Declaration and Programme of Action
on a Culture of Peace

Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace
(Coordinator Comment)

This document is central to the struggle to move from a culture of war to a culture of peace. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 1999 in preparation for the 2000 International Year for the Culture of Peace. The full document is available on the website of the United Nations as well as on the website of the World Report on the Culture of Peace.

The document includes a Declaration that was somewhat altered by the Member States in order to preserve their freedom from UN "interference", a Programme of Action with the eight action areas described in this game, and a call for a Global Movement for a Culture of Peace, including the civil society, and for exchange of information among all the actors involved in order to promote a culture of peace.

For a history of the development of the document, interested readers are referred to the Early History of the Culture of Peace,, especially page 20 and page 21.

The Great Powers were opposed to the culture of peace resolution and tried to block it at many points, but in the end the countries of the South won out and the resolution was adopted by consensus. In order to achieve concensus, concessions had to be made, however, including removal of all references to the culture of war and removal of provisions for funding which would have made it possible for the United Nations to disseminate the document and carry out some of its recommendations.

Since there is no funding for culture of peace at the United Nations, the cause has been taken up by the civil society, as described in the World Report on the Culture of Peace.