The Peace People

UN General Assembly Calls for Decade of Peace and Nonviolence

In an historic vote on November 10, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously voted to proclaim the first decade of the twenty-first century, "The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-2010)."

Thirty years after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., and fifty years after the death of Mahatma Gandhi, the call for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence came from an Appeal to the United Nations signed by twenty-three Nobel Peace Laureates, including Nelson Mandela, the late Mother Theresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The proclamation invites each Member-State to take the necessary steps so that the principles of nonviolence be taught at every level of society. UN bodies, NGOs, educational institutions, religious leaders, the media, performing artists and civil societies in general are called upon to support the Decade for the benefit of the children of the world. The proclamation was issued after speeches by twenty nations calling for a future without war.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Nobel organizer of the Appeal to the UN said, "In the week the UN declared this Decade of Peace and Nonviolence for the new Millenium, it would be tragic if the US government used force to solve the crisis with Iraq. We need to take to heart the desire of the peoples of the world to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation."

John Dear, executive director of the US Fellowship of Reconciliation said, "This historic vote challenges the world to reject violence as a way of solving conflict and to pursue the creative possibilities of nonviolence. The world community agrees we must dedicate ourselves to ending war, abolishing nuclear weapons, and bringing Dr. King's dream of nonviolence into reality. Now, more than ever, we all need to adopt the alternative of nonviolence. We congratulate the United Nations and pledge to do everything we can to teach and promote nonviolence as the only realistic solution to humanity's crisis."

The Appeal of the Nobel Laureates has developed out of the efforts of the French humanitarian organization, PARTAGE, along with the Peace People of Northern Ireland, Servicio Paz y Justicia(SERPAJ), the International Fellowship of Reconciliation(IFOR) and its US branch, the Fellowship of Reconciliation(FOR).