Did you know today is International Day of Peace? A day, observed globally, that asks us to ‘cease fire’ whether it’s in our personal relationships or more broadly looking at the larger conflicts in the world.
Admittedly, it’s sometimes easy to take peace for granted – or not to give any real consideration to it. For many, our relatively calm daily lives in the UK don’t force us to make life and death decisions or flee all we know into upheaval, instability and unfamiliar lands and processes.
We are fortunate. And when I think about the many people we see at Scottish Refugee Council who haven’t had the luxury of peace in their own countries, and whose lives have been catapulted into chaos, I realise and appreciate this more than ever.
Sustainable peace for a sustainable future
This year’s theme ‘sustainable peace for a sustainable future’ emphasises that we can’t start to think about building a sustainable, secure future if there is no sustainable peace. And regardless of whether you’re an organisation or an individual, we all have a part to play – big and small.
What can I do to make it a more peaceful world?
Lots of things, and it can be as basic as thinking positively and acting on it – or as coordinated as supporting a campaign, raising awareness or volunteering with or donating to an organisation you feel is working to make a more peaceful world through their work.
Become a living instrument of peace
The UN’s General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to ‘strengthening the ideals of peace’:
This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organisation, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organisation as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace.”
Freedom from disturbance, quiet, tranquillity – a cease-fire or the absence of war; however you define it, peace should never be taken for granted. And until we live in a world of sustained global peace, surely it’s right to offer safety and sanctuary to people suffering persecution, oppression and the effects of war in their own countries.
#internationaldayofpeace
