Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens

Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens has been held in India and Bangladesh since last July with the participation of graduates from Bangladesh's Empowerment through Law of the Common People (ELCOP), an NGO, who completed the DPCW Handbook Discussion Project earlier this year, and the students from the University of Dhaka, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies. This educational program is expected to continue in 2022 after completing the second class related to “Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens: DPCW Article 2” by December.

Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens is a project that educates citizens so that they can easily understand the 10 Articles and 38 Clauses of the DPCW. The educational program was created with animation and video lectures so that even those who do not know the law in detail can easily understand the DPCW. Since the lecture videos explain the articles of the DPCW in detail through various examples, it is expected that the DPCW will be delivered in an easy and familiar way to the citizens.

▲ Animated video introducing the DPCW

The students who participated in the Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens said that after watching the DPCW animation video, they understood the DPCW more easily than seeing it as a text (legal document). In addition, they said that they hope that the DPCW will be legislated as an international law while seeing a happy future in which citizens make efforts (to achieve peace), and peace is realized through peace education in the midst of conflicts such as wars and human rights violations occurring around the world. They also said that they were able to simply grasp the core of the DPCW content through the video lectures of the Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens about each article of the DPCW. The contents that consist of the situation of each country helped them understand the DPCW in depth. Above all, they were able to understand the current situation of the world and realized the importance of the relationship between the DPCW and peace.

The students of the University of Dhaka, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies in Bangladesh, Ms. Marjakul Binte Adzal, Mr. Mohammad Mahfujur Rahman, and Mr. Md Zarif Rahman who participated in the 2nd Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens: DPCW Article 2 were particularly impressed by the ability to transform a lethal weapon into something beautiful such as a building or sculpture. They said that they hope that there will be more peace negotiations in the world through the DPCW. In addition, after watching the video lecture on Article 2 of the DPCW, the students said that they knew what citizens should and can do for disarmament and the elimination of nuclear weapons and expressed their will to start with what they can do.

After that, the students expressed their feelings and realizations during the education through task performance. The students did not stop there, but also shared what they were inspired and what they learned by posting them on social media such as Facebook and Instagram. They are trying to spread a culture of peace by promoting the importance of peace, HWPL, and the DPCW on social media.

▲ Caption: Tasks of the students who participated in the DPCW Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens

Unlike this education conducted in English, in 2022, students participating in the DPCW Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens will give lectures to citizens of their own countries in their native language. The love of Bangladeshis for their mother tongue is so extraordinary that UNESCO designated International Mother Language Day in 1999 to commemorate the struggles of Bangladeshis to find their mother tongue. Therefore, it will be particularly significant that the DPCW Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens will be conducted through native speakers in their native language.

One of the lecturers, Ms. Mahabuba Islam Meem, a student at the University of Dhaka, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, expressed her ambition as a lecturer saying that she hopes that many people will become messengers of the culture of peace after being inspired by her lectures and that many women would participate and have the conviction that “Peace is possible.”

Meanwhile, prior to this DPCW Peace Culture Education based on the DPCW for Citizens, HWPL Western Busan & Gyeongnam conducted the DPCW Handbook Discussion Project for six months from the end of last year to the beginning of this year for lawyers and law students in India and Bangladesh. Afterwards, the results of the project were produced in a booklet, delivered to high-level officials in each country, and promoted. In the midst of this, the DPCW Citizens Peace Culture Education was planned and conducted to inform the citizens of the importance of DPCW and peace.