Abstract
Following the Sixth Coloquio International Sobre Cerebroy Agresion a special conference was held to draft a Statement on Violence for submission to UNESCO for worldwide dissemination in the International Year of Peace. The Statement on Violence was patterned on the Statement on Race, drafted under UNESCO sponsorship by an international committee of scientists in 1949 and amended in 1951, 1967, and 1978. The drafting conference took place on May 14–16, 1986, at Seville, Spain.
The idea of a Statement on Violence was first mooted at a biennial meeting of the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) and subsequently developed through discussions in ISRA. However, the Statement is not formally sponsored by ISRA or UNESCO. It is an independent initiative.
The purpose of a Statement on Violence is to provide a clear, simple statement of the principle, accepted by most scientists and scholars in the relevant disciplines, that biological factors are not an insurmountable obstacle to the achievement of world peace. The need for the Statement has been felt because research shows that (1) young people in many countries often believe that warfare is an intrinsic part of human nature, and (2) the young people who hold this belief are less likely than others to take an active part in the struggle for peace.
The Statement on Violence does not deal with all questions relating to violence It focusses on only one: how far biological factors pose an insurmountable obstacle to world peace?
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