Sarajevo Declaration on
Role of Higher Education and Civil Society in Education for Peace
Relying on:
European Convention on Human Rights[1], UNESCO World Declaration on Higher Education for The twenty-first century[2], For Lifelong Learning In Europe Programme[3], Budapest Declaration for a Greater Europe Without Dividing Lines[4], Warsaw Declaration: Toward a Community of Democracies[5] and The Talloires Declaration on the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education[6];
We, the participants to the conference “Role of Universities in Peacebuilding”, aware of the fact that higher education plays an exceptional role of in post-conflict, often divided, societies such as Western Balkan ones, wish to point out to the importance of the education for peace, and of enhancing the cooperation in this field between the higher education and non-governmental sector in local communities and societies of the region.
Education and Civic Mission
Higher education institutions in the region are encouraged to:
Humanistic Approach in Education
Higher education institutions are encouraged to practice humanistic approach in education
The Cooperation between Higher Education and Civil Society
We invite higher education institutions and civil society sector to:
We demand that
Local authorities, state authorities, countries of the region authorities and International Community to:
Sarajevo, March 20th 2014
Declaration draft by Enver Đuliman
[1] http://www.hrcr.org/docs/Eur_Convention/euroconv.html
[2] http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/wche/declaration_eng.htm
[3] http://ec.europa.eu/education/tools/llp_en.htm
[4] http://www.internationalconsortium.org/about/budapest-declaration
[5] http://ccd21.org/articles/warsaw_declaration.htm
[6] http://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/wp-content/uploads/TalloiresReport.pdf
[7] The Civic Mission at University Concept articulates the set of values and principles to direct core activities of a university and various advocacy activities of university teachers and students in a community, towards educating socially responsible and active citizens, civil society development and democracy, and even improving the quality of life in the community.
[8] Culture of Peace, Human Rights, Intercultural Understanding, Transitional justice, and Reconciliation
[9] History teachhing at post-conflict and/or divided societies, Culture of Remembrance, and Facing the Past after heavy violations of human rights.
[10] Participatory teaching is an approach in education that relies upon communication and participation more than it relies on one-way transmission of data. Learning process happens in a group interaction where the individuals, group members, exchange their experiences, because the experiences are valued as the relevant and beneficial ones. Knowledge, values, viewpoints, attitudes, and responsibility are built through cooperation and learning within the context in addition to individual acquisition/learning processes. Every student is a person, both in an activity and in a situation. This approach creates so called “positive mutual addiction“with the participants, increases communication capacities, and trains the participants in individual and group responsibility. It also supports development of capacity for including others, better recognition of their needs, and the decision-making skills.