Conference Message
 Welcome to the inaugural International Education for Peace Conference Website. This conference is about the education of our children in the principles and practice of peace. Peace is the most urgent item on the agenda of humanity. No civilization is truly progressive without education and no education system is truly civilizing unless it is based on the universal principles of peace. However, peace is absent everywhere. In schools, families, and neighborhoods episodes of bullying, conflict, violence, and destructive behaviour are alarmingly high. In places of work, high levels of tension, rivalry, and mistrust exacts enormous personal and economic expense. At the international level, monumental insecurities, inequities, conflicts, and violence based on political, racial, ethnic, and religious differences are bringing untold calamities to the masses of humanity—children, youth, and adults alike. In the final analysis, education is the most effective and universal tool for changing this unsettling state of affairs and for preparing every new generation of children and youth to learn the principles of peace and skills of peacebuilding. The central aim of the EFP Conference is to create a forum in which all stakeholders in peace and education will have an opportunity to learn from one another and consult together on how to create safe and healthy learning environments with three fundamental properties:
- A Culture of Peace with an ability to decrease the rate and seriousness of bullying, interethnic tension and conflict, gang activities, vandalism, and criminal activities in the schools , and for educating students in the principles and skills of peace-based leadership, decision-making, and conflict resolution;
- A Culture of Healing with the ability to create harmonious, empathetic, compassionate, forgiving, and kind relationships that create unity among people and help them to recover from the negative impacts of conflict and violence; and
- A Culture of Excellence in academic, social, and behavioural aspects of all members of the school community, which is greatly facilitated when a school is peaceful; free from tension, conflict and violence; and compassionate and understanding.
To achieve this, the conference program is bringing together peace education experts, government leaders, education leaders, educators, and peace practitioners to review the latest developments in the field of peace education, consult together on how these new insights could be incorporated into government education policies and priorities; and consider how these insights could be translated into practical pedagogical applications in classrooms and schools. Two ancillary programs—a week-long Peace Event featuring presentations by school children and youth and three one-day Training Workshops on peace-related issues—complete the proceedings of this peace-week in Vancouver.You are cordially invited to actively partake in this quest for peace.
--Dr. H.B. Danesh, Conference Chairperson
Conference Overview - Registration
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