THE SEVILLE STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE "The same species who invented war is capable of inventing peace." Support Network c/o David Adams, Wesleyan Psychology Dept Middletown, Connecticut, USA. 06457 NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 4, NUMBER 2. MARCH, 1990 --- UNESCO will now disseminate the Seville Statement on Violence. Acting on the advice of Director-General Federico Mayor (his letter is enclosed) and the Yamoussoukro Declaration (distributed in this Newsletter last July), the General Conference of UNESCO voted in November to carry out the activities in Paragraph 25 which is enclosed here. Specifically. it calls for "dissemination in various languages of the Yamoussoukro Declaration and the Seville Statement on Violence." --- The significance of UNESCO dissemination is both practical and historical. On a practical level, it will now make available much more extensive networks to teach its message of optimism and peace. On an historical level, it reflects the worldwide movement from local and national initiatives to the development of a truly international social order based on democratic participation of all countries. The Seville Statement becomes another example of this movement, having progressed from the work of a small professional organization, the International Society for Research on Aggression, through various local and national initiatives, and finally having found a place in the official Program and Budget of UNESCO. --- UNESCO will go beyond simply disseminating the Seville Statement and will organize an "international interdisciplinary seminar to study the cultural and social causes of violence as a contribution to further reflection on the subject." The Seville Statement cleared the ground by establishing what war and violence cannot be blamed on. The new seminar will begin the task of building for peace by addressing the more difficult question of what can be blamed as the causes of war and violence. --- The work of UNESCO cannot replace the need to continue the initiatives by all of you in the Support Network. This newsletter will strive to coordinate our various initiatives with the efforts of UNESCO. --- Translations into four more languages are now available. A publication of the Statement in Hindi has been provided by S.L. Gandhi from the special report of the Anuvrat International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action. A Japanese translation was published by Takehiko Ito in SHINKAKEN-NYUUSU, the newsletter of the Japanese Research Association of Psychological Science, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 15-16, 1988. An Arabic translation has been provided and published by Seville signatory Taha Malasi who lives in Kuwait. And a Tamil publication is being prepared at the initiative of M. Aram of Shanti Ashram in India. --- Dissemination and publication of the Seville Statement on Violence continues to spread around the world, In New Zealand and Australia, it has been included in the teaching materials for teachers, published by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research and the Australian Council for Educational Research - a semi-annual publication called "set." Also in Australia. Keith Suter has published a synopsis and favorable review of the Statement in the magazine Scientists Against Nuclear Arms. In England, it has been published, along with critical comments, in Anthropology Today. In the Soviet Union it has been included in the display of the new Tashkent Peace Museum, under the initiative of its director, Ivan Melenevsky.