NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations General Assembly deliberated on peace and non-violence at the UN headquarters in New York on September 9, making a significant contribution to fostering global citizenship at a point in time when the world is torn apart by multidimensional conflicts in all sectors of the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the fourth UN High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, convened by General Assembly President Sam Kahamba Kutesa, senior UN officials and eminent peace advocates pointed out that peace neither meant absence of conflict nor did it automatically result from ending conflict, but rather from building societies that embraced diversity, equality, democratic participation and access to education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The one-day UN High Level Forum has been convened since 2012. It highlights the importance of implementing the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace adopted by the Assembly 1999, with former UN Under Secretary General and Bangldesh Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury as Chair of the drafting committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
September 9 Forum focused on the roles that all stakeholders \u2013 Governments, community and religious leaders, educators, the media and others \u2013 could play in creating a culture of non-violence. In the post-2015 era, many speakers agreed, the priority must be on advancing a vision for overall improved well-being for the peoples of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeace is a distant dream without development,\u201d said Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland, speaking on behalf of UNGA President Sam Kutesa. \u201cThis is part of the core challenge in promoting a culture of peace and ensuring peaceful societies,\u201d he said. For more than 70 years, the desire for peace had driven nearly every facet of the UN\u2019s work. However, new challenges such as terrorism, cybercrime, human trafficking and climate change continued to defer that dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to be endorsed at UN Summit from September 25 to 27, he pointed out, contained goals that required the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies. \u201cThe onus is upon us to ensure effective implementation,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a similar vein, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Forum was about confronting the \u201cvery hard truths in our world\u201d, where, across many war-torn regions, there were brutal violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and, even in mostly peaceful and democratic societies, minorities were attacked. \u201cWe cannot turn our eyes away from the suffering,\u201d he stressed. \u201cWe cannot close our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ban invoked the stern warning of Mahatma Gandhi: \u201cThere will be no lasting peace on earth unless we learn not merely to tolerate but even to respect the other faiths as our own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elaborating on that theme in a keynote address, Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said his grandfather did not believe that nationalism could sustain the world, as it created the impression that one could exist without concern for others. \u201cOur futures and destinies are interconnected,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only way to live in stability was to create stability. That ought to be the common endeavour,\u201d he added<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His grandfather\u2019s philosophy of non-violence was about personal transformation, he noted. \u201cWe are all part of society\u201d, he said, \u201cand unless we, individually, recognize non-violence and live it, we cannot have a Government that believes in peace.\u201d Peace must begin with the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To drive home the point, he shared a memory of throwing away a pencil as a young boy, only to have his grandfather ask him to retrieve it. People\u2019s use of natural resources, his grandfather had explained was, in fact, violence against nature. Violence was committed by over-consuming resources and depriving others. Today, in the United States alone, he pointed out, USD20 billion in food was thrown away annually, while more than 1 million people went to bed hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A culture of non-violence was built through love, respect, understanding, appreciation and self-realization. \u201cWe have to respect our connection with all of creation. We are here for a purpose. We have to find and fulfil that purpose,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Round tables<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Forum discussed the core themes in two round tables. The first round table, titled \u2018promotion of the culture of peace in the context of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda\u2019, examined strategies for fostering a culture of peace in over the next 15 years. The second, on \u2018the role of the media in the promotion of the culture of peace\u2019, considered how various forms of media could be used to foster tolerance and mutual understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opening the discussion in the first round table, Ambassador Chowdhury said that the international community must work to eliminate the structural violence embedded in society, stressing that in the absence of peace it would be impossible to achieve the goals of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former President of Romania Emil Constantinescu stated that recent popular movements in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria had drawn attention to the absence of a dialogue and efficient diplomacy. Preventing conflict required a comprehensive, balanced vision, which took into consideration the interests of various ethnic and religious communities and the rights and obligations of independent States\u2019 citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former UNESCO Director General Federico Mayor pointed out that in the last 25 years, there had been many excellent plans and agendas and programmes of action that had been \u201ccompletely useless\u201d. Commitments had been made, but there had been no action. The reality was that children were dying of hunger everyday while countries invested in military spending. Sustainability was already at risk because there were potentially irreversible processes at work in the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The present generation had an immense responsibility to reverse this situation, added, because the international community was on the verge of the point of no return. \u201cI am sure that the measures that are going to be adopted here in a few weeks will be very good. But we have wonderful documents already. Afterwards nothing happened,\u201d he said, warning that tomorrow could be too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other panellists included Maria Emma Mejia, Permanent Representative of Colombia; Amina Mohammed, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning; and Barbara Adams, Adviser at the Global Policy Forum and Social Watch. In addition, Elizabeth Shuman, representing the Executive Committee of the Department of Public Information\u2019s programme for non-governmental organizations (DPI\/NGO), acted as the designated discussant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel discussion on \u2018role of the media in the promotion of the culture of peace\u2019 was chaired and moderated by Marjon V. Kamara, Permanent Representative of Liberia. The panellists included Abulkalam Abdul Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh; Cristina Gallach, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communication and Public Information; Michael Nagler, President, Metta Centre for Nonviolence; and Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, Founder-Director, FemLINKPACIFIC, Fiji.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opening the panel, Liberia\u2019s Permanent Representative Kamara said the media, a powerful driver of change through the free and participatory exchange of information, had a crucial role in advancing a culture of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking from personal experience, Bangladesh\u2019s Permanent Representative Momen said the media wielded enormous political power and was a vital agent of social change if mobilized properly. The media had transcended its traditional existence to encompass online social platforms that informed and educated people in an unprecedented way. The saying that \u201cthe pen is mightier than the sword\u201d underscored the urgency of efforts to encourage the media towards positive change. Specifically, the media needed to end hatred and intolerance and create a mind-set of mutual respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rounding out the panel, Bhagwan-Rolls, Founder-Director, FemLINKPACIFIC said community media had the ability to transform the notion of security based on Security Council resolution 1325 (2000). Unless there was an express role for the community media beyond traditional public relations, its role in the post-2015 agenda would be limited. Content should be able to reflect progress or lack thereof in terms of achieving goals while ensuring that women were able to define peace, security and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who made the news and why should not be based on patriarchal patterns of power, she said, emphasizing that Member States should be responsive to the views of local communities. A legislative and regulatory environment was needed to ensure diversity and decentralization of power in an effort advance sustainable peace and development with a view to fostering global citizenship. [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 12 September 2015]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo: UN General Assembly | Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n\n\n\n