… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …
An article from Agenparl
PREAMBLE
Assisi has, for centuries, been a city that speaks of peace to the world.
From Assisi comes Francis, whose eighth centenary we celebrate this year: a figure who bequeathed to history a humanism of peace founded on fraternity, the protection of creation, reconciliation between human beings and between humanity and the earth that hosts it. An embodied humanism, capable of bringing together differences, fragilities, and tensions without erasing them, and of inspiring profound reflection on human rights, on encounters between people, on respect for the environment, and on peace.
In that same historical period, the university as universitas took shape: a community of people and knowledge, a universal space for relationships, capable from its origins of crossing political, geographical, cultural, and religious boundaries. It is within this horizon that the University of Perugia was also born (1308), a living part of that universal tradition of knowledge.
Umbria continued to speak of peace even in the twentieth century: Aldo Capitini indicated a nonviolent path based on education, participation, and personal and collective responsibility.
For this reason, in Assisi, the University of Perugia, together with the universities and academic institutions gathered here, subscribes to the following principles, assuming a historical and public responsibility.
Photo from Universitá di Roma (click on image to enlarge)
Founding principles
The university as a universal space for relationships
The university was born as a universitas: an open community of students , professors, researchers, and all the staff (technicians, administrators, librarians, and cel) who make the life of the university possible, united by a love of knowledge and the method of free, democratic, and peaceful debate.
Its original vocation is not opposition, but relationship; Not identity-based closure, but openness;
Not separation, but encounter.
For this reason, the university is called to be a place where differences are not denied or erased, but inhabited, understood, and transformed into dialogue.
2. Peace as a process, not a slogan.
Peace is not a sudden event nor the result of a victory.
It is a long, patient, formative process.
Universities, by their very nature, operate over a long period of time: they educate, train,
support, and foster critical thinking and responsibility.
In this sense, peace is not an external addition to the university mission, but is an essential constitutive dimension.
3. Knowledge, responsibility and justice
Knowledge is not neutral.
All knowledge has an impact on the world, on people, on communities and therefore requires a sense of responsibility.
Universities are committed to:
• orienting research and teaching towards the common good;
• promoting a responsible use of technologies;
• addressing the great transformations of our time – environmental, social, digital – with ethical awareness.
Peace is inseparable from justice and equity, from sustainability and from caring for the environment that welcomes us and that we have a duty to preserve for future generations.
4. Universities, cities and territories: alliances for peace
Universities are not islands.
They live in cities, territories, and communities.
Being bridges of peace also means:
• building alliances between institutions;
• engaging in dialogue with social, cultural, civil, and productive realities;
• contributing to the human and sustainable development of territories.
Peace grows where relationships of trust and shared responsibility are forged.
5. Peace as a long path
Peace is not a destination, but a journey: it is built day after day, generation after generation. It is a long path that requires patience, perseverance, and vision.
Universities are called to travel it with a particular responsibility: to educate in critical thinking, to cultivate dialogue between cultures and knowledge, to dismantle prejudices through knowledge. It means recognizing that complexity is not resolved by force, but by intelligence and empathy; that conflict cannot be erased, but is overcome with tools of reason and care.
This path passes through classrooms, laboratories, libraries, and seminars; through research focused on humanity’s common problems; through exchanges between students from different countries; through the rejection of any knowledge that becomes an instrument of oppression.
Lasting peace is built by forming free consciences and open minds, capable of recognizing the other not as an enemy, but as a partner. It is a work of attention, listening and responsibility: it is not immediate, it cannot be simplified, it cannot be reduced to slogans.
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Where is peace education taking place?
University campus peace centers, What is happening on your campus?
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6. Spirituality, values and protection of humanity
In a secular and welcoming way, this Charter recognizes that peace is expressedalso starting from a profound reflection on the spiritual values that cross cultures.
Universities welcome dialogue between different spiritualities, with the aim of safeguarding humanity, which is completed by:
• safeguarding the dignity of each person;
• recognizing the value of relationships;
• maintaining an ethical approach in times of great transformations, including those related to artificial intelligence.
7. Universities as bridges of peace in the world
In a world crossed by conflicts, polarizations, and new forms of division, universities reaffirm their role as:
• spaces for dialogue;
• places where differences meet;
• laboratories for a shared future.
Dialogue only makes sense if it is inhabited within a relational universality that fully recognizes the other. Universities choose to be bridges, not walls.
CONCLUSION
This Charter is not a point of arrival, but a commitment, signed and shared.
Universities are committed to educating for Peace, practicing Peace, and building peaceful relationships through actions such as establishing degree programs on Peace issues, establishing chairs or courses on Peace issues, establishing working groups to evaluate agreements between and with universities in conflict contexts, establishing Peace Study Centers , developing international networks on Peace issues, or any other action with the same general goals.
Possible Actions
• Establish degree programs on Peace issues;
Peace requires specific and interdisciplinary skills, capable of understanding the roots of conflicts and imagining paths to reconciliation.
We need mediation professionals, international cooperation experts, and dialogue builders.
• Establish chairs or courses on Peace issues;
Integrating this dimension into all educational programs, as the culture of peace cannot be a marginal specialization: it must cross disciplines, since all knowledge can and must be oriented towards building bridges of peace.
• Establish working groups to evaluate agreements between and with universities in conflict-affected contexts; Taking ethical responsibility for their collaborations, universities commit to rigorously and transparently evaluating every partnership, exchange, and funding, the moral and political implications of which must be assessed.
• Establish Peace Study Centers; Permanent places of research, documentation, and reflection. Centers that can become points of reference for scholars, policymakers, and civil society; laboratories for developing analyses, proposing solutions, and preserving the memory of conflicts and their resolutions.
• Developing international networks on the themes of Peace.
Peace is by definition a global common good. Universities must forge alliances that transcend political borders, creating communities of research and practice that overcome national divisions, building bridges where others raise walls.
Assisi, 25 February 2026
Université Catholique de Lyon (Founded in 1875) Pr. Grégory Woimbée
Universidad de Guadalajara (Founded in 1792) Prof.ssa Karla Planter Pérez
Agricultural University of Tirana (Founded in 1951) Prof.ssa Erinda Lika e Prof.ssa Koto Romina
Université Clermont Auvergne (Founded in 1519) Prof.ssa Marie-Elisabeth Baudoin
Università degli Studi di Siena (Fondata nel 1240) Prof. Gianluca Navone
Università degli Studi di Macerata (Fondata nel 1290) Prof. John Francis McCourt
Sapienza Università di Roma (Fondata nel 1303) Prof. Fabio Sciarrino
Università degli Studi di Perugia (Fondata nel 1308) Prof. Massimiliano Marianelli
Università degli Studi di Firenze (Fondata nel 1321) Prof.ssa Maria Paola Monaco
Università degli Studi di Camerino (Fondata nel 1336) Prof. Graziano Leoni
Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo (Fondata nel 1506) Prof. Giorgio Calcagnini
Università degli Studi dell’Aquila (Fondata nel 1596) Prof. Fabio Graziosi
Università per Stranieri di Perugia (Fondata nel 1925) Prof. Valerio De Cesaris
Università del Salento (Fondata nel 1955) Prof. Salvatore Rizzello
Università degli Studi “G. D’Annunzio” Chieti Pescara (Fondata nel 1965) Prof. Liborio Stuppia
Polytechnic University of Marche (Founded in 1969) Prof. Enrico Quagliarini
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