The “Leaders for Peace” international campaign on Peace, Youth and Human Rights promoted by Rondine Cittadella della Pace has a second institutional signatory. After the formal commitment by the government of Italy and its Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who signed the campaign Appeal a year ago, the government of Costa Rica decided to join “Leaders for Peace” and Rondine’s international students in promoting concrete commitments in the training of young, international peace leaders and in spreading the teaching of Human Rights.
The campaign Appeal has been signed yestereday, 23 July 2020 by the Ambassador of Costa Rica to Italy, H.E. Ronald Flores Vega, at the Embassy’s premises in Rome, Italy. The Ambassador has signed the Appeal on behalf of his government in front of Rondine’s president and founder, Franco Vaccari, and one among the many alumni of the organization, Yanine, connected from her home city in Colombia.
“On behalf of the Government of Costa Rica and of the Costa Rican Embassy to Italy, we thank Rondine, its experience, and the Leaders for Peace global campaign – the Ambassador said – We are extremely glad to mark, today, a concrete step for all countries, for all peoples living in the world. Tha campaign represents a concrete proposal, based on projects Rondine already developed all over the world. I think that other states should also endorse Leaders for Peace, that all states could sign this Appeal soon.”
The government of the Republic of Costa Rica, by joining “Leaders for Peace”, actualizes its full support to the campaign and its values, focused on the training of young, bright peace leaders and the promotion of peacebuilding, and creative conflict transformation. Costa Rica is among the very few countries without an army. The country, indeed, decided to renounce to its armed forces at the end of the civil war in 1949, a decision confirmed by its commitment to neutrality in international relations, stated in 1983. All savings from the abolition of the army were devoted to other sectors and to education. This unique history and commitment led to remarkably high scores in terms of human development: Costa Rica has one among Latin America’s highest literacy rates (over 95%) and invested heavily on sustainable development and the protection of natural habitats. Moreover, Costa Rica hosts the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and UPEACE, the UN’s University for Peace. Óscar Arias Sánchez, who was elected as President of the country in 1986, was later assigned the Nobel Peace Prize for his peace plan for Central America.
“When our students launched the campaign at the UN in New York, in late 2018 – says the President and Founder of Rondine, Franco Vaccari – their Appeal and requests for the leaders of the world were perceived as utopic, as an impossible task. Today, despite the pandemic currently challenging global governance structures at the global level, we see that the international community recognizes the need to train a new generation of young leaders for the world to come. We are honored by the decision by the government of Costa Rica to join our international campaign by signing our Appeal. It is a common commitment, the start of a new collaboration: the one of building together new paths for peace”.
The Leaders for Peace campaign, launched by Rondine at the end of 2018 and today in its second year of activities, asks all 193 UN member states to invest in a new, young peace leadership through the support to scholarships for promising young people and, at the same time, to include the teaching of human rights in their national school curricula with the help and support of the Rondine Method. In May 2020 the campaign sees the official support of the Italian government, the moral endorsement of the President of the Italian Republic and the Holy Father, and boasts a series of international supporters for its high-level events such as Jordan, Armenia, Sierra Leone, the European Union, as well as important statements of affinity from other countries and international institutions.
