Education for Peace Program

Introduction

The Education for Peace Program has its origins in an initiative presented by the delegation of Bolivia to the Organization of American States during the preparatory work for the Regional Conference on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures, held in Santiago, Chile, in 1995. In the Declaration of Santiago on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures, adopted during that Conference, the member states agreed to recommend the implementation of education for peace programs as a confidence- and security-building measure.

The Committee on Hemispheric Security in 1999 approved a draft resolution to be presented to the Permanent Council and the General Assembly to convene a meeting of experts on the topic. The meeting was held in Cartagena, Colombia, on October 14 and 15, 1999. In addition to the government experts, UNESCO, FLACSO, the Inter-American Defense College, and the University for Peace were among those who participated in the meeting and provided written contributions. At the end of the meeting, a draft Education for Peace Program was approved.