International DAY of PEACE - September 21

➡️ International Day of Peace September 21 - Cultivating a Culture of Peace

International Day of Peace is a global initiative endorsed by the United Nations dedicated to promoting peace and ending conflict. Established in 1981, this day calls on nations to lay down arms and observe a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace. The resolution includes the following aspects:

• Culture of peace through education

• Sustainable economic and social development

• Respect for all human rights

• Equality between women and men

• Democratic participation

• Understanding, tolerance, and solidarity

• Participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge

• International peace and security

The world is currently enduring a period of rising geopolitical tensions and prolonged conflicts. There are currently 56 active conflicts - the most since World War II. 92 countries are involved in conflicts outside their borders.

The Global Peace Index 2024 revealed that the world has become less peaceful in the last 16 years. Global conflict rates increased 12% in 2023, adding to the 32% increase in 2022. One in six people are now living in an area of active conflict.

The world is getting more violent and civilians are always the first to suffer. As of May 2024, there were more than 120 million people forcibly displaced as a result of conflict, persecution, violence, or human rights violations. There were more civilian casualties recorded in 2023 than any year since 2010. Those that do not lose their lives are living without security, shelter, clean water, electricity, food, medical assistance, employment, education, and in many cases dignity.

Explore our extensive guides to current conflicts:

• The Gaza war

• The Ukraine war

• Sudan war

• Syrian civil war

• Democratic Republic of Congo regional war

• Myanmar civil war

• Ethiopian civil conflict

• Nagorno-Karabakh border conflict

We all have a right to peace. Global leaders have a duty to make long-term concerted efforts to create stability, tolerance, and understanding. While politicians commit to a military first approach, weapons proliferation, the arms trade, and bloating military budgets, peace does not stand a chance.

Days like International Day of Peace highlight the need to reduce conflict and promote harmony across the globe, not just for a day, but a lifetime. Peace funding must be prioritised over warmongering.

With conflicts becoming longer, more complex, and more deadly, there has never been a more pressing time for international cooperation and diplomacy. Peace Day is marked with vigils, commemorations, parades, peace walks, moments of silence, speeches, peace conferences and workshops, peace education events, and intercultural and interfaith dialogues.

We recommend checking out our excellent guides to the Peace Day UN Initiative, the UK nonprofit Peace One Day who are dedicated to informing, inspiring, and engaging people towards peaceful action, and many other initiatives supporting Peace Day such as Be The Peace, the Unity Foundation, Peace 365, and Pathways to Peace.

Our platforms for Peace and Nonviolence serve as inspiring tool boxes to support the peace movement, educate, and promote activism. To achieve peace, we must compete against high-level corruption, the global arms trade, injustices, human rights abuses, and persecution. Through diplomacy, the combined efforts of peace groups, and peace education it is possible to work together with law and order and governmental institutions for a more peaceful world.

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As Gandhi once said "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Author: Rachael Mellor, 23.08.24 licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

For further reading on International Day of Peace see below ⬇️