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Advancing Peace Culture in the B asque Autonomous Community: The B asque E ducation P lan for P eace and H uman R ights (2008–2011)
Author(s) -
Durkin Stuart A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/sena.12050
Subject(s) - panacea (medicine) , human rights , context (archaeology) , peacebuilding , political science , politics , principal (computer security) , public administration , civil society , plan (archaeology) , government (linguistics) , nationalism , exposition (narrative) , sociology , law , political economy , medicine , history , paleontology , art , linguistics , philosophy , alternative medicine , literature , archaeology , pathology , computer science , biology , operating system
Approved in D ecember 2007, the B asque E ducation P lan for P eace and H uman R ights (2008–2011) represents the most sophisticated policy development of its kind in over thirty years of autonomous governments. While by no means a panacea for ethno‐nationalist conflict in this context, the policy is nevertheless a significant development and carries the potential to make a substantial contribution to the cause of sustainable peacebuilding and reconciliation. By way of both an exposition of its principal aims and objectives, as well as an analysis of the political furore that accompanied its development, the article exposes the policy's principal limitation – its tendency towards indirectness. The article argues, however, that in structural terms peace education is advanced through the creation of a coordinating forum between the B asque government and organized B asque civil society. Moreover, despite this tendency towards indirectness, the policy initiates the necessary task of approaching issues hitherto largely avoided.