Key Concepts and Challenges in Medical Peace Education

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Key Concepts and Challenges in Medical Peace
Education

• Thursday 22 November 2007, 0910 0935
• APACPH 2007, Tokyo
• Pre-conference workshop Peace through Health
• klaus.melf_at_sih.uit.no

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Medical Peace Education why?

• Peace deficits as widespread health problem
• Health professionals at risk of doing harm
• Health professionals have distinctive peace
  role
• Peace capacity can be strengthened

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What is Peace?

• Historical and cultural differences
• Satyagrahavarda (Sanskrit) study of physical,
  mental and spiritual forces for individual and
  social harmony
• Shalom (hebr.) well-being and spiritual
  wholeness
• Eirene (gr.) ethical social relationships
• Pax (lat.) law, order, mutual duty

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Peace

• Absence of war
• Absence of terror
• Absence of human rights violations
• Absence of interpersonal violence and suicide
• Individual and social harmony
• Development and justice
• Fulfilment of basic needs
• Human security

Lesson 1 Peace exists from micro- to macro
level.
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Peace Theory health ? disease peace ?
violence
Lesson 2 Peace grows when violence diminish.
Johan Galtung
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What is violence?
Lesson 3 Violence can be in form of behaviour,
structures and attitudes.
The intentional use of physical force or power,
threatened or actual, against oneself, another
person, or against a group or community, that
either results in or has a high likelihood of
resulting in injury, death, psychological harm,
mal-development or deprivation. (WHO, 2002)

• Violence unnecessary insult of basic needs
• Direct violence use of physical or mental power
• Structural violence social, economical or
  political systems
• Cultural violence justifying parts in religion,
  ideology, art, science and language

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Lesson 4 PEACE can also be defined positively.
HEALTH not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity, but a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being (WHO)
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Typology of positive peace Direct peace loving,
harmonious acts to elicit the good in each
other Structural peace equitable, horizontal
relations Cultural peace Religion, ideology,
science, art, language promoting direct and
structural peace
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Good health strong immune system, quick
recovery Capacity of the spirit, the mind, the
body and the society to handle pathogens of any
kind with insight, creativity, and by healthy
means (Galtung)
Lesson 5 Conflict is NOT war !
Peace capacity to handle conflicts with
empathy, creativity and by non-violent means.
content
The Conflict Triangle
attitude
behaviour
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What is Peace work ?
Direct violence

• Interventions which
• reduce or abolish direct, structural or
  cultural violence
• build harmonious, mutual beneficial relations and
  structures
• strengthen the peace capacity of individuals /
  societies

Structural violence
Cultural violence
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Timing of peace work

• In a public health approach
• primary prevention
• Risk factors ?
• Protective factors ?
• secondary prevention
• Early warning
• De-escalation
• Conflict handling
• tertiary prevention
• Reconstruction
• Resolution
• Reconciliation

Secondary prevention
During
Violence
Before
After
Primaryprevention
Tertiaryprevention
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Challenges in Medical Peace Education
incorporation
dissemination
methodology
content
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Options for MPE

• - multi-dimensional
• - context sensitiv
• - relevant

• horizontal and vertical integrated
• electives / pilots /student-organised
• train the trainers
• support from dean and influential faculty

content
incorporation
metho-dology
dissemi- nation
- case-oriented - goal-driven -
experiential learning - multi-disciplinary

• conferences
• publications
• internet

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A new European field of expertise in health work,
violence prevention and peace building

• Production of online teaching material
• Collection of online teaching material
• www.medicalpeacework.org