Violence is not biologically determined. The Seville Statement on Violence twenty-five years later

The International Coloquia on the Brain and Aggression offer the occasion for international scientific exchanges between multidisciplinary groups of experts on the phenomenon of violence. This conference in Rome is the 33rd of their international meetings already held all over the world (see:www.cicainternational.org). The main goal of the CICA Club is bridging biologically based approaches and those built on the social sciences, in the understanding that real solutions will only be found through the integration of insights reached from the interaction of many different fields and levels. In the late seventies of the past century, the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) decided to launch a Committee that, among other goals, would aim at organizing a series of symposia under the auspices of UNESCO. It was hoped that these symposia would eventually lead towards a UNESCO statement on human violence following the example of what had previously been achieved by UNESCO with regard to the notion of 'human race'. In Mexico City, during the IV World ISRA Conference (1982), an UN-Committee was selected for this purpose. A provisional program was drafted and submitted to UNESCO and to other governmental international institutions. After an initial burst of enthusiasm, there was a very long silence! In spite of this lack of any official support the members of the Committee, scientists from very different disciplines, kept freely and openly discussing the proposed agenda. The main question we wanted to answer was whether modern natural and social sciences knew of any biological factors that constituted an insurmountable or serious obstacle to the goal of world peace. Efficiently coordinated by David Adams, at that time professor at Wesleyan University, we exchanged the latest information about animal behavior, psychology, brain research, genetics, and other related sciences. A draft was elaborated and sent to all of us to study. Finally J. Martín Ramírez, at that time professor at Seville University, convened in his university almost thirty scientists from 13 countries and many different disciplines on the occasion of the 7th CICA, dedicated to Biology and Violence. We met for one week in La Rábida. In 1492 this place became famous, since Columbus started his discovering trip to the New World from there. And after almost five centuries and one week of practical seclusion, the final Seville Statement on Violence (SSV) was born - hopefully giving rise to another new world - a world of Peace. It was the 16th of May of 1986, the UN declared International Year of Peace.

Publication type: 
Contributo in atti di convegno
Author or Creator: 
Pagani, Camilla
Ramirez, J. Martin
Source: 
The Seville Statement on Violence: twenty-five years later, pp. 1–71, Roma, 22-25 September 2011
Date: 
2011
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/203750
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Camilla Pagani's picture
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