PRESS CONFERENCE ON LAUNCH OF 2007 PEACE AND COOPERATION SCHOOL AWARD

The Peace and Cooperation International School Award was a way to bring civilizations together and promote basic human rights, said members of the non-governmental organizations sponsoring the Award during its 2007 official launch at Headquarters this morning.

Joaquín Antuña, President and Founder of Peace and Cooperation, which had been sponsoring the Award for some 20 years, said that the current year’s theme was “My Right to Decide”, timed to mark next year’s sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Explaining how the competition worked, Nancy Rivard, President and Founder of Airline Ambassadors International, said that children up to age 8 would be asked to draw a picture depicting a happy world, children between 9 and 14 to create a poster and slogan promoting human rights and young people aged 15 and over to depict human rights by using a camera.  Teachers could also compete by organizing a party to celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The competition was taking place around the world and run in all six official United Nations languages.  The deadline for submission was 1 July, with an awards ceremony planned for next February.

Mr. Antuña said that bringing people together through schools was basic common sense.  “We do not need many Guantánamos, we do not need [to be] sending troops everywhere,” he said.  “We need schools, we need development and the Millennium Goals.”

He pointed to the 2005 Award theme of “For a Planet without Violence”, which had honoured the victims of the 11 March train bombings in Madrid that year, as well as attacks in Casablanca and Bali.

“The answer of the Spanish people was not to get crazy against their enemies,” he said.  “It was of understanding.”  That year, Spain had designated 7 February as a school day for understanding and peace, he added.

Ms. Rivard called the idea of devoting an entire school day to peace and understanding “inspiring”.

She spoke at length about her organization, which had joined as a co-sponsor of the award in 1996.  Airline Ambassadors helped disadvantaged children and families around world by escorting children in need of medical care and delivering medical aid to children and families in more than 50 countries.  She described a recent visit to El Salvador, where she had met a 10-year-old boy who could not attend school because he did not have the money for fees or for shoes to get there, as well as a young burn victim, who had died because no medical care was available.

“These things are the basis of human rights,” she said.  “How can we reach out again, and get young people talking about these things?  That’s how we’re going to develop the political will to build a world that meets the basic needs of all humanity.”

Tsidii Le Loka, original star of the Broadway musical the Lion King and adviser to Airline Ambassadors, stressed the importance of “having the children speak and get involved with their commitment and aspiration for a better understanding, because they are our leaders of tomorrow”.  She noted that she had grown up under apartheid in South Africa and had established a non-profit called Camp of Good Hope to work with children to help them find a home through the arts.

“It is also extremely important that we do our part to involve the children and communities in the United States, because we are hosted here, to also really participate so much more,” she added.

Asked about how the competition was being marketed and how much exposure children in the United States had to the project, Mr. Antuña noted that Airline Ambassadors had been overwhelmed by entries several years ago when the theme had been football and some 50,000 entries had come in from the United States alone. 

Ms. Rivard said that her organization, which, at that time, had been based in her house, had not had the infrastructure to go through all of the submissions.  Since then, entries had been sent to Mr. Antuña’s organization in Spain, but few of them had come from the United States.  Both expressed the hope that that would change, as well as the wish for assistance in building a greater United States infrastructure for the competition.

Asked whether the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) could become more involved with his projects, Mr. Antuña said that, for the school campaign, his group was more connected with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), but that Airline Ambassadors was working with UNICEF. 

Ms. Rivard said that Airline Ambassadors had recently travelled with UNICEF to Peru and filmed an in-flight video that had debuted in December on American Airlines international flights.  In addition, a volunteer program was under way for flight attendants to collect donations for UNICEF.

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For information media • not an official record