Costa Rica 
Wikipedia Entry
More information on Costa Rica...
Summary of CRE Activities
Costa Ricans take pride in their country’s reputation as a peaceful nation, with more than half a century without a standing army or other defense arrangement since 1948. Current President Oscar Arias played a fundamental role in the Central American Peace Plan in the 1980s, for which he is best known throughout the Americas as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Located within a region historically wrought with social and political conflict, Costa Rica is internationally regarded as a peaceful, prosperous country.
As such, Costa Rica is home to the United Nations’ chartered University for Peace, where hundreds of international students graduate each year from prestigious programs including Sustainable Development, Conflict Resolution, Peace Education and International Peace Studies. In 1997, Costa Rica passed a law that requires peace education is offered in every classroom. In September 2009, the Costa Rican government will host the annual international Summit of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace, the first government in the world to host a Summit of this kind.
It is in this national framework of peace that Conflict Resolution Education and Peace Education are received openly in the school system and within the highest levels of government. The Academy for Peace has been instrumental in bringing about a workable curriculum for Peace Education in the Costa Rican school system, as well as establishing legislature to set up significant peace infrastructure within the Costa Rican government. Currently, the Academy for Peace works with 13 schools in the county of Santa Ana, teaching the practice of BePeace, which fulfills the peace education law. With the support of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Education, the Santa Ana BePeace model will be replicated in the public school system throughout the country, strengthening this culture of peace and ensuring that this peace skill is passed on from generation to generation.
Legislative and Policy Initiatives:
The Academy for Peace of Costa Rica has been successful in creating a congressional Bill, which in the Fall of 2008 faces no governmental opposition and is currently included to be voted on in the present session of the Costa Rican national legislature. When passed, this Bill will establish peace infrastructure within the Costa Rican government, including the creation of the Ministry for Justice and Peace (formerly the Ministry of Justice) and detailing public-private collaboration between the Costa Rican government, non-governmental organizations including the Academy for Peace, and Pro-Peace organizations in Costa Rica.
The piece of legislation detailed above serves as the structural basis for establishing peace infrastructure in the Costa Rican government, and providing the foundation for working relationships between the public and private sector toward the creation of a culture of peace. This peace infrastructure is the first part of a two-pronged approach in disseminating a culture of peace throughout Costa Rica.
The second aspect of this approach relates specifically to the Academy for Peace’s grassroots work in the public school system, which will be extended to the national level with the recently-acquired support of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP), and funded in part by the private Costa Rican organization, the Association of Businesses for Development (AED). The Academy for Peace is currently working with MEP and AED to design and implement a national curriculum for peace education in the Costa Rican school system, based on replicating the BePeace model currently established in the public school system of the county of Santa Ana. The Academy for Peace will train peace educators who will work with MEP in the national public school system to extend the BePeace method throughout the country.
The Ministry of Public Education sends teachers on paid time to the 40-hour BePeace Course and allows Academy trainers to train students, teachers and parents throughout the school year. Costa Rica’s Minister of Justice, Laura Chinchilla, has also played an influential role in helping our peace legislature make its way into the national congressional body to be voted on.
CRE Resources:
The Academy for Peace has designed all of its own curriculum and training materials for 40-hour training courses for facilitators and teachers (course manual created), 9-hour parents’ courses, weekend workshops for students, refresher courses in the schools and weekly lesson plans for classroom courses with students. The weekly course curriculum in the schools includes: 4 sessions on cultivating internal peace, 4 sessions on respect (to ourselves, to others and to the environment), and 4 sessions on autonomy, specifically in regards to dealing with anger. Other curriculum themes currently being developed include: acceptance, connection, contribution and appreciation.
CRE Contact(s):
Rita Marie Johnson - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Active CRE Organization:
Academy for Peace of Costa Rica
Description of organization: The Academy for Peace of Costa Rica is a non-profit non-governmental organization (supported by the Rasur Foundation) located in Costa Rica working with local communities and the Costa Rican national government to create a culture of peace. Our two-pronged approach includes the establishment of peace infrastructure in government and the dissemination of the BePeace practice (synergistic combination of HeartMath, founded by the Institute of HeartMath, and Marshall B. Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication) in the local school system to pass this peace skill from generation to generation.
Number of staff members: Office Staff: 5; plus school trainers and facilitators: 8 = 13 total
Publications: The Return of Rasur, written by Rita Marie Johnson; BePeace 40-Hour Course Manual; BePeace Facilitator’s Guidebook; periodic newsletters available on website www.academyforpeacecr.org
Description of Organization’s work in Conflict Resolution Education/ Peace Education:
Within Higher Education (university/college; ages 18 and higher):
Lead informational workshops with the United Nations’ chartered University for Peace; recruit university students in the Psychology field from Universidad Latina and Universidad Nacional to work with us in our school program.
Within Early childhood to pre-university (K-12, youth ages 0-18):
The BePeace practice is currently taught in 13 schools in the Costa Rican county of Santa Ana, following an extensive and ongoing training process for teachers, students and parents. Utilizing our original BePeace curriculum, Academy for Peace trainers teach a 1-hour session per week to the 5th grade classes in each school, in addition to refresher courses for teachers who have previously received the 40-hour BePeace training, and a separate 9-hour course for parents. Supported by Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Education, we are currently in the planning stages to extend BePeace methodology throughout the national public school system in Costa Rica.
