by Michèle de Gastyne. (* HRE = Human Rights Education)
It may seem counter–intuitive to talk about Human Rights and Peace Education in the middle of the tragic wars, including a genocide sparing no one, which are raging on our planet, killing tens of thousands of children.
And during– as Canadian Jewish origin writer Naomi KLEIN pointed out last week at Columbia University, — what in Palestine has been referred to as “scholasticide” being carried out : EVERY university has been flattened in Gaza, and hundreds of academics, journalists and poets killed by Israel’s occupation army.
Education takes time to change a society, you may say. And here we need immediate solutions !
Indeed, that is true too…
But if we want sustainable peace anywhere, we must think ahead. Let’s reflect on this:
If children had received humanistic, human rights education since 40 years ago on both sides of the siege walls around Gaza, that wall would not be standing now. The very concept underlying the existing Apartheid, which places Palestinians in a sub-human category vis-à-vis the Jewish Israelis, would not hold water socially. And therefore, another system based on equality would have been put in place long ago. They would have found solutions naturally, based on mutual respect of their common humanity.
For this reason, we at MUAC have decided to focus on Human Rights Education for our JazzDay 2024 conference. So here I’d like to highlight the determined efforts of a group of young leaders working in NGOs within the United Nations framework, and one person in particular named Elisa Gazzotti.
First, let’s go back a few years and I’ll work up to now chronologically :
On March 8, 2019, this young woman gave a report in front of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 40th session as Item 3 in their General Debate. It was titled “World Programme for Human Rights Education and Target 4.7 of the SDGs” (Sustainable Development Goals), speaking on behalf of 17 organizations. She spoke on training educators, creating tools for HR Education, what institutions could be partners and how young people’s voices should be reflected to ensure their ‘Plan of Action, and a World Programme which she laid out.
I first met Ms. Gazzotti in early October of 2019 when I attended the annual UN Social Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. She and her colleagues in the SGI Office for UN Affairs were in the UN cantine and Elisa invited me to her parallel event on Human Rights Education during a break.
Photo : Event was titled Youth as Ambassadors of HRE (Human Rights Education) Elisa is third from the right
I was so impressed: Here we had young people leading young people, determined to make a difference. And they represented youth from many different parts of the world.
The next time I saw Elisa she was in Paris at UNESCO for a colloquium on Human Rights Education called Transforming Lives. That was 13 December 2019, two months after meeting her in Geneva, and this time I saw another aspect of her work: She was not only with other young people, but accompanied by an array of persons, including state representatives and former leaders. And this initiative was, as is often the case, supported by the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and HRE 2020.
A moment that stands out in my memory : I’ll never forget one of the speakers said: in the 21st century, we need not only respect for human RIGHTS, but an awareness of human RESPONSIBILITIES….
Some time passes, and I see through social media Elisa has been in Jordan in the Middle East, with the incredible Amsterdam-based organization Musicians without Borders (www.musicianswithoutborders.org), which uses music for peacebuilding and social change. For more than one quarter century, they are concretely on the ground and international.
This rich collaboration gave birth on February 5, 2021, to AL-MUSIQA TAJM’ANA – MUSIC BRINGS US TOGETHER : The Launch of a New Project in Jordan
https://www.musicianswithoutborders.org/2021/02/05/al-musiqa-tjamana-music-brings-us-together-the-launch-of-a-new-project-in-jordan/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0huy52nqbHFGxXrHtcucdgFnPuNgvOQiGQ5AuAmxMytXL90Z66BAadPz8_aem_ASZDi7QD1zmFuZEluRkRBTksgM3EbQY9l8qBv_K1e2XzDF4SCMPC1kla0cDOoS2C8xM6FcPlJHhoIJ12x-JoM61U
FYI – Musicians without Borders presented mid April 2024 the Silkroad Ensemble and Palestinian Lullabies, and the Director’s blog post on April 15th calls for a Ceasefire Now! Freeing Palestine and Ending Apartheid.
Caption for the photo that says CHANGEMAKERS : Exchanges with young human rights educators taking part iincluded the SGI, Amnesty International the United Nations Human Rights Council for this collaborative project, Arditi auditorium, December 12, 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The film is about how young people in different cultural contexts have used Human Rights Education to make their societies more altruistic.
Finally, in the March 2024 issue of the magazine in France called Valeurs Humains, I found her quoted as a round-table speaker as a youth who wants “to contribute in building a society where respect of the dignity of each human life is truly the central question.”
I’d like to conclude this piece about Ms Gazzotti with what she shared regarding difficult moments she has lived in the last few years, in regards to how world events sometimes pushed her to doubt her ability to ‘make a difference’:
Elisa Gazzotti : For the launch of the documentary, I sometimes wondered about SGI’s role in this project with Amnesty International, and how to meet the late SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s expectations. I realized that, even if these two organizations work together, at the end of the day we’re all human, with all our varying states of life. I went back to studying Daisaku Ikeda’s peace proposals, to understand SGI’s unique contribution to human rights education. And I was particularly inspired by this quote:
« (…) The true meaning of human rights education and training programs goes far beyond the mere acquisition of specific knowledge or a set of skills-it rekindles our desire to perceive that we share a common humanity with those who are different from us and enables us to weave the bonds of a common social life. » – (Proposal for Peace 2018 by Dr. Daisaku Ikeda – Towards an era of human rights: building a movement. Page 30 in Discours et Entretiens. )
Responding to hopes, for me and my fellow SGI colleagues, means truly cherishing and embracing the people we work with. Consequently, this new attitude changed the mood in our team, and at the end of the project I was told that, as SGI representatives, we really could be a bridge between the three organizations.
Finally, December 10, 2023, the day the project was launched, which coincided with a trying month for humanity where violence and disrespect for human rights were only getting worse, and people were losing confidence in human rights organizations. I began to doubt, to desperately question this work, to wonder if we were really contributing to world peace.
But I determined to return to what Daisaku Ikeda said on the subject: « In some respects, the United Nations has failed to keep pace with the changing realities of our times, and there certainly remain many major obstacles and criticisms that it has not yet overcome. Nevertheless, as long as there are people in this world suffering, living under threats and crises, we absolutely cannot afford to neglect the great value and mission of the UN. «
I’d like to conclude my comments here, with a deep prayer for the continuing success of Ms. Elisa Gazzotti and all her young friends around the world, hoping that waves and waves of more young people will join them.
- Michèle de Gastyne, President of MUAC
Inspired by Humanistic Soka Education philosophy 