People are already engaged:                                                                                                  

The Manifesto 2000 for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence           

The Manifesto 2000 for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence was drafted by a group of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, to express the principles of a Culture of Peace in terms relevant to everyday life.

The Manifesto 2000 aims at fostering individual awareness and commitment: it is not an appeal, nor is it a petition addressed to governments or higher authorities. It is a pledge to be signed by each individual that he or she will practice the principles of a Culture of Peace.

As the United Nations System co-ordinating body for the preparation of the International Year for the Culture of Peace, UNESCO is responsible for distributing the Manifesto 2000 all over the world, as well as collecting 100 million signatures (insofar as possible via Internet) to present to the General Assembly of the millennium in September 2000. Hence, UNESCO is launching an appeal to all organizations, institutions and governments to disseminate and sign the Manifesto 2000. This appeal goes also to personalities from the world of politics, as well as to intellectuals and artists.

Due to the scope of the campaign, the use of Internet is fundamental for the diffusion of the Manifesto 2000, as well as for the collection of the signatures. You are urged to develop a collection strategy for the signatures on international, national and local levels, emphasizing the use of Internet where possible and using other methods where Internet is not available.

A Website is already available for the collection of signatures, which will include the names of all the signatories: www.unesco.org/manifesto2000. Each organization is invited to enter signatures by way of its Internet Account Number that will indicate how many signatures they have collected. If you or your partners have a Website, the easiest way is to link your site directly to the Manifesto site.Other ways of using the Internet are possible and described in the kit "Manifesto 2000".

 In the event that no Internet alternatives are possible - you can always reproduce and distribute the leaflet, by inserting the address of your organization on the provided coupon. The signatures can then be gathered at events or sent back to you. The signature information can be entered later by various ways onto the Internet – as described in section 4. If this turns out to be impossible, we may need to develop together ways by which the number of signatures gathered by partners is acknowledged without actually entering the actual information on the Internet.

14 September 1999: The first Flagship Events took place on the official launch date of the International Year for the Culture of Peace (IYCP), 14 September 1999, which was the opening day of the last United Nations General Assembly before the Year 2000, and which was also the International Day of Peace. A letter from the Director-General was addressed to all the Heads of State of the UNESCO Member States, encouraging them to participate in the Day and to organize events on a national level. Similar letters have been sent to mayors, to parliaments and to university rectors.

Calendar: The designation of Flagship Events will be a major contribution to the development of a national calendar of events which the National Focal Point is expected to develop for the IYCP. This, in turn, will be the basis for the international calendar of events posted on the IYCP Internet site which may be reproduced in order to show the development of a Global Movement.

In order to establish and strengthen a Global Movement for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence, we need to support and engage more people in the many existing projects that are already working at a local level for the various aspects of a Culture of Peace. Information about these projects are entered by partners of the IYCP onto a special technical Website and made available on the public access IYCP Website. Everyone who visits the Internet sites for a Culture of Peace or who takes part in Flagship Events for the IYCP, and especially those who sign the Manifesto 2000, will then be invited to participate, according to their choice, in the projects that are taking place in their own locality. In this way, the pledge of each individual that is made when he or she signs the Manifesto can then be expressed through concrete actions in the community.

By entering the Local Projects on the Internet, the partner makes them part of an Internet list that is accessible to everyone and that makes known the global scale of the campaign. Furthermore, it makes possible a world-wide exchange of experiences, needs and responses of solidarity and co-operation among all those working for a Culture of Peace in everyday practice. Finally, it builds the base for a Global Movement for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence that will be further developed during the Decade.

Building a Global Movement is a long-term process. The International Year for the Culture of Peace in the Year 2000 is the launching point, and the process will be continued and further developed during the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

Therefore, the various partners as well as the National Focal Points for the International Year are encouraged to start planning now on a ten-year basis for the Decade as well as the Year. This has been included as a major step in the Partnership Agreement by which the partner contributes to the implementation plannining for the United Nations Programme of Action based on resolution A/53/243 of 13 September 1999.

All of the activities of the International Year (the diffusion and collection of signatures on the Manifesto, the media publicity, the Flagship Events, the establishment of a network of Local Projects) should be considered as the base that will be continued and expanded into a Global Movement during the Decade.