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