Peace, UNESCO and Wales
The Dyfi Biosphere is part of a proud tradition of Welsh peacebuilding. As the only UNESCO Biosphere in Wales it is intended to be an exemplar of how to live in peace within our communities and with the natural world on which we all depend. In this it is supported by Welsh legislation, notably the Well-being of Future Generations Act and the Welsh commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Meanwhile the Biosphere has an international outlook through its place in UNESCO. But did you know that links between Wales and UNESCO go back many years, long before the Biosphere was set up?
The Welsh League of Nations
When the UNESCO constitution was adopted in 1945, it owed a lot to Welsh activists, educators and reformers, many from or living in what is today the Dyfi Biosphere. These included Baptist minister Gwilym Davies, co-founder of the Welsh League of Nations, which was a predecessor of the United Nations founded at the 1920 Peace Conference following World War I. He also instituted the Urdd Peace and Goodwill message which has been sent from the children of Wales to the children of the world every year since 1922.
Davies and his wife Mary Davies believed in the power of education to bring peace, and the opening lines of the UNESCO Constitution declare: “That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”.
The other co-founder of the Welsh League of Nations was David Davies, whose sisters Margaret and Gwendoline started Gregynog, and who in 1938 opened Wales’ Temple of Peace and Health. Its stunning art deco architecture is a fitting memorial to those who fell in the First World War but he also intended it to be an enduring and unifying reminder of the importance of peace.
It is now run by the Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA) whose stated vision is that “everyone in Wales contributes to creating a fairer and more peaceful world” and which is the home of Academi Heddwch.
David Davies was also president of University College Aberystwyth for many years and founder of its Department of International Politics (the first such department in the world), as well as president and patron of the National Library of Wales, giving the Biosphere another connection with the peace movement.
Others who promoted peace in Wales include Robert Davies, who founded the Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA) and the United Nations Association for International Youth Service Wales (now UNA Exchange) a youth volunteering organisation which aims to help young people become globally responsible citizens.
Meanwhile, The founder of the UN Secretariat and later in 1965 the UN Development Programme (UNDP) was the Welsh economist David Owen. Welsh politician Megan Lloyd George gave the keynote address at the first UN General Assembly in 1946.
Read more about Wales’ role in building the UN
The peace movement in Wales
But the roots of Welsh internationalism go back much further. The politician Henry Richard of Tregaron, as secretary of the Peace Society in 1848-1886, campaigned against the Crimean War, the Chinese Opium Wars and other British military activity overseas. He advocated for arbitration to settle disputes between countries, but he was also active in Welsh education, saying: “My hope for the abatement of the war system lies in the permanent conviction of the people, rather than the policies of cabinets or the discussions of parliaments.”
Other important leaders were the eighteenth-century political reformer Richard Price, and Robert Owen, father of the cooperative movement. Perhaps the most noteworthy event in the history of peace activism in Wales however came in 1923 when a delegation of Welsh women, led by Annie Hughes-Griffiths, travelled to Washington to deliver a Peace Petition to the women of America. Originally proposed at a Welsh League of Nations conference in Aberystwyth, it had 390,296 signatures, gathered door to door from across Wales. It is now housed in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Right: a page from the Petition signed by women from Machynlleth. Courtesy of the National Library of Wales.
Today, the Dyfi Biosphere is proud of its connection with the Welsh peace movement, and we want to continue its work. This means ‘positive peace’, building a flourishing society through cooperation and dialogue, and being in good relationship with the natural world. In particular we aim “to encourage discussion, agreement and co-ordination between people and organisations with different values and priorities”. Disagreement is inevitable but we can learn how to handle it by peaceful means.
Main image: Peace education in a primary school, with the Mid Wales Peaceful Schools Project