Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica - Costa Rica is a country rapidly gaining in popularity as an eco-tourist destination. Located south of Nicaragua and north of Panama in Central America, this small country of about three million people is famous for its rainforests, exotic wildlife, and volcanoes. What is not so well known is that Costa Rica is the only country in the world that has voluntarily disbanded its military - a testimony to the world that it is possible to live in a war-torn region, and still be a model for peace.
Costa Rica, and Ciudad Colon are also home to the United Nations-mandated University for Peace, a unique educational institution that has been set up with the intention of preparing a new generation of peace-oriented people to enter the workforce with a commitment to change the world.
A short 15 minute bus ride up the picturesque hills above this town brings students and visitors to the University. Established in December 1980 as a Treaty Organization by the UN General Assembly, the Charter of the University states the mission of the University for Peace is to: “provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations.”
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Picture of the monument at UPeace park
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This independent Charter, which has beenendorsed by the UPEACE Council, was approved by the UN General Assembly to ensure academic freedom. The University. is not subject to UN regulations and is directed by its own Council. This has allowed the University to move rapidly and to innovate, focusing its new, rigorous academic program on the fundamental causes of conflict through a multidisciplinary, multicultural-oriented approach.
The wider mission of the University should be seen in the context of the worldwide peace and security objectives of the United Nations: The central importance of education, training and research in all their aspects to build the foundations of peace and progress and to reduce the prejudice and hatred on which violence, conflict and terrorism are based is increasingly recognized. The Charter of the University calls for UPEACE “
to contribute to the great universal task of educating for peace by engaging in teaching, research, post-graduate training and dissemination of knowledge fundamental to the full development of the human person and societies through the interdisciplinary study of all matters related to peace.”
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