… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …
An article by Jonathan Álvarez in Yo Ciudadano (translation by CPNN)
Organized civil society in Ciudad Juárez is promoting the national consolidation of the General Law on a Culture of Peace and Reconciliation, which will be presented to the Senate of the Republic in the next legislative session in September.
This Wednesday (July 9), a series of dialogues and working groups began at the State Commission on Human Rights (CEDH), with the participation of nearly 25 civil society organizations that contributed their proposals to enrich the law’s content.
The working groups included the topics of disability, gender violence, childhood, youth, and security and justice.
The initiative for the law was promoted by organized civil society in Ciudad Juárez and aims to “inject a culture of peace into the country,” said one of its main promoters, Silvia Aguirre Lomelí, director of the Family Center for Integration and Growth (CFIC).
“With this law, we will educate from preschool to postdoctoral levels in peace strategies such as mediation, restorative justice, rebuilding the social fabric, and emotional literacy,” she explained.
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Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?
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Aguirre Lomelí recalled that the idea and need for the creation of the General Law for a Culture of Peace and Reconciliation initiative arose from the effects of one of the most violent periods in Juárez, 2008-2009.
She added that, since the formation of the CFIC association 15 years ago, the need to promote this law was identified after meeting people affected by violence and the pain it generates.
After knocking on several doors with federal public servants, this year the bill was revived by Senator Juan Carlos Loera de la Rosa (Morena), who organized discussions to strengthen the bill.
“This law aims to reach the deepest reaches of society and institutions to foster, from the roots, the establishment of a culture of peace and reconciliation in our country in schools and other institutions,” he stated in an interview.
Loera de la Rosa said the law would be introduced in the next legislative session, which runs from September to December of this year.
For her part, Sandra Ramírez, director of the civil association Colectiva Arte, Comunidad y Equidad, believed the new law should articulate other laws that have justice as a cross-cutting theme.
“Justice must come first to put victims at the center, and with this comes a state of peace (…) it must reflect a state of peace, but not understood as the absence of conflict, but rather as the administration of justice,” she emphasized. She added that the expectation is that the dialogue and promotion of this law will bring the issue of peace and justice back into the public eye.
On the other hand, Leslie Molina, director of the Somos Autistas Juárez association, which serves children with neurodivergences, considered it essential that the law consider the eradication of all forms of discrimination as an important attribute for peace.
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