Recommendations of the First World Forum for the Culture of Peace

          The participants in the First World Forum on the Culture of Peace: Presidents, Ministers, Representatives of International Organizations and Experts, have endorsed, through their interventions, the following recommendations:

·       The international community should foster the teaching of the culture of peace at all school stages from kindergarten to university.

·       The right to education is a basic human right for all without discrimination of any kind.

·       Teachers should be urged to teach the values and principles of peace and be equipped with the necessary curricula while providing all available means to them in order to achieve this noble goal.

·       There must be a focus on the importance of protecting culture while engineering curricula, designing educational programs and writing school textbooks in order for young people to fully assimilate them at an early age, which will help successive generations, contribute to the succession of development and interaction with other human beings in terms of culture and cultural exchange.School curricula ought to be rewritten in light of culture, peace and a non-hatred background.

·       The teaching of human rights is one of the helping factors in spreading the culture of peace, so that one can realize that others have rights that they should enjoy, and that those rights are not denied.

·       Education will remain a driving force for sustainable peace. Therefore, nations worldwide must meet this challenge by ensuring that a quality education is within reach for everyone.

·       We must work on raising a conscious generation by training and preparing it through lessons in the culture of peace from kindergarten to primary school then secondary education and university.

·       Schools must be safe environments where peace and respect prevail.

·       The more we invest in human cleverness and in creative interaction with the noble universal values, the more progress we make, and the more able we are to engage in historical action.

·       National awareness and its indicators should be included in school curricula to preserve cultural heritage and spread the culture of peace.

·       It is necessary to address the shortage of knowledge regarding the importance of human heritage by using information systems and social media to emphasize the importance of heritage and how to preserve it and spread the culture of peace.

·       Achieving sustainable peace requires the creation of communities, societies, and a justice-based international system.

·       A diverse historical and symbolic heritage enhances the cultural richness and identities of the regions and reinforces the values of tolerance and communication between their components on the basis of equality and difference.

·       The international community must set up action plans and realize that through the process of integration, civilizations and cultures of others are respected as they are, others are accepted, exclusion is rejected and there is no disdain of people’s history.

·       The role that cultural heritage plays in peacemaking and bringing people together, must be strengthened. This can be done through folklore festivals, oral culture and all that can attract all the peoples of the world, in peace and harmony.

·       We must work hard and sincerely to reject all forms of piracy, trafficking and illegal methods of confiscating all or part of the cultural heritage of any people or nation.

·       The importance of cultural heritage must be emphasized as one constituent of an original national identity and a bridge which is no less important than other ties such as language, religion, belief, etc., which represent people's national identity.

·       The international community must show a commitment to protect cultural heritage and readiness for present and future collective action.

·       We call upon world leaders to be aware of their solemn humanitarian mission to rebuild and protect the land and not destroy it with lethal weapons.

·       We must set up strategies to prevent armed conflict and focus on the protection of cultural heritage in a way that it is kept in its natural places in museums and heritage monuments.

·       We affirm that peace is not an amusement process nor a game for entertaining people or a moral issue. As a matter of fact, the only alternative to peace is war, and war today means mass destruction, and therefore we have no alternative to peace.

·       The preservation of cultural heritage and identity is, as always, our only means of resistance. Culture is the real act of resistance whereby we preserve identity.

·       Whoever created war has to create peace.

·       All armed parties at war must agree on one thing which is to allow children to go to school.

·       The essence of a culture of peace is that if we can make people accept one another and live together, then they must be aware of the importance of cultural heritage.

·       A call for peace on the ground in the Arab world, Central Africa, and the world.

·       We must teach the next generation that diversity, racial and ethnic difference are signs of social strength and cohesion, not one of the causes of war.

·       We must provide-to those whom we help-a hope that in the future, they will get what they need, including education and redevelopment in order to grow up and live a decent life and be self-reliant.

·       There is no peace without justice, and no peace without reconciliation, tolerance, or respect.

·       Peace requires an equitable social order that ends poverty.

·       Whoever is not at peace with himself cannot be at peace with others.

·       The international community must resort to popular referenda to settle major conflicts by asking people to choose between war and peace. Undoubtedly, peace will be the only option.

·       The international community must make more efforts to achieve sustainable peace which forms the basis of a culture of peace and strive to protect cultural heritage that belongs to all.

·       We must work together to create a platform for global peace based on respect and acceptance of the other and build societies that believe in pluralism.

·       The primary responsibility for achieving peace rests with the leaders. They must first recognize and foster the noble values and commit themselves to achieving them in their own countries. Otherwise, peace will never take place in the regions.

·       The important monuments of Babylon must be registered on the World Heritage List.

·       The international community must instill the values of compassion and human dignity among children and young people.

·       We have to focus on the essence of culture of peace. The illusions that boys or girls have in mind must be replaced.

·       All conflicting parties must be committed to respect cultural heritage and not expose it to destruction and harm. The military authorities must be as committed to avoid inflicting damage to cultural and civilizational institutions.

·       The international community must protect cultural heritage in times of peace and in times of war as well. This can be done by taking preventive measures which include training of military personnel to respect laws and treaties during wars and emergencies.

·       Soft power is the ability to seduce through culture, values, and ideas, contrary to the coarse force that tends to use military might.

·       People who are in charge of the occupied territories must do their job to protect human and cultural heritage. This obligation must apply to all international treaties and covenants that promote the protection of human heritage and conform to the provisions of the 1954 Geneva Convention ratified by all States to protect cultural and civilizational centers in armed conflicts.

·       We should grasp a firm awareness of peace being our only option to live. As war is an ephemeral exception and a temporary exit from the law of life.

·       We must work on preventive diplomacy which promotes initiatives in favor of peace and the stability of nations, in light of wars and threats spreading across continents.

·       The international community must consolidate democracy in theory and practice.

·       It must be believed that wars and conflicts are the choice of failed politicians and the work of eccentric and excited people. In the atmosphere of war, democratic and human rights gains that man has struggled for centuries to acquire are buried. In wars, development opportunities die, the possibilities of cultural communication vanish, and construction comes to a stop.

·       Brave and courageous steps must be taken to change the fate of conflict zones.

·       Pure and refined Islam is not incompatible with heritage, culture, science, literature, and heritage protection.

·       These recommendations should be regarded as a work guide and a road map to a reality that preserves cultural heritage as, above all, a human common denominator, a message for peace and a common universal language.