27th April, 2018 | Montreal, Canada

UNESCO’s category 1 research institute, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) joint forces with its Montreal-based partner, the Centre for Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence to launch the French version of #YouthWagingPeace – Action Guidelines for Prevention of Violent Extremism in Montreal during the event; Education and Art for Prevention of Violent Extremism among Youth, held on the 27th April, 2018  in Montreal, Canada.

The event also saw the launch of Radicalishow 2: A Family Affair Comic Book.

Background

The UNESCO MGIEP's #YouthWagingPeace guidebook was launched by the Director-General of UNESCO at its 39th General Conference, in November, 2017. The guidebook was a culmination of reaching out to 2,000+ youth and integrating 130+ submissions from 57 countries. After analysing the case studies in the light of current Prevention of Violent Extremism through Education (PVE-E) research, the guide put forth tangible action guidelines for education stakeholders – teachers, school administrators, policymakers, parents, religious leaders, youth and anyone interest in PVE-E or in a position to influence the life of a young person positively.

In the original #YouthWagingPeace publication, the team had compiled action guidelines from each chapter and for every stakeholder and published them at the beginning of the guide. The team wanted the action guidelines to be easily accessible for anyone interested in taking action to prevent violent extremism through education.

To further promote the accessibility of these key guidelines, UNESCO MGIEP published the abridged version, highlighting strategies for implementation and immediate action. In the #YouthWagingPeace - Action Guidelines for Prevention of Violent Extremism, stakeholders will find a curated set of critical ideas and lessons gleaned from the full guide, designed to be as accessible as possible. We hope that teachers, parents, mentors, school administrators, policymakers, and anyone else committed to realizing positive change will find the abridged version an effective resource for guiding immediate and effective actions in their communities.

To take this a notch further, our Canadian partners have translated the guidelines into French and #YouthWagingPeace – Action Guidelines for Prevention of Violent Extremism is now available for education stakeholders in French-speaking countries.

The launch event

In their inaugural remarks, Dr. Herman Okomba De-Parice, Executive Director, Centre for Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence; Anantha K. Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP; Ms. Maria Mourani, Representative of the Government of Quebec in the Permanent Delegation of Canada to UNESCO, and Mr. Sébastien Goupil, Secretary-General, CCUNESCO reiterated the importance of arts for prevention of violent extremism. Both invoked the importance of synergy and the necessity of bringing young people into the centre.

The inaugural was followed by a lively panel discussion comprising majorly of a diverse group of youth leading change in the various spheres of arts and education for prevention of violent extremism.

Mr Vivek Venkatesh, Concordia University, Director & Principal Investigator at Project Someone and UNESCO co-Chair in prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism was joined on the panel by Eldiablo, illustrator Radicalishow 2 comic book; Ms Aniqah Zowmi, lead author of #YouthWagingPeace; Elisa F. Mondésir Villefort, Project Officer - Community Outreach, Forum Jeunesse de l’Île de Montreal; and Félix Delage-Laurin, Artistic co-director, Les Pentures Collective  joined minds and exchanged encouraging ideas on what is being done, as well as what needs to be done.

What next?

#YouthWagingPeace India launch and the first of the planned regional capacity building workshop for education stakeholders (young educators) is coming up on 25 May 2018 in New Delhi, India, together with the YESPeace network partners’ meeting and the announcement of the International Youth Campaign on Kindness for the SDGs.

The team is currently working with partners in the Middle East and Northern Africa for the Arabic translation. There are plans for Spanish translation as well.

Lastly, UNESCO MGIEP would like to reiterate its gratitude to Dr Herman Okomba De-Parice, Executive Director, Centre for Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence and his team, especially Ms Anamaria Cardona for not only spearheading the French translation, but for being the first to partner us on this, and many other important projects on prevention of violent extremism through education.

We hope to continue working together towards our shared goal of a just, compassionate and more peaceful societies.

Download your copy of the French version of the Action Guidelines here: http://etsijavaistort.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/Guide-Paixparlesjeunes_CPRMV.pdf

Download your copy of the #YouthWagingPeace here: https://bit.ly/3kGTFYJ

For more information, contact:

Mr Simon KUANY – s.kuany@unesco.org

Mr Adithya PILLAI – a.pillai@unesco.org

Ms Radhika BHATNAGAR – r.bhatnagar@unesco.org