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Disarmament Education

Resources and Tools

For a history of disarmament education, read: Edith Ballantyne and Felicity Hill, "Lessons from past UN disarmament education efforts," Disarmament Forum, Geneva: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, 2001.

Reaching Critical Will's Disarmament Education Kit is an education toolbox for activists around the world. It provides basic fact sheets and background information on a range of nuclear issues for activists to use as tools in broader education work on the nuclear industry.

Hague Appeal for Peace is an international network of organizations and individuals dedicated to sowing the seeds for the abolition of war and making peace a human right, which believes that the most sustainable way to achieve these goals is to integrate peace education into the life of families, communities, and curricula. Their most recent publications include Peace and Disarmament Education: Changing Mindsets to Reduce Violence and Sustain the Removal of Small Arms, and Peace Lessons from Around the World.

Peace Boat US is a non-governmental and non-profit organization working to promote peace, human rights, equitable and sustainable development, and respect for the environment throughout the United States and the world through international educational programs, including onboard conferences, workshops, face-to-face encounters, and field studies. Peace Boat US upholds The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century, including the promotion of the nonviolent prevention and resolution of conflict among nations and peoples, and the development of a culture of peace.

On Monday 15 October, the Office of Disarmament Affairs and Department of Public Information launched a new education website devoted to Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education. It is a part of the UN Cyberschoolbus website project which was created in 1996 as the online education component of the Global Teaching and Learning Project whose mission is to promote education from kindergarten to grade 12 or the equivalent about the United Nations and international issues on its agenda. The teaching material initially focuses on the issues of nuclear disarmament, small arms and light weapons, landmines, and child soldiers. It provides a host of education activities and curriculum for the use of teachers in the classroom or by students for independent studies.


UN Expert Panel on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education

Secretariat
Background Documents
Recommended Reading

Documents from the First Meeting of the Panel - April 2001 - New York
Documents from the Second Meeting of the Panel - August 2001 - Monterey
Documents from the Third Meeting of the Panel- March 11-15 2002 - Geneva

NEW Reaching Critical Will's Disarmament Education Kit

The United Nations General Assembly established a 10 member Governmental Expert Panel on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education in December of 2000.


A group of governmental experts with the assistance of the Department for Disarmament Affairs considered the area over a period of two years and prepared a report which was circulated by the UN Secretary-General in August 2002 (A/57/124 available at http://disarmament.un.org/education/).


The report focuses mostly on recommendations for governments, UN bodies, academic institutions and civil society. A positive trend in the study was that it developed extensive collaboration between different departments of the UN, governments and NGOs, and this will continue as these sectors work together to implement the recommendations.

Secretariat of the Group of Governmental Experts
Monitoring, Database and Information Branch
Department for Disarmament Affairs
United Nations New York, New York 10017
Room 3151 A
Tel: (212) 963-4620 or 7714
Fax: (212) 963-1121
Email: cassandra@un.org, alip@un.org

Also see website http://www.un.org/Depts/dda/education/index.html

The United Nations General Assembly established a 10 member Governmental Expert Panel on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education in December of 2000. This Committee of experts report to the General Assembly in September 2002.

Summary & photos on the Department for Disarmament Affairs website from the UN meeting:
http://cns.miis.edu/cns/activity/un/index.htm

Background Documents from the UN

l GA Resolution establishing the Governmental Expert Panel on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education 55/33 E

l Members of the Governmental Expert Panel

l Areas of Emphasis for each Expert

l Briefing Note # 1 Prepared by the UN's Department for Disarmament Affairs for NGOs

l Briefing Note # 2 Prepared by the UN's Department for Disarmament Affairs for NGOs

l Briefing Note # 3 Prepared by the UN's Department for Disarmament Affairs for NGOs

l Disarmament Education and Campaign Resolutions from the General Assembly, 1983 - 1997


Recommended Reading on this subject

l Austrian Development Cooperation, Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration, Specialisation Course Mozambique, July 8-15, 2001. Schlaining Working Papers. http://www.aspr.ac.at

l Disarmament Forum - Special Focus on Disarmament Education, http://www.unog.ch/UNIDIR/e-df.htm

l Green, Robert. The Naked Nuclear Emperor. The Disarmament and Security Centre: New Zealand, 2000.

