George Orwell said that it was necessary to have a picture of the future before taking a rational political decision. Readers will find in this book off-the-cuff reflections on university education, the voicing of convictions grounded in the practice of democracy, the nuts and bolts of the concept of development, and the notes of a man, former Director-General of UNESCO, caught up by an ideal.
The author looks forward to a time when the civilization of war will be replaced by a culture of peace, based on a culture of democracy; a world where individuals work and create and invent the texture of their lives in their local communities, freed from the fears of the war-culture. Nelson Mandela, F.W. De Klerk, Yasser Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev are used as examples of people who are moving forward and challenging routine and the system. The author argues that to write a new page we must re-dedicate ourselves to the ethical force of peace rather than the coercive force of war. Only by striving for a new renaissance locally, nationally, and internationally, can perceptions and actions determine the shape of things to come.
Les droits de l'homme à l'aube du XXIe siècle = Los derechos humanos ante el siglo XXI = Human rights at the dawn of the twenty-first century