International Day of Peace
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The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982.
In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace.
By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for this goal. During the discussion of the U.N. Resolution that established the International Day of Peace, it was suggested that:
Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace
Since its inception, Peace Day has marked our personal and planetary progress toward peace. It has grown to include millions of people in all parts of the world, and each year events are organized to commemorate and celebrate this day. Events range in scale from private gatherings to public concerts and forums where hundreds of thousands of people participate.
Anyone, anywhere can celebrate Peace Day. It can be as simple as lighting a candle at noon, or just sitting in silent meditation. Or it can involve getting your co-workers, organization, community or government engaged in a large event. The impact if millions of people in all parts of the world, coming together for one day of peace, is immense.
International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire – personal or political. Take this opportunity to make peace in your own relationships as well as impact the larger conflicts of our time. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind.
Support the International Day of Peace on Facebook & Twitter!
Comments (1 - 18 of 18)
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Flag comment for removal blindspotter 6 months ago
Here it is: policy switches for global security, just a draft so please criticise or comment. Would love to know what people make of it all. Will post a more solid version in a couple of weeks when I'm back from the meeting.
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hi. I get email from "Beyond War'. I love this name, as it implies something as concrete as war, if we can only discover it. The group is somewhat local, resurrected from the 60's/70's, focused on offering study groups and presentations to educate people. I did see a presentation some years ago by a member who is also with Physicians for Social Responsibility (if I got that right) and has volunteered in refugee camps and war zones. Very good, very concrete; check them out...oh, maybe they are on wiserearth...hmm. I'll look and recommend it to them if not. Me, I work with early ages and very good at teaching peaceful alternatives to aggressive behaviors. Sometime in the next few weeks, my handout on nonviolent chase games (playgrounds, kids) will be up on cloudpillowbooks.com, and free to print out. Well tested....best of all was the year the older kids taught it to the younger kids because I wasn't on the playground. I knew it had passed into childhood folklore when a grad student watching referred to it in the same sentence as "Red Light, Green Light". |
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This discussion is very exciting because of its emphasis on feedback, Meadows work, etc. A major involvement of mine at the moment is Project Sara which is working with these same ideas. We are mainly management cyberneticians (using ideas from Stafford Beer, System Dynamics, Buckminster Fuller and others) and are working on the concepts, methods and tools which can support the sort of life-affirming groups one finds on WiserEarth. I'm brand new to WiserEarth but am finding it tremendously exciting. |
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I'll be at another NATO Science for Peace and Security workshop next week and will this time present a bunch of leverage points for setting up these positive feedback loops globally. Will call them 'policy switches' though since this is easier for most people to read. My intention is to challenge the expectation (among the public and policy-makers) that global peace is beyond reach and that all we can do it seek peace locally and in ourselves. Will post it up here for comment when there's a solid draft.
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Michael, thanks for inviting me to this fabulous event! I really look forward to reading the links in the comments below ....
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I'm loving this discussion...I am learning a lot from it, and will learn more when I explore the different sources which you guys - James and Bowo mentioned. I think that the concept of "peacebuilding" suffers from the initial impression of being confusingly abstract and intangible. But when we take into account measurable indicators of happiness and "progress" - peacebuilding begins to make sense. What I'm learning from this discussion, is that if "peacebuilding" is to ever be accepted as a mainstream and practical means to a more sustainable world, rather than the suspiciously new-age-approach (the basis of which is that our collective intentions through meditation or prayer leads to a diffusion of peaceful intentions throughout the world..which I suppose has a possibility of being true) -- peacebuilding needs to communicate in terms which can be logically defended by policy makers. "Peacebuilding" ultimately can contribute to these paradigm-shifts and "leverage points" (a.k.a bifurcation points - see chaos theory), which ultimately leads to positive feedback loops...and social, economic & environmental sustainability. @marekzielinski Thanks for sharing the peace365 petition! I signed it...it's a great cause to strive for.
