What We Do
The Ethics Education Initiative promotes spaces and opportunities to nurture values and ethics in children and young people within the framework of the Child’s right to education as stated in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. It utilizes an innovative approach to interfaith and intercultural learning in a value-based and quality education program for children and young people.
The Ethics Education initiative aims to nurture values and ethics to empower children in order to create a world of greater justice, peace and dignity. It envisions a world where children are equipped to make ethical decisions, to nurture their spirituality and to transform their communities together, based on values that promote respect for their own and others’ cultures and beliefs
The Interfaith Council on Ethics Education has as objective to advice the Secretariat on the development of materials and tools for ethics education through interfaith learning. It aims to:
- Promote ethics and quality education
- Offer children opportunities to develop their spirituality
- Advocate respect for people of different religions and cultures
- Empower and involve children and youth
The main output of the Ethics Education initiative is the manual Learning To Live Together, An Intercultural and Interfaith Programme for Ethics Education, which was developed by Arigatou International through the Interfaith Council and the Global Network of Religions for Children, in close collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF
The aim of the programme is to help children and young people to understand and respect people from other cultures and beliefs, to think critically and to use non-violent alternatives in order to live peacefully together.
The Secretariat provides technical support to the implementation of ethics education through training workshops and online courses for educators in formal and non-formal education to develop competencies to use the programme in diverse contexts.
