New opportunities for action with the revised UNESCO Recommendation concerning education for international understanding, co-operation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

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Background

On 20 November 2023, all 194 of UNESCO’s Member States adopted the Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development. It is the only global standard-setting instrument that lays out how education should be used to bring about lasting peace and foster human development through clearly defined guiding principles, learning objectives, and actions.

The Recommendation is an update to its 1974 predecessor, which underwent a two-year revision process involving more than 3000 individuals from over 130 countries. The revision process took place to reflect the changing role of education in addressing contemporary challenges to peace including, but not limited to, climate change, pandemics and poor health, the rapid spread of hateful and violent ideologies, unsustainable consumption, and lingering inequalities. The revision process reflects an evolution of understanding of education’s role in creating more peaceful, just, and sustainable societies in the 21st century.

The newly adopted Recommendation affirms the integral link between education and the achievement of peace and recognizes the important role that education plays in “empowering individuals, communities and societies to address global challenges and to take transformative action.”

For more on the Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development, read here.

About the session

In the context of the freshly adopted Recommendation, this webinar will provide the opportunity to exchange ideas on what can be done to strengthen the role of academics, researchers and policy experts in supporting the implementation of the Recommendation. The event will feature:

1. Presentation on the Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development by Lydia Ruprecht, UNESCO

2. Reflections on how to effectively implement the Recommendation  

Topics of reflections: 

• “Leaving no one behind” - looking beyond formal education (Katarina Popovic, Secretary General of the International Council for Adult Education) 
• Monitoring and policy learning: how can academia play a role? (Carla Sabbatini, UNESCO Chair on Education for Sustainable Development and Global citizenship Education, Universidad de San Andres, Argentina) 
• Multifaceted and multisectoral responses to the revised recommendations: View from critical GCED research (Karen Pashby, Professor of Global Citizenship Education, Manchester Metropolitan University) 

Objectives

1. Inform participants of the new Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development.
2. Generate interest and support for the Recommendation in the academic and research community.
3. Collect ideas and exchange proposals on the role of academics, research, and policy experts in supporting the effective implementation of the Recommendation.

Format

This event, to be held at 13:00 GMT on the 17 January, will last around 90 minutes and will be hosted via Zoom.  Please register via Zoom using the button below. This session will be Chaired by ANGEL Coordinator Professor Massimiliano Tarozzi (University of Bologna).

Speakers

• Lydia Ruprecht is Team Leader for Global Citizenship Education (GCED) within UNESCO’s Section for Global Citizenship and Peace Education. She coordinated the revision of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning Education for international understanding, co-operation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms and was Secretary of the International Expert Group charged to advise the Organization on the revisions of the instrument. Lydia has over 25 years of experience in international development, elaborating and providing policy guidance and technical support to countries, IGOs and NGOs, on issues relating to global citizenship education, as well as gender equality in development. Through her recent engagements, she has developed guidance on the prevention of violent extremism through education, education for the rule of law and is supporting UNESCO’s recent call to strengthen synergies between the culture and education sectors. Lydia holds a B.sc from the University of Montreal, a Maîtrise in Political science and a D.E.A in Political Sociology from Université Pars I - Sorbonne. 
   
• Karen Pashby is Professor of Global Citizenship Education, Lead for Research in the School of Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, and President of the Comparative International Education Society of Canada (2023-2025). Her research, funded by the Academy of Finland, British Academy, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Swedish Research Council examines how to engage productive pedagogical tensions in reflexive approaches to ethical global issues in 'global North' contexts. Projects have involved participatory research with teachers in Canada, England, Finland, and Sweden.
   
• Katarina Popović, PhD, is Secretary General of International Council for Adult Education (ICAE), Professor for adult education at the Department of Andragogy, University of Belgrade (Serbia), visiting professor at several universities abroad, vice-president of the International Society of Comparative Adult Education, president of the Serbian Adult Education Society, editor in chief of the journal “Andragogical studies”, author of numerous articles and books in the field of adult education and experienced trainer in adult education. Dr Popović works on monitoring and implementation of the Agenda 2030 within the UN system - Major Groups and Other Stakeholders, as the co-chair of the Education and Academia Stakeholder Group and the member of the Steering Group of the MGoS HLPF Coordination Mechanism at the UN DESA.
   
• Carla Sabbatini is a PhD candidate and holds a Masters’ Degree in Education from Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA), where she is Executive Director of the UNESCO Chair on Education for Sustainability and Global Citizenship. As such, she leads several cross-sector projects aimed at educational capacity development for decision makers and educators in Argentina and Latin America. She actively forges partnerships for multi-stakeholder knowledge-sharing initiatives aimed at contributing to a broader understanding of sustainability and global citizenship challenges. Her current research focuses on two different lines: 1) the extent to which sustainability and gobal citizenship is permeating in curricula in Latin America, and 2) youth engagement in Sustainable Development, particularly in Climate Action initiatives. Carla lectures at UdeSA’s School of Education Masters’ Programme and other post-graduate courses. She has over two decades’ experience as a teacher trainer and she has worked in public administration as well as the private education sector and NGOs, and she is also a consultant for international agencies. Among her publications, she has co-authored two books on Education for Sustainability and also school leadership towards improvement.

The ANGEL Webinar Series

This event is part of a series of online events run by the Academic Network for Global Education & Learning. The series is aimed at Global Education professionals, as well as anyone with an interest in research in the fields of Development Education, Global Citizenship Education, Human Rights Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Education for Peace, and Intercultural Education. This event, along with the other activities of the ANGEL network, is co-funded by the European Union.*

* The establishment of this network and website has been made possible with funding support from the European Commission. The activities and publications of the network are the responsibilities of the organisers, the Development Education Research Centre, and can in no way be seen as reflecting the views of the European Commission.