Why is education a useful tool for conflict prevention?

Education can play a key role in the preventing conflict and is therefore a key focus of the High Commissioner on National Minorities. Among other things, education can foster a sense of opportunity and belonging, accommodate diversity and languages, and allow for multiple views on history.

In this video, six experts in the field of education and minority rights elaborate on the question “Why is education a useful tool for conflict prevention?”. It was filmed during the 20^th Anniversary of The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities, which was celebrated 20-21 April 2016 in The Hague.

The experts are: Joke van der Leeuw-Roord, Founder and Special Adviser, EUROCLIO; Jan de Groof, Professor, College of Europe and University of Tilburg, UNESCO Chair for the Right to Education; Vesna Crnić-Grotić, Prof. Dr., Chair of the Committee of Experts, European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Council of Europe; Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, Head of Research, The Åland Islands Peace Institute; Fernand de Varennes, Dean of the Law Faculty of the University of Moncton in Canada; and Antti Korkeakivi, Chief, Indigenous Peoples and Minorities, OHCHR.

The two-day event gathered 180 participants from 32 OSCE participating States to assess two decades of The Hague Recommendations and to discuss reform to the education sector and accommodating diversity, language in multilingual educational contexts, and respect for diversity and pluralism in education content.