This definition was formulated in 1999, just a few months after the UN’s historic vote to define a culture of peace as the set of values, attitudes and behaviours conducive to the peaceful prevention of violence (1). It already recognized that peace education is an essential component of quality basic education.
Also in 1999, a UN resolution proclaimed the decade 2000-2010 as the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World.
From then on, the term ” education for a culture of peace” began to be used for this definition. It has the advantage of distinguishing itself from the older definition of peace education – the dissemination of peace values against war (1919-1939) – or the one used later – a preventive approach to conflict resolution based on the teaching of peace values (period up to the 90s).
Since then, there has been a growing awareness that including knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in quality basic education has a dual impact – on violence prevention and on educational success.
The principles of the culture of peace, applied to the postures and interactions of teachers with their pupils (2), make it possible to better achieve essential educational objectives, such as self-esteem, pupil motivation, school attendance and pupil progress, objectives that have been insufficiently achieved during the 15 years of implementation of basic education (2000-2015).
The term Education for a Culture of Peace, abbreviated as ECP in both French and English, is the one adopted by Graines de Paix.
(1): Resolution A53/253, UN General Assembly, 17.8.1998, formalizing the international objectives of the culture of peace.
(2) UNICEF: “Learning for peace, Research Consortium on Education and Peacebuilding, Sept. 2015, p.51.