‹ Back

UPH chairman and ambassador of Costa Rica discuss cooperation

7 June 2021 – Chairman Robert Serry of UPEACE Centre The Hague (UPH) was received today by the ambassador of Costa Rica in the Netherlands, Arnoldo Brenes Castro, to explore possible fields of cooperation. Surprisingly, it appeared that the ambassador was already well acquainted with the work of the University for Peace in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica's ambassador in the Netherlands, Arnoldo Brenes Castro, with UPH chairman Robert Serry.

Chairman Serry took the opportunity to present the work of UPEACE Centre The Hague, highlighting the organisation’s efforts to attract students from Europe to study at the University in Costa Rica, and other projects such as the recent UPH webinar on quiet diplomacy.

 

Ambassador Brenes, who arrived in The Hague last December, needed no introduction to UPEACE. “As the head of Costa Rica’s Permanent Representation at the UN in New York, my father-in-law introduced the UN resolution that led to the creation of UPEACE in 1980. Also, I used to teach at the University.”

 

During the 1990s, Brenes helped to set up programs for Central America at UPEACE Costa Rica on Human Rights, Democracy and the Culture of Peace. Furthermore, in 1999-2001 he was a UPEACE professor in Human Rights and Peace Education and in Sustainable Environmental Tourism and Peace Promotion.

 

Both parties agreed that combining the focus on Costa Rica’s impressive nature and wildlife with the promotion of academic tourism may allow to raise attention in the Netherlands and beyond for sightseeing/study visits to UPEACE in Costa Rica.

 

Also, this year’s celebration of 200 years of Costa Rican independence – which uniquely saw the abolition of the country’s armed forces in 1949, as well as a dedicated focus on environmental protection in the past decades – offers scope for a collaboration with UPH. These values fit in well with the study of peace, international law, and sustainable development: subjects that are central to the curriculum of the University for Peace.