Statement by GENE on the war and aggression against Ukraine
As an organisation that works with ministries and agencies across Europe, for international solidarity, human rights and global social justice through education, we watch the developments in Ukraine with horror and ask ourselves – how can we be useful?
We stand in solidarity with our friends and colleagues in Ukraine, as they stand up to a bigger and more powerful aggressor. We hope and believe that you will prevail.
We recognise that this solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues does not diminish our solidarity with others in similar situations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. On the contrary: the global and local causes and effects of war, aggression, and injustice, wherever it happens around the globe, are and will remain at the heart of global education.
We also stand in solidarity with Russian human rights activists, civil servants, human rights defenders, LGBTQI activists, academics and all Russian citizens protesting against the war. We applaud your bravery and believe that you will also prevail.
We have no sanctions to impose; our work is about improving education policy, research and practice, so that issues of human rights, peace, sustainability, social justice and solidarity are at the core of what all people in Europe learn.
So what can we do? How can we assist those who today, and tomorrow, teach concerned children in classrooms, or lead and empower young people in youth organisations, or facilitate lifelong learning, all over Europe? How can the situation in Ukraine – and other situations of human rights abuse, invasion, occupation, and impoverishment, globally - be approached and understood and meaningfully responded to in ways that are more likely to assure a better, more peaceful future? How can we offer support? Here’s how:
We have started to collect a small list of educational resources that might be useful in enabling the difficult conversations to happen, to assist teachers, educators and young people to be able to discuss, process, analyse and critically engage with what is happening in Europe today, and specifically in Ukraine.
See below.
More resources will be added as they become available.
To the wider community of Global Education professionals, policymakers, practitioners, educators and learners across Europe – we applaud your work already on this, and simply want to amplify what is being gathered at national and international level. We know that you have many more resources to draw on and would hope that you might share what you have.
Please get in touch and share other resources, also in other languages, that focus on peace education, the causes of war, conflict-resolution, the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, multilateralism, anti-discrimination education, human rights education, and/or the effects of war on human security, poverty and the environment with your networks and with GENE. We will pass them on...
In solidarity,
The GENE Secretariat
Liam Wegimont, GENE Executive Director
Professor Annette Scheunpflug, GENE Chairperson
This website was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union and the Ministries and Agencies that support GENE. Its contents are the sole responsibility of GENE and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.