l International Bureau of Education (UNESCO), Prospects. Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, http://www.ibe.unesco.org

l International Bureau of Education (UNESCO), Mine Awareness Education, A Country Review and Curriculum guidelines for Bosnia, by Pamela Baxter, Jennifer Fisher and Gonzalo Retamal http://www.ibe.unesco.org

l Potter, William. A New Agenda for Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education, (Monterey Institute of International Studies)

l UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Learning fo a Future: Refugee Education in Developing Countries, 2001. http://www.unhcr.ch

l United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UNA-UK) and the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC) have produced a new educational pamphlet explaining the role of verification of arms control and disarmament in an accessible and friendly publication.
http://www.una-uk.org/Disarmament/publications/Verification%20flyer.pdf or http://www.vertic.org/veri_pamphlet.pdf

l Final document of the World Congress on Disarmament Education, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris 9-13 June, 1980

l Zohl de Ishtar, ed. Pacific Women Speak Out for Independence and Denuclearisation. Joint publication by WILPF Aotearoa, the Disarmament and Security Centre (Aotearoa) and Pacific Connections (Australia).


Disarmament Education at the First Committee

The First Committee Monitor covers the topic of Disarmament and Peace Education each year at the General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security:

Though there was no draft resolution on disarmament and non-proliferation (DNP) education this year, its importance was stressed several times by High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Sergio Duarte, as well as by Japan, and was a prevalent issue in First Committee side events. On 8 October, Duarte commented that the Secretary-General’s (SG) Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters 2007 report “encouraged the SG to continue his efforts to raise public awareness of DNP issues, including through initiatives in the field of education.”

Last year in First Committee, Mexico introduced the draft resolution A/C.1/61/L.30, “United Nations study on disarmament and non-proliferation education,” which was adopted by consensus. The resolution followed-up on the milestone UN Expert Group on DNP Education, authorized by UN Resolution 55/33E of the General Assembly in 2000. After two years of meetings and contributions to the study from academics and activists from all over the world, the report (A/57/124) was submitted in 2002. In July 2006, the SG released a follow up report reviewing the results of the implementation of the recommendations to the study. The report concluded that there is a great “interest” in DNP education, but that funding is a persistent challenge.

Japan, one of the members of the 2002 UN Study on DNP education, issued a statement at the Thematic Debate on DNP education. Japan's Ambassador Tarui highlighted some initiatives his country has taken on DNP education, including a UN Disarmament Fellows Program, and an annual UN-Japan co-sponsored conference on disarmament issues in various cities throughout Japan. In addition, at the 2007 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee, Japan announced its decision to launch “New Initiatives on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education,” focused on disseminating information to a younger generation. Some of the new and creative initiatives will range from holding an international student debate on DNP, to using manga or animation, a prominent part of Japanese pop culture, as a tool for DNP Education.

On 15 October, an event was held by the Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) and the Department of Public Information to launch the new Disarmament and Non-Proliferation portal on the UN's award-winning Cyberschoolbus, a website designed to help young people and their teachers understand global issues. The event, chaired by Michael Cassandra of ODA, included remarks by Duarte and an interactive presentation by Dr. Kathleen Sullivan, the curriculum specialist for the website. Dr. Sullivan stated, “the power of disarmament education can not be underestimated and with this new web-portal we’ll be able to effect education in many areas of the world.” The website will initially focus on the issues of nuclear disarmament, small arms and light weapons, landmines, and child soldiers. The site will contain a toolkit for educators and suggestions for activities such as Ask an Hibakusha, which will allow a new generation of students and teachers to make contact directly with survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The launch of this site is a significant step forward for DNP education within the UN system.

On 22 October, at another unique event held by the Global Security Institute and the Secure World Foundation in cooperation with the ODA, a documentary by two 15 year-old filmmakers was screened. The young directors, Steven Sotor and Trace Gaynor, became well known after their film addressing nuclear weapons issues, Genie in a Bottle: Unleashed, was shown during the 2005 NPT Review Conference. This year at First Committee their latest film, The Final Frontier: Explorers or Warriors? addressing the issue of weapons in space, was screened. The film was made to educate and to provoke discussion on this serious disarmament issue. The event emphasized the potential of youth as agents of change in the field of DNP education, and showed how these excellent films can be used as tools to engage a young audience in DNP issues.

On 16 October, Duarte mentioned the ODA’s increased activity with intergovernmental and non-governmental activities and stated that this involvement was in sync with the General Assembly’s “emphasis on the importance of DNP education efforts.” Civil society applauds ODA’s great strides in DNP education. However, there seems to be a lack of awareness among member states of the importance of DNP education, as a disappointing number of them mentioned education at all in their statements to the First Committee this year. Member states and civil society should increasingly take ownership of this integral aspect of peacebuilding and disarmament, and follow the SG’s recommendation of greater implementation and action. Until DNP education becomes an aspect of every member state's agenda, it will not be integrated into organizations and communities at the local level, which is key to achieving global sustainable peace.

