Biology Does Not Condemn Humanity to Violence

A brief history of the preparation of the Seville Statement on Violence (SSV) and a short exposition of its propositions are provided. The SSV was originated by ISRA (International Society for Research on Aggression), a UN-Committee launched in the late seventies of the past century. Which were the main reasons urging us to elaborate the Statement, which difficulties were found on the way and how was that first ‘scientific’ step towards peace finally achieved? Its final product, elaborated by more than twenty scholars from different scientific disciplines and from all continents, was presented in Seville in 1986, at the VI Coloquio Internacional sobre Cerebro y Agresión (CICA). Three years later, it was endorsed by the 25th General Conference of UNESCO, in Paris. Its main message is that violence and war are not genetically unavoidable, and that human nature does not oblige us to behave violently.