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Thanks Bowo, I'll keep trying to find ways to help people, including policy-makers, find angles that can turn things around. Latest work-in-progress is another piece for NATO, this time with 7 leverage points and systemic tools - phew! James |
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Hi James, Though I'm one of those who believe a change of mind(set) will be the key trigger for real change (in your example, a change of policy makers' mindset to obligate full 'back-story' disclosure), when dealing with complex problems I always find approaching it from every possible angle to be the most effective way to solve them. If someone can approach from the higher leverage points, fantastic, if another one can approach from the lower leverage points, that's fantastic too. If everyone can do whatever that is within their capacity, we're good to go I think. That said, I still need to read your papers thoroughly to give you a proper response. Hope to get back to you on those resource pages one of these days. Best wishes, |
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Hi Bowo, you've picked up one of the most critical but least discussed issues of our time, so great to be chatting thanks. Here's Dana's work on a global canvas... Systemic Economic Instruments for Energy, Climate and Global Security "2.4.... Meadows provided a list of places to look for leverage points, with the most powerful being feedback loops, information flows, system ‘game rules’, self-evolution, system goals and paradigms (shared beliefs). The last two places are probably not directly negotiable though they may be reshaped by events, new language, feedback of information or new game rules." I think of her work as a brilliant quick sketch. It's not rigid and it doesn't lay out global complexities into a neat sequence. Locally it's possible to go straight for paradigm shifts but globally it's proven harder to say "please will everyone now follow these new values and beliefs?". So the soul-workers and peace-thinkers you mention can help us to pick lower leverage points that work like ladders to reach the higher mindsets and paradigms. The paper goes on about how to do that but maybe an example helps? We'd hope that information about bees dying globally would trigger a shift to organic production but it's not happening. We'd hope that feedback to governments about pesticide residues and health effects would do the same. Or the 'game rules' for organic standards? None of these make "big changes in everything" so they're not leverage points. Yet imagine if all large-scale food sellers were obliged to list at point-of-sale all biocides used in production? This would disclose currently hidden information, make markets work more transparently and detoxify agriculture almost instantly. The lowly information point can reach the high paradigm change. I support alternative progress measures such as you describe. The trick with getting them to become leverage points would be to find a way to switch them from the alternative to the replacement. Please see here for a shiny new 'vehicle' with replacement parts and progress measures, including GPP - a leverage point for peace. Best wishes, James |
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Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind. Imagine what a whole Year of Ceasefire would mean to humankind? Imagine what Global Peace Forever would mean to humankind? Please put your signature on our petition and make Global Peace Forever reality. Marek Initiator of www.peace365.org
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@James (blindspotter): Big fan of Dana's work myself. It's interesting to note that if you go through her description of leverage points, on top of the list is "mindset / paradigm", which is the kind of stuff that soul-workers and peace-thinkers have much to teach us. While from a quick glance, I think what you're proposing on that paper deals with the lower numbered items on her list: numbers, regulating negative feedback loops and rules of the system. But all are important and related. Hope to spend more time on your paper for proper discussion. Meanwhile, have you checked out Happy Planet Index (HPI)? One of my favorite paradigm-changing measurement :) Or Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) perhaps for a different view of things to (ac)count for? |
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Yes this day is important and I support it with gusto. As an old-timer who is starting to get a feel for what has worked over the decades, there seems an opportunity to use this day (and every other) to rejig the global machinery so that the justice and other values you rightly promote spread out in the same manner as mayhem spreads today. For example the part of the machinery that accelerates weapons spending can be simply switched instead to cutting it - see my NATO research Systemic Economic Instruments for Energy, Climate and Global Security. So much time has passed with so many good people struggling to live well within a faulty system that the chance to fix the faults soon enough is in danger of being missed. I'm fond of the Earth Charter and similar declarations that date back to the first global issues conference in 1972. The connectedness that Bowo mentions is key and the trick is how to handle the complexity - how to locate leverage points for intervention? If it helps anyone, this is also covered in the above research. |
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I think one problem leads to another, and likewise with solutions. Everything is connected and one thing can not change by itself. The Earth Charter is a wonderful document calling for a forward movement on all fronts.
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James, I agree with you that this is one day that has great intentions, but that peacebuilding is an ongoing process which people need to work on 365 days of the year. I think it is important though to be able to devote a day where these discussions about diversity, poverty, war, inequality, etc. can take place all at once... and where people who are year-round peacebuilders (of various peacebuilding dimensions and focuses) have a platform to discuss their ideas. It's a day which increasing numbers of schools are also participating. So it's a great way to bring in more youth into the overall "peace movement". If we can have a Memorial Day, International Worker's Day, Earth Day, Thanksgiving, etc., we can have a Peace Day. I share your sense though that we shouldn't blind ourselves to the serious economic injustices that are prevalent in our world today! It is definitely taken for granted! Great insight. However, I do not believe peace can come from economic justice initiatives alone... though it is most definitely a primary factor. We also need to focus on the social dimension. We need a simultaneous focus for people to develop tolerance, understanding and compassion towards one another, so that the world can build more self-sufficient, diverse and sustainable communities. I think a truly economically just society can arise from that. |
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I love this initiative, though I should mention that its 'pealing bell' has the same ring as much that is done globally to make ourselves feel better whilst things get worse. In fact the global predicament is now so precarious that it's hard to imagine that many more 'peace days' are possible. Perhaps peace and other global security goals are just not achievable by acts of will, whether small or large? Perhaps all such acts, ever since the UN was set up as an act of peace, have been rendered ineffective by a curious neglect of the economic machinery that churns out the conditions for conflict ever faster without ever stopping to rest? This machinery is taken for granted as being beyond our influence and as the decades pass the shrinking horizon of peace and security seems to dull our views on a world designed and run for peace. The paradox is that it seems rather simple to do and all that makes it harder is the delay in trying. Glad to know what others think. Thanks, James |
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Thanks Mike for sharing this.
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See also the many links on what you can do to support peace. Try the advanced search features on WiserEarth's multi-lingual global database to find peace events in your region. Join in!
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