The twentieth century which comes to an end has seen the greatest carnage in all of human history. It is urgent that we reverse this trend, that we promote, in the words of the Dalai Lama, an epoch of peace. It is a question of survival!

There is only one way to fight violence with nonviolence: education.
The future of the world hangs on our willingness to really change. Our willingness to be finished with the culture of violence, be it physical, psychological or economic.

Our mentality is archaic. Often we continue to raise our children using ideas developed in times of war and conquest. We need to reject these outmoded principles and teach children that the "other" is not the enemy. We must dare to tell young people, even in history classes, that they will contribute more to the world by living in dignity than by dying heroically, that it is conscience, rather than obedience, which is the basis of human life.
The only real challenge remaining today, the real issue which will define the future, is, for the first time, to live together by respecting ourselves, each other and the environment. It seems so simple, but nothing could be more complicated.

To make this dream a reality, we want the governments of all of the world countries at the United Nations to adopt a resolution declaring:

1. The year 2000 "Year of Education for Non-Violence"
2. The years 2000 to 2010 "Decade for a Culture of Non- Violence" so that non-violence will finally be taught.

Let's teach our children to help us to be wiser.

Practical measures will develop from this commitment in the areas of culture and, above all, education (an international group of researchers is already developing materials for children). We must learn to seek the nonviolent resolution to our conflicts.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
July 1997

Signatories :

Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Aung San Suu Kyi, the 14th Dalaï Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Perez, Elie Wiesel, the Lord Bishop of Desmond Tutu, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchú, Yasser Arafat, the Lord Bishop of Carlos Felipe Jiménez Belo, José Ramos-Horta, Norman Borlaug, Oscar Arias Sánchez, the UNICEF, Frederik Willem de Klerk, Betty Williams, Lech Walesa, Joseph Rotblat, the International Office for Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, the UNHCR, Jody Williams, John Hume, David Trimble.