enlace | Conclusions and Recommendations – 4th Andean Meeting of Peace: contribution from education, cultural and linguistic diversity to peace

On 3 and 4 July, UNESCO Office in Quito will celebrate the IV Andean Meeting for Peace in Quito, in the Auditorium of FLACSO Ecuador (the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences). UNESCO Office in Quito has organized this event in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility; The National Council for the Equality of Peoples and Nationalities; ONU Mujeres; FLACSO Ecuador; the UNESCO Chair on Culture and Education for Peace (UTPL Ecuador); and the Particular Technical University of Loja (UTPL).

The main objective of this event consist in building a regional gathering space for dialogue between local, regional and national governments, civil society, academy, non-governmental organizations and international cooperation. It is expected that the meeting will provide some useful critical elements for drawing attention to the loss of the indigenous languages and its impacts on cultural diversity, survival of ancestral knowledge and the sustainable environmental management. The event will also seek to highlight measures and actions for preservation of languages, revitalization and promotion, within the general framework of the rights of indigenous population. Moreover, another important point of the IV Andean Meeting for Peace will be stressing the nature of the language as a key social factor for building a unique understanding of the world, in accordance with their cultural particularities, as well as its value as a mechanism for multiplying wide and complex knowledge and fundamental for the identity of indigenous people.

A culture of durable and sustainable peace and non-violence with Human Rights-based approach, as well as relevant in the context of local realities, requires the inclusion of indigenous communities in a process of a participative building, prioritizing the cross-cutting themes of gender, youth, intercultural dialogue, multidimensional poverty and environment.
The specific objectives of the event are the following:
1. Support the political dialogue for strengthening the inclusion of indigenous peoples in the decision making about environmental issues, peace, interculturality, mother-tongue education and the Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development.
2. Socialize experiences and learnings about different regional practices for the preservation of indigenous languages and its impact in the culture of peace.
3. Create spaces for reflection about core issues indigenous women leaders, bilingual-intercultural education, the presence of the indigenous peoples in the media, the importance of indigenous peoples in the conversation about cultural heritage.
4. Disseminate current information about the situation of indigenous languages in the world, with emphasis on Latin America.