UN General Assembly
1980

151. The President of Costa Rica, Mr. Rodrigo Carazo Odio, delivered the inaugural address on 9 June this year to the World Congress on Education for Disarmament, held at UNESCO headquarters, and it is worth-while to recall some of his words. Among many ideas of special interest to this Assembly, he said: "War and peace in the coming years will depend upon the pursuit of the arms race or of disarmament, but above all upon our decision to transform education and the communications media into instruments of peace. "Mankind has endeavoured to apply the most varied methods and formulas in an effort to check war, hatred and violence. There remain only two: education and information. If we do not turn these into instruments of peace, there will be no twenty-first century." 152. At that Congress the President of Costa Rica proposed three initiatives, which I shall summarize as follows.