… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …
A page from Linked-in of Edvard Grigoryan
From declarations to action — translating peace into something you can actually feel.
This June, I had the honor of being one of 42 youth leaders from 33 countries selected to take part in the 12th Youth Leadership Workshop on GCED in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
The theme couldn’t have spoken more directly to my work in Peace and Conflict Resolution: “Translating Peace into Action: Leveraging Media and the Arts for Youth Advocacy.”
We kept returning to one question that has stayed with me since:
“Do we have the courage to face the realities of our time, and allow ourselves to feel deeply enough that it transforms us and our future?”
Over five intensive days, we moved beyond theory and into practice. A few moments that marked me:
→ A keynote on whether youth can truly promote peace in an era of global crisis
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Where is peace education taking place?
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→ A powerful session on the Art of Peacebuilding through Theatre of the Oppressed, turning conflict into embodied understanding
→ Hands-on labs on Media and Information Literacy and countering hate speech — essential skills for anyone working in conflict-sensitive spaces
→ Confronting ethics and empathy in the age of AI
→ A deeply moving visit to the War & Women’s Human Rights Museum, a reminder of why this work matters
→ And throughout it all, designing real, community-based action plans we’ll carry home
What made this experience extraordinary was the people — peacemakers, artists, journalists, and changemakers from every corner of the world, all proving that peace is not a policy text. It’s something we build, practice, and live every day.
This workshop was made possible by UNESCO Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) and the UNESCO MGIEP Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, in partnership with the GCED Youth Network — a remarkable demonstration of UNESCO’s commitment to equipping young people to lead transformative change.
For someone whose path is rooted in peace and conflict resolution, this was more than a workshop. It was a reminder that the most durable peace begins with empathy — and that media and the arts may be among our most underused tools for advocacy.
Grateful, energized, and ready to translate this into action.
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