History

THE 1980's

The Peace Education Institute was founded in 1981 under the name “Yrjö Kallisen rauhanopiston kannatusyhdistys ry”. Early influential persons at the Institute were Minister Tarja Halonen, and the first recipient of the Unesco Peace Prize Helena Kekkonen, both of whom acted as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Institute. From the beginning, the Institute published writings on peace education, trained adult educators, and carried out development co-operation projects in Namibia and South-Africa. In 1985 a recommendation to include peace education in the school curriculum was written into the new Comprehensive Schools Act. Teachers became interested in the subject, and since there were no official teaching instructions available, they turned to the Institute. Striving to meet the needs of the teachers it distributed information to schools, held lectures and organized teachers’ visits to the Institute. The UN declared the year 1986 as the International Year of Peace, and the Institute received numerous lecture invitations. Head Secretary Helena Kekkonen travelled on a wide lecture circuit in Finland and abroad. Materials were translated into many languages. The Institute’s reputation as an expert organization on peace education was established.

THE 1990's

With the rise of globalization in the 1990's, the theme of inequality began to be emphasized in social debate, and the significance of peace education grew. At the same time peace work became more multidimensional. It had to take into consideration e.g. the effect of environmental problems on refugeeism and conflicts therein, as well as women’s rights and reproductive health in the developing countries. The Institute organized seminars and lectures on the topic and produced material for educators. At the same time the economic recession and cuts in government aid weakened many organizations’ operations. Due to the cuts, the Institute at times maintained its operations only with the help of volunteers. At the end of the 1990’s the Institute was still able  to implement an extensive educational programme on tolerance and to create a large network of experts and educators. Due to financial difficulties, different non-governmental organizations joined forces in the Prosenttiliike (Percentage Movement), which launched joint development co-operation projects.

THE 2000's

This decade has witnessed the after-effects of the 9/11 terrorist strikes. The significance of peace education has become even greater and peace organizations have received much attention. In addition, the educators’ need for knowledge has yet increased. This is due to the fact that when the new national core curriculum for basic education was introduced in 2006, it included in its value base such topics as human rights education, equality, democracy, preservation of the diversity and viability of the environment and acceptance of multiculturalism. The value base in turn binds teachers, and in order to be able to meet these objectives in teaching, they need more information and new teaching methods. The Institute has met the challenge by producing a manual in Finnish for human rights and peace education called ABC – Ensiaskeleita rauhankasvatukseen, which can be used in basic education as well as in youth and organizational work. In addition, the Institute maintains Rauhankoulu Peace School together with the Peace Union Rauhanliitto. The Peace School is a workshop-based teaching project, where students can learn about human rights, refugeeism and peace work through participatory drama methods.

RECENT YEARS

In 2006 the Peace Education Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary in the Astoria Hall in Helsinki. The celebrations were attended by President Halonen as a private person, all but one of the Chairpersons of the Institute, and numerous co-operation partners and long-time support members of the Institute. Previous Chairpersons of the Institute have been Göran von Bornsdorff, Helena Kekkonen, Tarja Halonen, Vappu Taipale, Satu Hassi, Reijo E. Heinonen. The present Chairman is Thomas Wallgren.

In 2007 the Peace Education Institute has 14 member organizations, 60 individual and supporting members, one full-time Head Secretary and a 25-member Board of Directors. The Institute’s main function is to promote peace education in Finland in its different forms, and furthermore it maintains two development co-operation projects in Somalia and one in Nigeria.