See http://disarmament.un.org/education/study.html for a full list of recommendations.

- Allison Boehm, Peace Boat US

On Friday, October 21, the First Committee heard presentations from and engaged in interactive discussion with NGOs on Disarmament Education. Dr. Kathleen Sullivan and Dr. Peter Lucas, both disarmament educators, gave presentations about education work on nuclear weapons and small arms and light weapons, respectively. During her presentation, Dr. Sullivan demonstrated one of the interactive exercises or ‘thought experiments’ she uses in the classroom; one of the most engaging and heart-opening demonstrations the First Committee has experienced in a long time. Dr. Sullivan first requested the delegates to use their imaginations “by listening to two sounds, which will help us understand the firepower of the world’s nuclear arsenal,” quoting Albert Einstein that “Imagination is more important that knowledge.”

She dropped a single BB into a tin to represent the total firepower of all the weapons used in World War II. “That is all bullets, bombs, grenades and landmines; all the torpedoes and conventional bombs; and the two new, nuclear weapons used on Japan.” Dr. Sullivan then asked for quiet so the First Committee could listen to the sound that represents all the nuclear weapons that exist in the world today, 60 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and poured 2,667 BBs into the tin, creating a crackling explosive sound that went on for several minutes. Some of the diplomats even closed their eyes. After a moment of silence, Dr. Sullivan reminded the Committee, “That sound represents the reality we all live with. 2,667 World War IIs is equivalent to today’s nuclear arsenal — approximately 31,000 nuclear weapons. And it is important to know the facts, to ‘combat ignorance, complacency and a culture of violence’ as the Secretary General stated in the forward to the UN Study.”

The UN Expert Group on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education, convened by Ambassador Miguel Marín-Bosch of Mexico, was authorised by UN Resolution A/RES/55/33E of the General Assembly in November 2000. It was the passion and commitment of Ambassador Marín-Bosch and support of Mexico that initiated the two-year study. During that time there was a great deal of interaction between the Expert Group, NGOs, educators, as well as members of the UN family of organizations, including the IAEA, CTBTO, UNIDIR, UNESCO, and others, and not least the pivotal role played by the DDA as the Secretariat of the study.

In October 2002, after two years of work by the Expert Group, the report from the Study was launched, and the General Assembly adopted its 34 recommendations without a vote. When the study was launched, Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that "Disarmament education seeks to inform and empower citizens to work with their Governments for positive change. I hope that Governments, the United Nations family, … non-governmental organisations and others … will do their part to sustain the process of consultation and co-operation started by the Group of Experts, so that disarmament and non-proliferation education becomes an integral — and natural — part of the education of the next generation." (http://disarmament2.un.org).

Member States play an essential role in implementing this hope. There are many recommendations that are specific to Member States and require their support in the training of not only the next generation but of current diplomats, parliamentarians, peacekeepers and military personnel. As the Study indicates, there is a need to “expand and improve disarmament and non proliferation education and training in order to promote disarmament and non proliferation” (VIII OP43). That means to incorporate not only education about disarmament, but education for disarmament. Also, the study notes that “in order for the Department for Disarmament Affairs to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations of this study, the General Assembly is encouraged to allocate adequate human and financial resources to the task.”

There are specific recommendations that Member States work with NGOs and civil society, and provide financial support for disarmament education initiatives. This year’s Draft Resolution A/C.1/60/L.28, encourages Member States to “undertake concrete activities to implement” the recommendations of the Study. Several states have contributed reports on disarmament education activities, and others have collaborated with NGOs to develop new curricula, particularly regarding small arms disarmament. Canada, for instance, “supports [the] efforts of Reaching Critical Will to ensure wide public access to national statements and other documents emanating from meetings of UN disarmament bodies.” The DDA is developing disarmament curricula which will be posted on the UN’s Cyberschoolbus website.
While it is heartening to see that this item is again on the agenda of the First Committee, it is tragic to see that the words that have been put forth year after year are not being followed with action- specifically with a full-fledged commitment to provide disarmament education with all the material and human resources that this noble, indeed, necessary cause requires. For with every dollar transferred from military expenditures to the cause of disarmament education future generations may indeed be saved from the “scourge of war”.

There are many ways to make the process of disarmament education "integral" to the education of not only young people, but to the whole community of humanity. Teaching people about disarmament and non-proliferation, and letting them know that there is a choice other than violence to resolve conflict, is one step along the path called Permanent Peace.

See http://disarmament.un.org/education/study.html for full list of recommendations.

- Dr. Kathleen Sullivan, Educators for Social Responsibility
- Jennifer Nordstrom, Reaching Critical Will

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