organizations seek
to implement foreign structures and conditions onto local communities undergoing
reconstruction, the exact processes which a Culture of Peace seeks to eliminate.
- financial independence
- However, because of the increasingly high demand for official aid flows and the serious
fiscal constraints faced by many donor countries, they are more likely than ever to cut
their financial support and shift their attention elsewhere as soon as the conflict winds
down. (Castillo)
- It is the conviction of this study that additional attention must be paid to the
education of the international community of the maximum benefit peace may provide if it is
to be pursued in any serious extent.
- a revolution in the attitudes of those responsible for granting funds would be
necessary. There is no concrete evidence that such a phenomenon is taking place, nor that
one is about to be initiated either.
- In order to convert the military sectors, "it is necessary to provide alternatives
to the arms producers, to the employees of defence plants and to the military
itself". (Mayor)
- of the top twelve arms producing corporations, three quarters are American owned (SIPRI)
- In order to persuade those currently reaping the benefits from the production of
military machinery to transform, the financial benefits would have to be considerable.
- While a culture of peace is being learned, the weapons must be removed in instances
where temptation to use violence to achieve an aim is tempting.
- The Middle East continues to be the largest recipient of arms in the world, making up
slightly under 43% of the world market (Gallik). The remaining three regions are Europe,
East Asia and North America. These combine to account for 36% of the total market. The
remaining 21% is diffused throughout the other regions and countries of the world.
- It is with relative ease that the tools of violence can be acquired, and the education
of alternative resolution methods is the manner to advocate selecting non-violence.
- One estimate for the peace dividend in the year 2000 is of 200 to 300 billion dollars in
the North (Mayor)
- the prosperity and security of a particular country will no longer depend solely on its
own development and on its friendly relations with neighbouring countries, but on the
reduction, on a global scale, of the inequalities and injustice that endanger the whole of
humanity. (Mayor)
- Current sentiment is that aid for peace has not been adequate to prevent cycles of
violence. (Lumsden)
- The advisory and regulatory role which the United Nations would adopt as the
co-ordinator of program objectives is necessary to achieve a common trend in the
activities for a Culture of Peace. Without a single guiding actor which is capable of both
acquiring the necessary resources, both financial and human, and deploying these to the
communities most in need of
transformation the developments for peace would risk losing sight of the objectives and
processes.
- The ability then of the United Nations to accomplish any given task is relational to the
will and effort of the members themselves.
- In order to assume a more prominent role in the processes of peace-building for a
Culture of Peace, the United Nations has the opportunity to initiate a consultative status
with both UNESCO as developer of the practice and with NGO's whom conduct work in this
field.
- The comprehensive nature of mandates for peace-building for a Culture of Peace would
face difficulty if place solely within a single organizational framework. A Culture of
Peace involves a rethinking of the international arena and in response to this, "the
international system of relations, will slowly give up the stage to the non-governmental,
private and voluntary communities" (Mayor). Governments will carry out the watchtower
functions of ensuring that certain basic rules are followed. This notion extends to the
United Nations activities as co-ordinator for peace-building for a Culture of Peace.
- The practices of transparency, open political processes and availability to the
information regarding the communities political, social and economic are some of the
structures which are claimed to facilitate non-violence. (Starr)
- Fear that regimes other than democratic ones do not uphold the basic principles of
tolerance, human rights protections, and equality are the driving force behind the push
for democratic integration. Democracy, like a Culture of Peace, is believed to be
impossible in situations where it has not emerged from indigenous creation. (Mayor)
- The consolidated effort of the top-down method which presents itself in the conflict
resolution strategies of peace-making and keeping, and the bottom-up approach of
peace-building for a Culture of Peace provide the adequate solution to meet in the middle
ground of non-violent resolution.
- What is lacking in the analysis and research has been an indication that a spark will
occur which will ignite a Culture of Peace. Additional difficulty presents itself in the
observation that, "cultural change, the transformation of our own values and
attitudes, has been even slower than economic processes, lagging far behind political
events." (Mayor)