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Disarmament Education
Resources and Tools
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
777 UN Plaza - 6th Floor - New York, NY - 10017 - Ph: 212.682.1265 - Fax: 212.286.8211 - info@reachingcriticalwill.org
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