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| | “Promoting Peace and Security through Education and Science: Elements for a UN Strategy against Terrorism”
28-02-2003 - On 26 February 2003, the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, convened at the Organization’s Headquarters a meeting with the representatives of United Nations sister agencies to identify a common approach against terrorism by promoting peace and security through Education and Science. |
This meeting is meant as a response to two of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Secretary-General’s Policy Working Group on the United Nations and Terrorism, which was presented in August 2002 to the UN General Assembly and the Security Council by Kofi Annan.
In his opening remarks Mr Koïchiro Matsuura encouraged the group to think in terms of concentrating on existing programmes and their efficiency rather than creating new programmes. Arguing that today’s problems are not a “clash of civilizations” but are more a result of a “clash of ignorance” the Director-General explained that “ignorance of each other’s way of life, values and heritage, the ignorance of the equal dignity of the human person in all cultures and civilizations, and the ignorance of the unity of humanity and of commonly shared values” was in fact the world’s greatest challenge in the decades ahead.
Stating that peace and security should not be separated the Director-General recalled UNESCO’s General Conference Resolution on Terrorism reiterated the duty of the United Nations system to “address both sides of the terrorism question in terms of its political as well as criminal nature”.
The participants agreed on the need to concentrate their existing programmes on three interlocking areas in the field of education. Aware of the challenge to devise ways of aiding national policy makers to introduce textbook adjustments they agreed to focus on developing national curricula frameworks with a human rights orientation, while addressing the implications of globalization and determining the role of education in life long learning efforts.
In the field of science a strong emphasis was placed on the need for reinforcing ethical norms and creating codes of conduct for scientists based on common concerns and values, it was agreed to continue seeking opportunities to introduce the ethics of science into education curricula.
The Director-General welcomed the results of the meeting’s deliberations and will share the outcomes with the Secretary-General and the members of the United Nations Chief Executive Board at an upcoming meeting hosted by UNESCO next April.
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Office of the Spokeswoman
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