Everyone must contribute to and participate actively in peace building efforts
As trees and flowers sway
And the wind runs over my face
It brings in a new ray of hope
That world peace can still return
Peace is glory, peace is dignity,
Peace is love and peace is amity
–Shyamli Suneesh
The United Nations announced observance of the International Day of Peace on September 21, 1981, throughout the world as a day devoted to strengthening ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples besides promoting non-violence and ceasefire. This universal day can be an incredible opportunity to celebrate peace, not just as a possibility, but as a reality — not just on one day of the year, but it is every day that we have to dedicate to peace and peaceful coexistence. To establish a culture of peace, there is a dire need to promote a positive and dynamic participatory process where dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are resolved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation.
The day offers people a shared date to think about how individually they can contribute to ensuring peaceful coexistence and tolerance. Therefore, peace should be used as a means to bridge differences which everyone should be encouraged to cross, as now is the time to multiply our efforts towards building peace and social justice. The injustices that take place and violence around us make a loud sound for a booming response. It is however not effective if this response is not brought out positively where some individuals and groups strike out against symbols of injustice and create more of a disturbance rather than tranquility. For the last several years, armed conflicts have caused untold grief to individuals, families and communities in many major parts of Pakistan. Too many conflicts cause unnecessary loss of life and have a devastating impact on structures that maintain societies, such as education, health and justice systems and the maintenance of law and order.
However, something profoundly remarkable is happening in Pakistan that people especially youth, including women, are demonstrating solidarity by reaching out and rallying together for social justice. This powerful force brings with it the potential to create a peaceful and democratic future for Pakistan where all sections of society may exhibit a powerful voice. Embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, democracy supports an environment for a host of political rights and civil liberties. There are many ways to participate in democratic practices, including taking part in dialogue, advocating for civil society empowerment, joining the struggle for gender equality and against discrimination, engaging in civic education and promoting voter registration.
The International Day of Peace demands people to organise events and undertake deeds celebrating the importance of peace in realistic and useful ways. I make it a point to make my contribution to promoting peace by advocating among educationists, especially religious scholars to include the message of peace and social harmony, tolerance, acceptance and coexistence during their teaching or prayer sessions in so that this universal message spreads from the pulpit of all faiths and sects. I sincerely feel that there is a need to evolve unity and consensus on promoting tolerance and acceptance among different communities. May I also take the opportunity to say that among a group of committed individuals, we are also working along with religious leaders, representatives of different faiths and sects, civil society organisations and government delegates who have joined hands for peaceful coexistence, peace, acceptance and tolerance among each other and bridging gaps among various segments of society.
We must believe in our hearts and minds that tolerance is the key to ensure peace. Through signing the Charter of Peace, we ask people from all communities to restore interfaith harmony, to end duality and adopt values from different religions so that we may be able to create an atmosphere where everyone might have religious freedom, and where religion must be used to end differences among different religious communities. All people must restore compassion, respect and tolerance to the centre of morality and religion, to teach each other that any interpretation of the scripture that breeds violence or hatred is illegitimate, to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other religions, traditions and cultures and also to encourage a positive appreciation of religious and cultural diversity, interfaith and intercultural harmony.
Faith must be used to end differences among the masses. Everyone must contribute to and participate actively in peace building efforts. Pakistan is host to a minority population that comprises of various groups but is mostly dominated by Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrian, Bahai’s and others and so it is everyone’s responsibility to respect these sections as citizens of Pakistan. Our government and all state institutions will have to show more responsibility to promote, defend and protect religious freedom for everyone and everywhere in Pakistan. Let people of every faith live in peace as they choose, and understand that the state belongs to everyone.
On this International Day of Peace, I pledged to teach our future generations the values of tolerance and mutual respect where we must all make strong efforts for peace and defend it with all our might.
I wish everyone a sustainable peace in their life.