If we asked the people around us to make a list of the basic characteristics or trends of the current society, almost surely, they would mention quite a few negative behaviors and values of the human being. Behaviors that are the origin of numerous problems and social conflicts: violence of all kind, deterioration of the environment, margination, poverty, consumerism, drug addictions, etc. These are problems that condition our "quality of life" and our life as human beings.

If we looked further at the causes of this negative vision, we could easily arrive at the predominant model of socialization and relation in our society: we live in a culture of violence and contempt.

In the face of this reality there is a general request to act as soon as possible and develop preventive actions to stop unwanted behaviors. The demand is for the governments and different agents of socialization (family, school, and mass media) to come to an agreement and plan proposals that bring about a radical change in our social model.

This change can only come about through education for all, for all the children in the world. This education should be in the spirit and letter of Article 29 of the Convention on Child Rights. An education offered to child so that he develops globally, not only in the cognitive aspects (a term that does not appear in the article) but psychological and spiritual. It should be, according to section d) of Article 29, an education aimed at preparing the child to assume a responsible life in a free society, with a spirit of understanding and PEACE.

To make this possible and to reflect on how this education should be so it can lay the foundation on how all people can live together regardless of their origin and circumstances, we are holding the

WORLD CONFERENCE: EARLY CHILDHOOD PEACE EDUCATION

This will take place at the Conference Center of Albacete, April 20, 21 and 22, 2007.

The main objectives of the WORLD CONFERENCE: EARLY CHILDHOOD PEACE EDUCATION are:

•  Establish Early, Initial or Preschool Education as the base and first link for all the educational systems. Only with early childhood education can we achieve a peaceful world.

•  Highlight the stage of initial and preschool education as the best time to model a harmonious personality in children as well as to provide them with education in values as this is the time when they are shaped in children.

•  Make available for teachers, pedagogical and methodological procedures to help them instill in children norms, values, concepts and behaviors that foster the attainment of peace and the rejection of violence as essential components of their personality. We propose a continuous work with the children to influence any future actions on their part, to pass on values that remain with them for life.

•  To make the world aware, from Albacete , of the fact that only with quality, global education, full of values in the widest sense of the term, can we achieve a better world.

•  To call on Supranational Institutions and Governments to provide the necessary resources and to work so that all the children in the world, without distinction of race, color, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, economic situation, birth or any other condition, have access to the quality education they deserve just for being children, and from the moment of their birth.