Non-violence in education
	Preface by Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO

 

I first experienced the absurdity, the horror and the futility of war at a very early age: I was living barely a hundred kilometres from Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city in 1945. I can confirm that what happened to the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still resonates today, and will continue to do so for a long time to come, not just in my own memory, but in that of the entire human race. It introduced a new level of conflict, with unbelievable powers of destruction capable of putting an end to the living world. A frontier, a hitherto sacrosanct boundary tacitly respected by all humankind had been crossed: an infringement that opened the floodgates to all other forms of violence. Violence, from the mildest forms (insults, rudeness) to the most appalling (rape, murder, massacres, terrorism), some of which occasionally seek justification in the others, is deeply rooted in people’s consciousness and strongly permeates twenty-first century culture. The preventive action that it is UNESCO’s mission to promote through education, science and culture is still very far from being fixed in people’s minds and from finding concrete expression. Many regard the substitution of a culture of peace for a culture of violence as a Utopian ideal. Yet it is well known that violence, fuelled by common ignorance, often stems from the rejection of others and the fear and even hatred of differences. It pits individuals, groups and cultures against one another, leading to withdrawal and escalating aggression. A healthy and balanced awareness of otherness, on the other hand, can be achieved only through peaceful dialogue. Education is therefore fundamental to peace-building. Education for peace, human rights and democracy is inseparable from a style of teaching that imparts to the young, and the not so young, attitudes of dialogue and non-violence – in other words, the values of tolerance, openness to others and sharing. In publishing this text, Non-violence in Education, UNESCO is seeking to enhance knowledge of and insight into the basic concepts of peace and non-violence in many regions and countries around the world. The definitions and philosophical thoughts developed here by Jean-Marie Muller will, I am sure, be very useful to teachers — those day-to-day “builders of peace” — and schoolchildren, and also to a wider audience. We are, in 2002, at the beginning of the United Nations’ International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010). One of UNESCO’s tasks throughout that decade will be to promote the teaching of the practice of peace and non-violence. I hope that distributing this book will play a part in efforts to achieve that goal, and will bring us ever closer to the objective of constructing a culture of peace. Published in collaboration with the Institut de Recherche sur la Résolution Non-violente des Conflits (IRNC) Jean-Marie Muller is a founder member of the Movement for a Non-Violent Alternative (MAN), and Director of Studies at the Research Institute on the Non-Violent Resolution of Conflicts (IRNC). As a writer he has had many books on non-violence published and recognized as standard reference works, including Le principe de non-violence [The principle of non-violence] (Desclée de Brouwer), Gandhi l'insurgé [Gandhi the insurgent] (Albin Michel) and Le courage de la non-violence [The courage of non-violence] (Editions du Relié). (Download the full document in pdf)
File	muller_en.pdf
Author(s)	Jean-Marie Muller