Institutions of higher education receive the Chair as a contribution of the university alliance
The Global Embassy of Activists for Peace, GEAP, held the II Assembly of the International Alliance of Universities for Peace, ALIUP, with the participation of representatives from academic institutions, authorities and higher education professors from different Latin American countries, where they presented the Chair for Peace and Happiness of the Integral Human Being.
The Assembly, convened for August 23 and 24 at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), held its first session in the Ricardo Flores Magón Room, where experiences and strategies were aimed at the promotion of peace, development and sustainable development and respect for Human Rights and the Rights of Mother Earth.
Representatives and personalities from various government institutions, public and private academia from Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico attended the call for the second edition of the Assembly of ALIUP members. (See list of personalities and participating institutions).
The executive president of GEAP, Dr. William Soto Santiago, in an audiovisual recording, thanked those present for their effort to build an education for integral peace from higher education, and said:
"The university promotes an educational culture of quality and continuous improvement; it is a generator and promoter of human capital, but at the same time it has the responsibility of forming students that understand their role in the scope of a more humanized community"
In the same way, Dr. William Soto pointed out that students must be trained as positive transformational integral leaders that acts with justice, with respect for human rights and above all with love for his fellow man.
Importance of the university alliance
The II Assembly began with the participation of: Domingo Alberto Vital Díaz, coordinator of Humanities of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM; Gabriela Lara, general director of the GEAP; Vivian González Trejos, rector of the Magister University and secretary pro tempore of the ALIUP; Hermelinda Alvarenga, member of the Senate Education Committee of the Republic of Paraguay; and Juan José Serrato, Coordinator of Advisors of the Secretariat of Public Education, of Mexico.
In his speech, Dr. Domingo Alberto Vital said: "The link between education and peace is intuitively accepted as something fundamental and that desire for peace comes into effect with daily educational activites. In that sense, we should celebrate the fact that peace and education are the axis that unites and combines so many wills".
These authorities expressed, from their experience, the importance of promoting spaces of integration and commitment between educational institutions, governments and citizens, in order to potentiate the peace efforts that the human family longs for and to seek the paradigm shift in higher education.
In this sense Dr. Hermelinda Alvarenga explained:
"This Chair for Peace challenges us in content and important issues, which will give us the opportunity to transform the human being into a relationship of peace; and in that way transform the family, society, the country, and, why not, the entire world. "
Contributions for social development
As part of the program, a panel of experts was held on the theme: "The contribution of solidarity internationalization in Mexican higher education as a strategy for institutional and social development".
This panel was formed by Bertha Rodríguez, Secretary General of AAPAUNAM; Sergio Cárdenas Denham, general director of the Center for Regional Cooperation for Adult Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CREFAL); Arturo Velázquez Jiménez, general director of the ILCE, Mexico. Each lecturer shared the vision of their institutions and their contributions to the formation of a culture of peace.
Education is necessary with bases aimed at development, not just skills, but in the inclusion of values and human rights, therefore, Bertha Rodríguez, said: "Integrating the Chair for Peace as a transforming power of society by promoting the Culture of Peace among society is the commitment of academic staff and is also the commitment of the instutions administration. Being able to include everything that improves respect for Human Rights within the curriculum and everything that improves values is what we have to awaken in our youth."
Also participating was Enid Gil, vice minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the Dominican Republic, who emphasized:
"We have to work so that those students who come with us, so that these professionals can create levels of consciousness that they can take to society, to give back what was learned, that experience, that effective communication.”
The second part of the assembly was dedicated to the exhibition of the thematic content of the Chair for Peace and happiness of the integral human being, led by Gabriela Lara, general director of the GEAP.
