Oscar Arias Sanchez resources for Teachers & Students
Prepare: Oscar Arias Sanchez won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1987. His biography can be found on the Nobel
site at http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1987/arias-bio.html.
His Nobel laureate lecture, "Only Peace Can Write the
New History," is found at http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1987/arias-lecture.html.
Read:
Oscar Arias Sanchez's Architects
of Peace essay is excerpted from a speech he gave titled
"Some Contributions to a Universal Declaration of Human
Obligations." In it, he explores the relationship between
freedom and responsibility, and between rights and duties.
The full version of this text is archived on the Markkula
Center for Applied Ethics website at http://www.scu.edu/ethics/articles/articles.cfm?fam=GIAC.
Explore: Oscar Arias Sanchez is a member
of the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State, an
independent, international organization established in 1983
to mobilize the experience of persons who have held the
highest office in their respective countries. The three
priority areas of the InterAction Council are: peace and
security, world economic revitalization, and universal ethical
standards. Information on all these areas can be found on
their website at http://www.interactioncouncil.org/.
Write: The United Nations has never adopted
the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities proposed
by the InterAction Council. Many had hoped that it would
be adopted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1948
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some
ethicists claim that an ethic of human rights is incomplete
without a complementary ethic of human responsibilities.
Can one exist without the other? Write a three-to-five page
paper examining the relationship between rights and responsibilities.
As part of your research, compare the two universal declarations,
which can be found at http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
and http://www.interactioncouncil.org/udhr/udhr.html.
Extend: The Arias Foundation for Peace
and Human Progress runs a Center for Peace and Reconciliation
that emphasizes disarmament and demilitarization as a means
of peace. More information about their projects can be found
on their website at http://www.arias.or.cr/english/cpr.html.
Additional Resource: At the Fourth World
Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Oscar Arias Sanchez gave
a speech called "The Hard Work of Peace," where
he examined the necessity to regulate international trade
in arms. A transcript of the speech can be read at http://www.interactioncouncil.org/speeches/parias2003.html.
Biography of Oscar
Arias Sanchez