THE SEVILLE STATEMENT 0N VIOLENCE

"The same species who invented war is capable of inventing peace"

Support Network c/o David Adams, Wesleyan Psychologv Dept
Middletown, Connecticut. USA, 06457

NEWSLETTER — VOLUME 3. NUMBER 3. MARCH. 1989

--- The Seville Statement on Violence, with its message of hope in
this time of danger and dramatic change, is serving as the inspiration
for another statement, to be known as the Statement of Yamoussoukro.
The Statement of Yamoussoukro will be drafted and adopted at an
International Congress on Peace in the Minds of Men to be held in
Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, from 26 June to 1 July, 1989. The Congress
is being organized by UNESCO in collaboration with the International
Foundation Houphouet-Boigny for Peace. In addition to drafting the
new Statement of Peace in the Minds of Men, the Congress plans to
endorse the Seville Statement on Violence "as a means to overcome
biological myths that are an obstacle to peace."

--- The Yamoussoukro Congress will be another step towards the goal
of adoption of the Seville Statement on Violence by the General Con—
ference of UNESCO this fall. Isidoro Alonso Hinojal, the Executive
Secretary of the Spanish National Commission of UNESCO. is presenting
the Statement in April to the European UNESCO Commissions as a preview
of the General Conference presentation by the Spanish Government. I
circulated his letter (see cooy enclosed) to Seville Network Supporters
in Europe, asking that they use the letter as the basis for approaches
to their National Commissions. The plans for the submission by Spain
to the UNESCO General Conference are described in the enclosed response
by UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor to the letter of Santiago
Genoves that was circulated in our newsletter of May, 1938.
 
--- Many of you have already approached your UNESCO National Commission
for support. Enclosed, as a model. is the letter from Themba Mpofu of
Zimbabwe. Dimitra Papadopoulou of Thessaloniki, Greece, also sent us
a Copy of her letter to the Greek UNESCO Commission. In Finland. Riitta
Wahlstrom met with the head of the Finnish UNESCO Commission who promised
to support the Statement. In France. Pierre Karli and Jean Dausset are
working on support from the UNESCO Commission, and Dausset, the Nobel
Laureate, has written for support to French President Francois Mitterand.
In Norway. thanks to Kirsten Kiellerup, the National Cornnission not only
has endorsed the Statement, but also has published a synopsis of it
in their newsletter UNESCO nytt (no. 4, 1988).

--- New organizational endorsements and initiatives are bringing the
message of the Seville Statement to ordinary people at the "grass roots"
where violence is so often an overwhelming day-to-day problem. Thanks
to the international dissemination of the Statement by the Baha'i
international Community (see enclosed letter from their UN representative
Victor de Araujo), the message is being used for peace in some of the
most difficult local situations. One such situation is Honduras, where
the Statement has been welcomed by the Honduras Spiritual Assembly of
Baha'i (letter enclosed). In a more recent letter, they say: "Here in
Honduras there is being carried out a dialogue at the national level
with persons in the government headed up by the President of the Republic
and other forces including the private press. union organizations. and
others. and one of the points on the agenda is concerned with violence.
We are planning to send these organizations the Spanish translation
of the Statement on Violence that you sent us."