The Joint Declaration ofUNESCO ASPnet International ESD Events for Students and Teachers
Platform for Students
Adopted on November 7, 2014
People around world have been making huge efforts to solve both global andregional issues. It is true that societies have made good progress when it comes to wars,
conflicts, the environment, culture, energy and food. However, today we still face many
problems. For these reasons, we, as ASPnet high school students, are committed tolearning from one another, taking into account our diverse regional backgrounds, withthe aim of learning more about the world’s important issues.
We are now at the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development, which began in 2005. Throughout the past 10 years, we have learned theimportance of mutual learning and of developing a shared attitude towards globalissues. This has been achieved in the clear belief that Education for SustainableDevelopment (ESD) is essential to the success of sustainable development around theworld. As a result, it seems that the world is looking to us, the younger generation, tocommit ourselves to solving these problems – now more than ever.
Today, in November 2014, we have come together here in Okayama City, Japan, as
high school students from thirty-two nations, representing a new generation of ESD.
Our discussions began with familiar issues under the themes of ‘What factors do webelieve block sustainability in everyday life and society?’ and ‘What is important when it
comes to promoting sustainability?’
Subsequently, we discussed what we mean by ‘development’, and here we agreed on thediversity of its applications. We shared the opinion that, as high school students, weneed to take the lead in respecting the environment, our culture, ourtraditions, andother human beings – regardless of their age or where they live. We need to spread ourideas as widely as we can through a range of demonstrable activities and do this in a
responsible way. To achieve our aims, we believe that it is important for us to start withsmall actions in our immediate vicinities. For example we can cooperate with ourfriends, promote recycling and participate in volunteer activities, all the while
demonstrating to an increasing number of people the range of enjoyable opportunities
that ESD provides. This will interest other people in ESD and in the younger generation
as a result of our unique, creative projects. In short, we agreed there are many things

we can do together.
Based on these discussions, we then exchanged opinions and ideas to explore
what we, as high school students, can and should do now and in the future. Finally, we
arrived at the following five conclusions:1.

We are not helpless but our abilities may be limited. However, we are keen tocooperate with each other, to make full use of the opportunities that exist for learning
about sustainability, and to disseminate information on ESD.
2.

We are conscious that every single one of us, as high school students, arehuman beings living on Earth. As such, we need to be conscious of the environment andthe natural world around us. In the longer term, we need to take responsible actions inspecific ways to encourage ESD where it is not yet taught in schools.
3.

Each of us has a responsibility to share and respect a variety of lifestyles,

cultures and opinions by fostering connections with each other so that we can promotemutual understanding and inspiration.
4.

People need to learn how to connect or communicate with each other more, toknow what peace and human rights are, and what the individual can achieve througheducation. This should consist of topics such as gender equality, human rights, peace,and awareness raising. In all of this, we need to be conscious of the important role that
education plays.
5.

Every one of us needs to be conscious of all the above-mentioned and makeevery effort to develop clear personal objectives.