Culture and Media

A new initiative has been launched in the Czech Republic: a virtual art gallery of pieces inspired by peace and nonviolence, called “Art for Peace”. It is gathering images created by artists around the world to be freely used by the World March for Peace and Non-Violence activists in their events.

Here we are in this festive day of celebration and re-encounter of friends in this beautiful park that is being inaugurated today. All of this opens the future.

To continue in this direction, to continue building this future that we yearn for, we are joining forces around the planet in a joint action, in a World March for Peace and Nonviolence.

For the first time a World March. This will be the first planetary action that synchronises people in more than 100 countries and hopefully millions of people, with the theme of Peace and with the methodology of nonviolence.

Inspired by the ideals of Universal Humanism, the association “World without Wars” emerged to try to approach this human nation to which the Humanist Movement aspires. Our interpretation is that to eliminate wars is the starting point for the “Universal Human Nation”. The World March, that today counts on the support of more than 2000 organisations and close to one million endorsements, has arisen on the way towards this objective. We have evidence that knowledge of the WM is starting to be present in the highest levels of international forums. A few days ago in a meeting with the President of the United Nations Assembly he qualified the WM as “the new international paradigm of the 21st century”.

Educators are promoting the declaration of the week from the 28th of September to the 3rd of October as the Week of Peace and Nonviolence in Mexico.

To encourage even greater awareness of this important International Day, the United Nations is encouraging people around the world to send text messages for peace on or before 21 September. UN offices in several countries are organizing campaigns. Messages collected by the UN will be presented to world leaders gathering in New York for the 63rd General Assembly from 23 September.

The International Day of Peace, observed each year on 21 September, is a global call for ceasefire and non-violence. It is a time to reflect on the horror and cost of war and the benefits of peacefully resolving our disputes. This year, I will use this important day to ask Governments and citizens of the world to focus on the important issues of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

The project to shoot a feature film about the life of the leader of the non-violent movement for the struggle for civil rights is an old dream of the director.

Montreal, May 28, 2009 – In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s Bed-In, the organizing committee of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence has organized the launch of Bed-In activities throughout the world at the Montreal Fine Arts Museum.

With such words, Queen Rania Al Abdullah, from Jordan, endorses the World March for Peace and Non-Violence.

More than 2000 representatives of indigenous villages and communities from around the world are attending the Forum for Indigenous Affairs held at the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

After several years work by Nobel Peace Laureates and organizations, the “First Draft of the Charter for a World without Violence” was approved. The final version of it was approved recently at the 8th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.