Press Releases

The call for peaceful and nonviolent election in Basilan, Philippines took on a new face as local and international peace groups and government agencies launched the Zero Violence in 2010 Campaign last October 7 at the Basilan State College Gymnasium, Isabela City, Basilan. The launching coincided with the World March for Peace and Non-violence arrival to The Philippines.

Members of the base team marched alongside Bangladeshis in Dhaka. The event was organized within the framework of the University of the Capital by the association “World without Wars” and other members of the humanist movement. To mark the occasion, a press conference was held attended by some twenty journalists and numerous spectators.

Rana Al-Arja and Lubna Bandak from Holy Land Trust and Patricia Arriagada from Chilean organization The Community for Human Development met with Bethlehem Governor Mr. Abed Al Fattah Hamayel in order to invite him to join the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. He wholeheartedly welcomed the idea and confirmed his participation during the March.

In the extraordinary place where the Nile River and the arts converge in Cairo, The World March has once again achieved its objective: more than 150 people came together in the spacious concert hall of El Sawy Cultural Wheel, the cultural epicenter of this cosmopolitan city, to issue a worldwide call for peace and the construction of a culture of non-violence.

Thousands of people all over the world celebrated the beginning of the World March for Peace and Non-violence. In Spain, there were celebrations in thirty cities and numerous other districts. Everyone shared the emotion of the Base Team which left New Zealand to begin the long road to Argentina which will take them through more than a hundred countries in three months.

A crowd of supporters for peace from 5 continents assembled on the 2nd of October in Wellington at the foot of the statue of the Father of the Indian Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, donated by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. The multitude came, braving the wind and the cold to support the World March for Peace and Nonviolence.

The Nonviolence Fair, held as a kickoff event for the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, took place in Cinemateque Square in Tel Aviv, Israel. The fair was organized by the group Greenpeace and the Humanist Movement, together with the participation of 20 Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in different areas of nonviolence.

“Imagine all the people living life in peace…” John Lennon’s lyrics for “Imagine” ring out in Milan’s Plaza of the Cathedral, during a giant karaoke session in which all of the local citizens concerned about issues of disarmament and peaceful coexistence had wanted to celebrate the beginning of the first historic World March for Peace and Nonviolence (download video).

The World March for Peace and Nonviolence has just accepted ambassadorship of the “Charter for a World without Violence” drafted by 19 Nobel Peace Prize winners. The Moriori people, the original inhabitants of the Chatham Islands and pioneers in peace building, are the first members of the World March to sign on to the charter.

World’s first six-continent Peace March kicks off 93 days of global activities with October 2nd events in cities around the US.
Cities from San Francisco to New York will celebrate in their own way, from participating in peace walks to forming a human peace symbol calling for the elimination of wars, nuclear weapons and violence of all kinds.