Inequity
violates children’s rights and becomes a serious
barrier to peaceful feeling and thinking. Support for
children and their families during the early childhood
years is an imperative for peace building. Hungry families
can become angry families.
National
policies, laws and legislation concerning the welfare,
care and education of the young child should be in line
with international agreements, a listing of which is attached
to this document. In parallel, we request governments
to make significant increases in the financing of early
childhood and family services.
It is a
fundamental responsibility of every nation to provide
all young children with both high quality, comprehensive,
equitable and accessible early education as well as development
activities that include among their many components, opportunities
for young children to experience relationships that are
positive and respectful.
Governments
should form sustainable partnerships with the institutions
of civil society to introduce peace education in early
childhood services and to develop the sharing of information.
They should facilitate the participation of parents in
program development and planning, develop and exchange
educational materials and methods, and support professional
development opportunities for early childhood personnel.
The education
of the child must be understood as a continuous, dynamic
and permanent process that facilitates critical thinking
and participatory learning. The goal of early education
is the full development of the child in a culturally relevant
manner. Education must also promote positive gender socialization
that recognizes the vulnerability and the strengths of
both sexes in different ways, with no gender bias.
Because
participation in society takes place through interaction
with the child’s immediate environment, adults should
adopt a child-centered attitude, observing and listening
to young children, respecting their dignity, and their
individual needs and points of view. The environment of
the home and school should be conducive to child participation
from the earliest age, and children should be encouraged
to express their feelings, views and ideas in numerous
ways.
For a culture
of peace, we should eliminate bullying from our schools,
stimulate the motivation to handle conflict, the skill
to do so, including the appropriate use of language and
creative imagination
Children
should not be treated as objects to be trained in handling
conflict, but be seen as resourceful and creative subjects,
less bound by limiting rules and past experience. Peaceful
conflict resolution can only be achieved when parents
and educators build peaceful environments together with
the children in their daily lives.
This declaration
is signed in Albacete, Spain, on April 22, 2007, on behalf
of the experts who drafted it and appear in the list below
and of the 1,200 delegates who attended the World Conference
on Peace Education in Early Childhood.