Joint Statement by the Global Young Greens (GYG), the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) and the Federation of African Young Greens (FAYG) on occasion of the International Day of Peace
Today, the 21st of September, we celebrate the International Day of Peace. This day was created by the UN in 1981, when the organisation devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for peace.
International cooperation for peace has experienced serious setbacks in the last couple of years. We saw the upheavals in the Arab countries and heard the shouts for democratic rights, but we also observed how movements for freedom were repressed unjustly by the use of violence in other regions. We have to do all we can to promote peace in the world we live in, so that people enjoy the protection of their rights. The Greens will not give up their attempts to build peace by developing a culture of peace and support local and global policies that do not put peace at risk.
The Global Young Greens, Federation of Young European Greens and the Federation of Young African Greens jointly state that; Peace is not only the absence of war, peace is a concept that affects all parts of society. It is something that we cannot discuss only in times of conflict but something we need to build every day. By acting early through dialogue and mediation we can stop violent conflicts before they erupt. Using military violence must always be the very last resort of political action. The processes that lead to such action must be transparent and democratic. All parties involved must be fully accountable for their actions.
We all have a joint responsibility to build a more peaceful world. This needs to be done together in dialogue across nation state borders and cultural differences. Parties should take extreme care when they are intervening in other parts of the world, always having a legal and moral basis to do so and the approval of the UN.
Sustainable peace cannot be achieved merely through paper commitments by governments and policy makers to end violence and conflict. Sustainable peace can only be achieved by building a fairer world order and by reducing conflict sources such as poverty, injustice and discrimination. We hope that more and more people realise that without their commitment, we will not come closer to the realisation of peace. In the end, everybody wishes to live in peace which is why we all need to work together to create the world we want to live in.
