Culture of Peace/Palestinian women, children – UNESCO report – SecGen note (excerpts)

International Decade for a Culture of Peace and

Non-Violence for the Children of the World, 2001-2010

Note by the Secretary-General

The Secretary-General hereby transmits the report of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in accordance with General Assembly resolution 62/89 of 17 December 2007.

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* A/63/50.

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I. Introduction

1. In 2007, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) submitted its annual report on its programmes and those of other United Nations entities as regards their adherence to and implementation of the Programme of Action for the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, 2001-2010. In its resolution 62/89, the General Assembly commended UNESCO for recognizing the promotion of a culture of peace as the expression of its fundamental mandate, and encouraged it, as the lead agency for the Decade, to strengthen further the activities it has undertaken for promoting a culture of peace. The Assembly also requested that the Secretary-General submit a report on the implementation of the resolution to it at its sixty-third session. Following the recommendation of the General Assembly, UNESCO adopted a new mission statement at the 34th Session of its General Conference, which states that: “As a specialized agency of the United Nations, UNESCO contributes to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.” This mission statement captures the strategic orientation of UNESCO and drives the UNESCO Medium-Term Strategy for 2008-2013 (document 34 C/4). One of the five overarching objectives in this Strategy is “promoting cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace”. This is then translated into the strategic programme objective “demonstrating the importance of exchange and dialogue among cultures to social cohesion and reconciliation in order to develop a culture of peace”, which indicates how UNESCO will pursue sectoral and/or intersectoral action to meet this challenge.

II. Implementation of the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace

2. As UNESCO has been tasked with coordinating and directly implementing activities in connection with the International Decade, the present report contains an overview of activities carried out by UNESCO, with the participation of other United Nations entities, Governments and civil society actors. It also contains an overview of activities reported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-LiREC). Activities are presented in eight sections, corresponding to the eight actions defined in the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.

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H. Action to promote international peace and security

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53. UNESCO also works in favour of the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security. It is promoting women’s involvement in peace and security at the institutional level in post-conflict countries through the establishment of women’s research and documentation centres (the first centre was inaugurated in Palestine in January 2006, and a similar centre is being established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to serve the Great Lakes region in Africa, and a third centre has been proposed for Iraq), and it has been cooperating with the Bethlehem Peace Centre, which endeavours to bring together Palestinian and Israeli women, both Christian and Muslim, to engage in intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

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62. … In compliance with Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), UNFPA together with its national partners continued to work on creating community-based initiatives that enable Palestinian women to protect themselves from violence, to access services that deal with these issues, and to build the institutional capacity of local NGOs. A United Nations thematic group on youth was also established under UNFPA leadership, with the aim of strengthening coordination and collaboration among various United Nations entities working for and with Palestinian youth.

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