“Disarmament Education: Past Best Practice for the Future”

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

A warm welcome to the Palais des Nations and to this much-needed reflection on disarmament education. We held earlier this year at the Palais des Nations here a large-scale conference on “Education for Peace”, and I very much appreciate that we can take forward that discussion with a more detailed focus on how to teach future generations about the importance of disarmament as an essential building block of peace and security for all of us.

As we start, let me first of all thank Dr. Plesch and his team at the School of Oriental and African Studies for organizing this debate, and for the dedicated work on SCRAP - which is a good example of how to instil future generations not only with a clear understanding of the need for disarmament but most importantly, a readiness to get engaged to make it happen.

Thank you also to the Permanent Mission of Sweden for hosting today, and to the distinguished speakers, all demonstrating the very rich disarmament expertise here in International Geneva. As you may know, it is a priority for me to involve civil society more closely in the disarmament work here, as our Chair just said, and I appreciate that we have with us so many representatives of the excellent civil society base in Geneva.

Disarmament is far too often seen as a distant and technical topic. A subject reserved for in-depth study by researchers or diplomats, secluded in think tanks or conference halls. Or, maybe even worse, it is not seen as a societal and shared priority in the same way as it was during the Cold War where the collective sentiment of insecurity galvanized a more inclusive, popular disarmament movement. Yet, the realities of today, with increasing instability in many regions, fuelled both by existing and emerging conflicts, upgrading of weapon programmes and growing military expenditure in many countries, disarmament is as needed and as important as ever.

Disarmament education is a central part of our work at the United Nations, driven by our colleagues in the Office for Disarmament Affairs and in UNIDIR, who are reaching out to Member States, schools and universities and to civil society actors with concrete programmes to raise awareness and engage future generations – all based on the 34 recommendations of the United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education, which Mexico was so instrumental in getting underway. I appreciate that we have with us today also representatives of Member States and organizations who are, in different ways, taking forward the challenge of disarmament education, drawing inspiration from those recommendations, and I look forward to listening to their experience and lessons learned.

Our discussion today takes place not only in a context of global insecurity, but also – more fortunately - in a context of an enhanced focus on the value of education, as the essential underpinning of progress. Despite continued challenges, we have with the Millennium Development Goals increased primary and secondary enrolment rates significantly, which is much to be welcomed, of course. We will need to build on these accomplishments as we move towards finalizing the post-2015 development agenda and towards the definition of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The next frontier is to reinforce quality in teaching materials and methods, to strengthen curricula that educate future generations of global citizens, infused with the values of peace, tolerance and understanding. Teaching the benefits of disarmament and the ways towards this goal has to be an integral part of that effort.

Most importantly, disarmament is directly connected to our broader efforts to promote peace, rights and well-being. And as we are looking at how to improve disarmament education, a critical task is to bring future generations a better and more sophisticated appreciation of the connections across the challenges we face. Creating a world at peace is not simply a security challenge; it is closely connected with economic and social progress, justice and human rights, greater equality and accountability, and respect for the rules that we have agreed on together.

We need to place disarmament firmly in this broader understanding of how we build a better world through a more holistic approach, an approach that prioritizes prevention rather than reaction. This is also how we overcome the narrow – and, in my view, misguided – interpretation of disarmament as an impenetrable specialist subject. And this is how we mobilize for meaningful action, which has to be ultimate outcome of our education efforts.

As the title of today’s conference indicates, there much to learn from a deeper reflection on past disarmament measures. This should not limit our thinking but serve as a springboard for greater creativity and inspiration in our current work. Personally, for example, I would like to see the Conference on Disarmament inspired by some of its past negotiating successes rather than the past 18 years of impasse.

Disarmament is one of the greatest legacies to pass on to future generations. But to make that happen, we need to involve them now and that is why we need more and better disarmament education. And I hope that your exchange today will help to take this objective forward.

Thank you very much.