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«"(...) we can think of this day as an opportunity to analyze and reflect on building and education for peace, and the challenges it presents to universities.".
«"We live in complex times, marked by diverse crises, violence, and recurring conflicts, with a yearning for greater well-being, which is felt in different areas of social life. Universities are not exempt from this. Coexistence and mental health have been affected, a situation that has worsened since the pandemic, generating unease and concern within universities.".
By Rosa María Olave Robert, President of the CRUCH Commission on University Coexistence and Mental Health *
Six years after April 15th was established in Chile as the National Day of Peace through culture, arts and heritage - by law 21.099 - it makes sense to highlight the meaning of this date, and to reflect on the implications and challenges it presents.
The law establishes as its objective to set up a day to commemorate, celebrate, and rediscover annually the meaning, importance, and enduring value of peace.
Among its considerations, the initiative highlights the importance of peace as a determining element of social and international harmony, which, despite being achieved only in certain periods of history, is always an ideal for every people and every era, a foundation upon which any possibility of full human development is built.
A first reflection we can make is about what meanings the word PEACE has.
According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, peace is understood as a situation in which there is no armed conflict within a country or between countries. A second definition states that it is a harmonious relationship between people, without confrontations or conflicts. A third meaning refers to an agreement reached between nations that ends a war.
Upon reviewing these definitions, we can say that we tend to understand peace negatively, that is, as the absence of undesirable conditions. However, it is important to understand peace positively.
Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung developed a positive-negative peace theory based on a view of human beings as capable of peace. According to Galtung, peace is creativity, nonviolence, and empathy. It also encompasses all those situations where nonviolence is chosen—that is, everything that helps us to be happier and live with greater well-being.
The author proposes "if you want peace, prepare for peace," which opens the possibility for humanity to observe an anthropology that trusts in human beings, in the mechanisms of peaceful conflict resolution, in the construction of peace, and in the strengthening of ethics.
While Galtung views peace in its positive dimension, he also acknowledges the existence of conflict, but argues that it is both crisis and opportunity, a natural and permanent feature of human existence, a situation that combines incompatible objectives that are confronted with creativity, empathy, and nonviolence. At this point, a suitable theory of conflict focuses on the fact that conflicts develop in personal, interpersonal, and institutional spheres, and are expressed in attitudes, behaviors, and contradictions that, if left unaddressed, tend to damage individuals, relationships, and their environment.
Another author, Adam Curle, a pioneer in the study of this topic, argues that peace is not simply about calm and order; it also requires justice and that power should not be concentrated in only one side. He also tells us that making peace involves, on the one hand, transforming violent situations, and on the other, modifying structures of injustice.
The consideration of peace as one of the highest and most desired ideals conceived by humanity, a multi-dimensional value that emerges in all areas of human existence, and which, consequently, transcends the limits of the negative conception of it, is the key that allows us to understand the conceptualization of peace from the perspective of positive peace.
Considering the above, we can think of this day as an opportunity to analyze and reflect on the construction and education for peace, and the challenges it presents to universities.
We live in complex times, marked by diverse crises, violence, and recurring conflicts, with a yearning for greater well-being that permeates various spheres of social life. Universities are no exception. Coexistence and mental health have been affected, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic, generating unease and concern within universities.
In this context, in mid-2022 the Council of Rectors adopted the agreement to create the Commission on Mental Health and University Coexistence, a permanent body, made up of representatives of the universities that are part of CRUCH.
During more than a year of work by the commission, it has been possible to share diagnoses of the problems in mental health and coexistence, as well as the different initiatives that have been implemented to address these situations.
Spaces have also been opened for students to share the projects they have promoted to prevent mental health problems and improve relationships within the university community, through greater inclusion, participation, and the creation of meeting spaces.
In addition, training opportunities have been created for the teams of the CRUCH universities on topics such as suicide prevention, skills for dialogue, development of skills in the classroom, tools for the implementation of restorative practices in the university context, among others.
One of the main challenges for the commission in 2024, and within the framework of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of CRUCH, is the preparation of a document that provides guidelines for a mental health and university coexistence policy, in order to collaborate in the construction of university communities with higher levels of well-being.
Ultimately, the goal is to contribute to a more democratic society and to building social peace. All social institutions must participate in this effort, especially those directly involved in education, from families to universities.
It is worth recalling that, in 1996, the report to UNESCO by the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century established that learning to live together was one of the four pillars of education. Therefore, fostering coexistence increases the ethical capital of a society.
* Rosa María Olave is the Director of the Mediation and Conflict Resolution Program at the Faculty of Law of the Alberto Hurtado University
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