Statement,
Chair, National Commission for UNESCO and
Trinidad and
Tobago Representative on the UNESCO National Commission on creating a Culture
of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Kris Rampersad
May 5, 2014
I invite the national community to reflect on actions that will help promote and
advance the cultivation of a culture of peace and non violence in Trinidad and
Tobago as it works to help the society strengthen its peace-driven defense
mechanisms to counteract what seems to be an escalating culture of violence among
men, women and children in our society.
As the country tries to come to grips with
the most recent of brutal actions on our citizens with the murder of Senior
Counsel Dana Seetahal, we draw attention to the UNESCO programme of action for
Culture of
Peace and Non-Violence, and
invite individuals, groups and agencies to work with us to devise positive
actions to cultivate values and practices of peace and non violence in various spheres
of daily national life. The action plan
recognises that legal provisions are necessary to creating
the right conditions
and environment for the harmonious development of women, men and children towards building a culture of peace.
We believe more than ever in the relevance of
the principles of a new humanism and soft diplomacy towards creating a culture
of peace and non violence begins with, and in, our daily lives, as espoused by this
action plan.
It states that: “that peace
is more than the absence of war, but living together with our differences – of
sex, race, language, religion or culture – while furthering universal respect
for justice and human rights on which such coexistence depends.”
As such, we also draw attention to the UNESCO
Constitution and Charter to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory, and
the commitment made to
advance universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human
rights and fundamental freedoms contained in Article 1, based on which the National Commission is developing
its own Charter for Peace.
We
see these as mechanisms that can be used to sustain hope for the new humanism
that focuses not just on prevention, mediation, reconciliation and law, but also more
proactive promote preventative actions
to cultivating values and culture of peace and non violence in our everyday
lives.
The United Nations has mandated UNESCO as its
line agency to promote a culture of peace. It defines such a culture of peace as
comprising values, attitudes and behaviours that promote “freedom,
justice and democracy, all human rights, tolerance and solidarity, that reject
violence and endeavours to prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes.”
As the line agency of the United
Nations charged with building a culture of peace, UNESCO acts on the declaration that “since wars begin in the minds of men
and women it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be
constructed”.
We look forward to the strengthening of national “culture of peace” programmes and
creation of spaces for peace within communities, home, schools and other social
institutions.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the National Commission for UNESCO, and my own behalf, I extend condolences to the family and friends and
the Trinidad and Tobago national community so deeply affected by the violence in
our society in general, and the loss of Ms Seetahal in particular. The principles
of law and justice to which Ms Seetahal devoted her life’s work are reflected
in
We note that Ms Seetahal has added, not only
in actions but also in words, considerably to the intellectual stock of
knowledge and efforts at transforming agencies of the judiciary and the society
in general in the Commonwealth, among them in her work for promoting prison
reform which speak to the environment of a new humanism that UNESCO driven by
its Director General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova has been promoting. Ms Seetahal’s
publication of Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean has become one of the standard
legal texts in international legal practice.
Dr Kris
Rampersad
Chair,
Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO and Trinidad and Tobago
Representative on the UNESCO Executive Board
Related Links:
Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination
Creating UNESCO Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago
The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination
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