It’s World Peace Day – the perfect day to say #Enough! to war.
Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. Many organisations are taking the opportunity to start discussions about peace, raise awareness of peace-making efforts across the globe, and encourage action from both ordinary people and world leaders.
In 2015, the United Nations is focussing on Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All to highlight the importance of all segments of society to work together to strive for peace.
And Peace One Day have a range of awareness-raising and fundraising activities that you can get involved with, from a twitter thuderclap to dancing for peace.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Peace Volunteers (a grassroots, non-violent movement from Afghanistan) are launching #Enough! The People’s Agreement to Abolish War. See a short video about the #Enough! campaign above.
They state:
We, the people of the human family, agree to abolish war. Like you, we are tired of wars.
War costs us everything and resolves nothing.
War has increased ‘terrorism’.
Wars risk spiraling into our destruction by nuclear weapons.To abolish war, we form small, local peace circles or communities of two or more persons in which we agree to ban weapons and war and to build nonviolent systems for every aspect of life.
With autonomous alternatives, we no longer need to participate in today’s warring systems. We opt out, and we withhold support and money from any individual or group that uses war.
We begin to heal and live differently. Students learn better, laborers and farmers work better, mothers worry less, and basic human resources are better shared.
We nurture egalitarian relationships with nature and all human beings and connect to form a critical mass that’s free of borders, going beyond our separate causes and working together for a green and equal world without war. A critical mass is crucial as we can’t abolish war without reversing global warming and inequality; these are global crises driven by the same elite who rule over us by force. We abolish war person by person. We won’t wait for the elite, because they’re the ones who keep waging wars.
We make no distinction as to who wages the war, the scale of the war or the individual justifications for the war. We renounce all violence and wars and agree never to resort to war in any circumstance.
We, the people of the human family, agree to abolish war.
#Enough!
You can sign this People’s Agreement to Abolish War, register a simple act of solidarity, or post an #Enough! selfie on the Enough! website.
Wishing a positive and peaceful day to all!
(And if you’re reading this after 21st September – don’t worry, you can keep working for peace all year round!)