How do you build a peaceful society?
This question is discussed in multiple spaces, including forums, security roundtables, and academic circles.
The issue is no less if we consider that one of the basic conditions for creating developed and stable societies is to guarantee that people feel safe in their environment.
Of course, institutions are fundamental: having reliable and competent police forces is crucial to maintaining social order and providing protection to citizens against the disturbances of coexistence that inevitably arise in any community.
The existence of public entities such as prosecutors is also highly relevant, since where there is an absence of punishment after having committed a crime or conduct prohibited by law, it is much more likely that violence and crime will prevail, in the medium and long term. deadlines.
On the other hand, when the governmental authority is effective in procuring justice, a Rule of Law is organically generated; in other words, people assume that respect for the rules is the basis of progress and civilization.
However, although institutions such as the police and prosecutors are extremely useful tools for building States with low crime rates, they are insufficient to establish lasting environments of community peace, based on empathy, constructive dialogue and solidarity.
And it is that the mere absence of criminality is only one side of the concept of peace, known as negative peace in the field of social sciences and the study of violence.
The societies of the 21st century are called to work to strengthen peace and non-violence in a much broader sense, called positive peace.
Going deeper, we can say that positive peace occurs when social cohesion, community integration through support networks and generous understanding become habits among citizens who live in a given context.
By nature, the interaction between human beings is not exempt from differences or conflicts, which arise from the plurality of points of view, interests and thought schemes.
Learning to live with others is something that begins in childhood and is reinforced throughout life through experience, social skills, and the need to solve problems that involve others.
Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world, as the South African political leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nelson Mandela, used to say. In the same vein, education is the best ally to build authentic environments of peace.
Here it should be noted that educational training is developed predominantly in two areas: school and home.
Undoubtedly, the school allows girls and boys, adolescents and young people to recognize the elementary rules of coexistence, based on pillars such as respect, responsible freedom and companionship.
For this reason, it is so serious when, due to lack of instruction or authority of educational personnel, behaviors such as bullying, exclusion or physical aggression are tolerated. The risk is that these vices are reproduced systematically, reflecting in an escalation of violence.
On the contrary, when the school promotes dialogue to resolve conflicts and integration as a starting point to build spaces for healthy coexistence, a culture of peace begins to germinate, with far-reaching effects on the students.
Also, although the school is the second home, the truth is that the home is the first school. People are formed in values and principles within the family.
Family violence and antisocial behavior reproduced at home have a high impact on the education of any individual. So, making an effort to instill basic principles of healthy coexistence from childhood to adulthood is truly decisive in building peaceful societies.
To educate in peace is to form in each woman and man an agent of peace committed to the well-being and progress of their community.
Without peace there is no future and without education there is no peace.— Mérida, Yucatán.
fournier1993@hotmail.com
Bachelor of Law, Master of Administration
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Guillermo Fournier Ramos: School of Peace