Draft written statement to be presented at the Human Rights Council in June 2008. 

The Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law (SSIHRL), with the support of the Catalonian Agency for Cooperation to Development, adopted on 30 October 2006 the “Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace” as the culmination of a process of extensive consultations with the Spanish civil society, including the organization of six expert meetings in different regions.

Following the adoption of the Luarca Declaration, the SSIHRL has continued the process of consultations with international civil society through the organization of conferences and expert meetings on human right to peace in all regions of the world . In 2010 the SSIHRL will call for a World NGO Conference to take stock of all inputs received from the international civil society and to adopt the final text of the Universal Declaration on the Human Right to Peace. The new text will then represent the aspirations of civil society as a whole.

On 15 March 2007 the Luarca Declaration was first presented to the fourth session of the Human Rights Council in an oral statement by UNESCO Etxea on behalf of SSIHRL. Since then several parallel meetings have been organized at the Palais de Nations in Geneva during the sessions of the Human Rights Council. Firstly, on 15 March 2007, both the SSIHRL and the International Society of Human Rights (Frankfurt) convened an open Information Meeting on the Luarca Declaration. Secondly, on 16 March 2007 the SSIHRL organised a technical meeting with NGO and human rights experts with a view to building a common strategy for a world-wide campaign on the human right to peace. Thirdly, on 11 June 2007 both UNESCO Etxea and SSIHRL organised an additional parallel meeting focused on the relationship between peace and solidarity rights. Fourthly, on 12 September 2007 a Roundtable on the legal content of the human right to peace was organised by SSIHRL with the collaboration of UNESCO Liaison Office in Geneva. Fifthly, on 21 September 2007 the SSIHRL organised the commemoration of the United Nations International Day of Peace at the Council Chamber of the Palais de Nations.  Sixthly, on 7 March 2008 a roundtable focused on the link between extreme poverty and human right to peace was organised at the Palais de Nations by SSIHRL, the International Society of Human Rights (Frankfurt) and UNESCO Etxea.

The right to education constitutes an essential part of contemporary human rights law. Although the right to education is generally considered to be a cultural right, it is also related to other rights. Education is the precondition and key to the enjoyment of all rights. Taking into account that the right to education cannot be seen in isolation, then one could conclude that the fulfilment of the right to education would allow the enjoyment of, inter alia, the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to participation. 

The right to education involves three key actors: the Government as provider and/or funder of public schooling, the child as the principal bearer of the right to education and of the duty to comply with compulsory-education requirements, and the child’s parents who are “the first educators”. The Government is responsible for securing the conditions for full realization of the rights of the child, including the enforcement of parental responsibilities towards their children.
As stressed on several international human rights instruments, education should be directed not only to the full development of the human personality and the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, but also to the promotion of mutual understanding, tolerance, gender equality, friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups and the maintenance of peace.

The right to education requires enforceable individual entitlements to education, safeguards for human rights in education and instrumentalization of education to the enjoyment of all human rights through education. As stated by UNESCO, “the inclusion of human rights in education is a key element of a quality education” . Thus, richly endowed education systems may be faulted for their failure to rupture intergenerational transmission of racism or xenophobia . It follows that a successful human rights education system should be able of gradually eliminating any type of inequality, exclusion or discrimination based on prejudices transmitted from generation to generation.

Inequality is a cross-cutting variable that uniformly affects all social strata in which women and other groups -disabled persons, minorities, migrants or people infected with AIDS- that suffer discrimination are found. Patriarchalism and all other practices based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority among human beings is not a structure of autonomous oppression but an undifferentiated set of oppressive factors deriving from race, gender, ethnic origin and social background. As stated by the current Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, gender inequality and other forms of social, religious, ethnic and racial discrimination impedes social mobility and stratifies social hierarchies, with a negative impact on the realization of human rights, development, peace and security .

Educational statistics demonstrate how discrimination based on grounds of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or language combines to trap new generation of people in a vicious downward cycle of denied rights, where the lack of access to education leads to the exclusion from the labour market, which then results in perpetuating and increasing impoverishment . As stressed by the United Nations, the exclusion of the poorer from education perpetuates social inequalities in many places of the world . Taking into account that the denial of the right to education leads to compounded denials of other human rights and perpetuation of poverty, then it could be concluded that the recognition and enforcement of this fundamental human right is vital to create wealthy and prosperous societies. 

As highlighted in the UNESCO Declaration and Integrated Framework of Action on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy , the education should develop the ability of non-violent conflict resolution through the promotion of peace, tolerance, compassion, sharing and caring. It follows that human rights education is defined as education aiming at building a universal culture of human rights through the moulding of attitudes directed to the building and maintenance of peace . Education is key to achieve “sustainable development, peace and stability within and among countries”, by fostering social cohesion and empowering people to become active participants in social transformation .

Nevertheless, education for war has a much longer tradition and is more commercially attractive than education for peace, so that a human rights response ought to be forged. In many countries the glorification of war continues through those school textbooks which are dotted with wars and war heroes and through the almost limitless commercialization of computerized war games. Furthermore, currently millions of children are everyday initiated in the warfare practices as part of traditional initiation rituals or institutionalized educational programmes .

Education should promote understanding, tolerance, peace and friendly relations between the nations and all racial or religious groups and encourage the development of United Nations activities in pursuance of these objectives . It should further provide children with necessary tools for acquiring the basic knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and behaviours associated with peace and non-violence . For this reason, schools should be identified and protected as sanctuaries and zones of peace  in order to rebuild the lives of children and young people who are prey to violence and war. The growing global attention to the causation of warfare and to peace-building requires prioritizing education.

According to the former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, an important obstacle to universalizing the right to education is a view that education is not indispensable for human survival or required for subsistence. Besides, she added that the absence of education for victims of armed conflicts and disasters dooms them to remain recipients of assistance while preventing them from becoming self-sustaining . The “survival package” of the humanitarian relief only includes provision of water, sanitation, medical services, shelter, clothing and food, but not education.

As stated in Article 2 of the 2006 Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace,
“Every person has the right to receive peace and human rights education, the basis of every educational system, which will help to generate social processes based on trust, solidarity and mutual respect, promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts and lead to a new way of approaching human relationships”.

We therefore urge the United Nations to promote an education based on social justice and equity, non-discrimination and gender equality, respect of all human rights, tolerance, peace and friendly relations among all nations, races or religions. We also urge Member States to implement the necessary mechanisms to recognize the negative impact of education based on intolerance, discrimination and inequality among races, sexes, ethnics and social backgrounds in the enjoyment of the human right to peace and to realise the education goals of the Declaration and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, the Millennium Development Goals, the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010) and the Plan of Action for the First Phase (2005-2007) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education.

We welcome the General Assembly call to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to carry out a constructive dialogue and consultations with Member States, the specialized agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, on how the international community may better promote an international environment leading to the full realization of the right of people to peace.