We advocate for a UN Resolution calling for the establishment of Ministries and Departments for Peace worldwide to build a global architecture for peace and to support the Culture of Peace.

UN General Assembly during the voting of a resolution in 2019

In partnership with the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations and H.E. UN Ambassador Rodrigo A. Carazo we are working toward a UN Resolution calling for the establishment of Ministries and Departments for Peace within the executive branch of government in every country in the world to support the creation of a global architecture for peace and to strengthen the Culture of Peace.

Download the draft UN Resolution here →

Introduction

Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations – 75 years after the end of World War II and 30 years after the end of the Cold War – we are witnessing an exponential increase in polarization, violent conflicts and worldwide militarization.
1.5 billion people are directly affected by violent conflicts in over 50 conflict zones and more than 70 million people are fleeing war and destruction, which constitutes the highest level ever recorded surpassing post-WWII displacement. The planetary environmental and climate crisis highlights and reinforces global injustices, conflict dynamics and potential for violence.
Division, violent extremism, radicalization, discrimination, disinformation, hate and fear are on the rise in every part of the world while local and global crises show that all Nations are interdependent, shedding greater light on the interconnectedness of all life on Earth.
While in 1945 the UN was primarily designed as an international institution to manage interstate relations as the world reeled from the horrors of two world wars, today’s violent conflicts are mostly non-state and internationalized intrastate conflicts. As the nature of threat has significantly evolved with new, more complex and sophisticated threats and technologies, the world now requires imaginative and bold responses, strengthened commitment and resolve as well as new structures and collaboration among states, civil society and the private sector to truly create a sustainable global culture of peace.
As threats and conflicts evolve, we are also beginning to understand what peace is – the structures, institutions, capacities, and attitudes that underpin it, and the motives that drive people to work for it. Far beyond the absence of violent conflict, positive peace is a dynamic, inclusive, and participatory process, where dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are solved in a spirit of mutual respect, understanding and cooperation. Within a more holistic perspective, peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other people, other cultures, all life, the Earth, and the larger whole of which we are all a part.
Reaffirming the preamble of the UN, which states that “we, the Peoples of the United Nations are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, we also believe that the primary responsibility for conflict prevention as well as for building and sustaining positive peace rests with national governments, with civil society playing a crucial role.
Despite various national and international efforts, resolutions and treaties dedicated to peace, there is a considerable lack of structures, capacities, instruments and understanding to implement effective crisis prevention, human rights, and non-violent conflict resolution, as well as for actively building and sustaining peace and promoting the global Culture of Peace.
It is with this conviction that we promote the adoption of a UN Resolution calling for the creation of Ministries and Departments for Peace worldwide. Our call to adopt the UN Resolution on the Establishment of Ministries and Departments for Peace aims to create the structural capacity for addressing root causes of conflict and implementing peace, by including a dynamic network of capacities, financial resources, an array of essential inner and outer tools, conscious institutional design and a clear mandate to enhance sustainable peace and an embodied Culture of Peace.

“To silence the guns, we must raise the voices for peace.”

— Antonio Gutuerrez, Secretary-General of the United Nations

The Resolution contains the following key recommendations for the establishment of Ministries and Departments for Peace, providing an entry point for building sustainable and inclusive peace architectures and a shared understanding of peace that will enhance societies and their governments to prevent violent conflicts as well as to build and sustain peace in the long-term.

1. Shift the focus to peacebuilding, prevention, and sustaining peace

Ministries and Departments for Peace are dedicated to peacebuilding, sustaining peace, the prevention and nonviolent resolution of conflicts, reconciliation, social healing and trauma integration, as well as the study and promotion of conditions, capacities, and competencies conducive to both domestic and international peace as well as personal and relational peace including a peaceful relationship with the Earth.

2. Provide a comprehensive approach to sustainable peace

Ministries and Departments for Peace create and implement comprehensive approaches, which comprise operational and structural measures for the prevention of violent conflict, addressing its root causes and promoting transitional, restorative and intersectional justice, healing and reconciliation, a professional, accountable, and effective security sector, inclusive and effective demobilization, reintegration, and disarmament.

3. Ensure approaches and solutions are contextualized and locally owned

Ministries and Departments for Peace are established according to the necessities of the specific context, are locally owned, regionally anchored and internationally supported. Learning from the local cultural, ethnic and religious context is essential to shape the evolution of a sustainable architecture and infrastructures for peace.

4. Ensure decision-making is responsive, inclusive, and participatory

Ministries and Departments for Peace ensure and promote the full and meaningful participation of all segments of society, including women, youth and vulnerable groups. Efforts must be made to create spaces for the participation and leadership of key stakeholders, particularly of women.

5. Build capacities as well as social and cultural competencies for peace

Ministries and Departments for Peace focus on building the capacity of the state, as well as on empowering citizens to be and work with conflict effectively in nonviolent and creative ways, with special attention on strengthening the social, cultural, political and economic factors that make nations and communities resilient and allow people to resolve disputes without violence.

6. Promote the Culture of Peace as an enabler for sustaining peace

Ministries and Departments for Peace promote and build the Culture of Peace in all areas of society, including in the areas of youth, education and media to mobilize and equip civil society with tools for peacebuilding and for cultivating peace on the personal, relational, local community-based, collective and institutional level and to harness collective creativity and wisdom in the co-creation of the global Culture of Peace.

7. Form innovative partnerships

Ministries and Departments for Peace require cooperation and co-responsibility among many different actors. Within each country, sustaining peace is a task that should be fulfilled by national governments and all other national stakeholders – including civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, education and research institutes, media, and the private sector – in a collaborative manner. At the international level, cooperation on sustaining peace should flow through all three pillars of UN engagement – peace and security, development, and human rights – which requires cooperation and policy coherence across UN entities.

8. Link sustaining peace with sustainable development

Ministries and Departments for Peace recognize that peaceful and inclusive societies are both, enablers and outcomes of sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a strategic entry point for sustaining peace. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. Sustainable Development Goal 16 commits governments to providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Join in co-drafting the UN Resolution here →

Peace can only be realized through radical inclusivity and effective collaboration. The process itself needs to reflect the outcome that we seek. Therefore, we are committed to making the drafting and negotiation process of the resolution as inclusive and participatory as possible. We are dedicated to connecting the grassroots and local level with the political and decision-making level to raise awareness for and to create inclusive and effective peacebuilding policies.
If you identify as a peacebuilding practitioner, peace activist or peace worker of any kind your voice and experience is greatly needed and much appreciated. Join here.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

— R. Buckminster Fuller

We advocate for a UN Resolution calling for the establishment of Ministries and Departments for Peace worldwide to build a global architecture for peace and to support the Culture of Peace.

Download the draft UN Resolution here →﻿

Introduction

Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations – 75 years after the end of World War II and 30 years after the end of the Cold War – we are witnessing an exponential increase in polarization, violent conflicts and worldwide militarization.

Division, violent extremism, radicalization, discrimination, disinformation, hate and fear are on the rise in every part of the world while local and global crises show that all Nations are interdependent, shedding greater light on the interconnectedness of all life on Earth.

“To silence the guns, we must raise the voices for peace.”

1. Shift the focus to peacebuilding, prevention, and sustaining peace

2. Provide a comprehensive approach to sustainable peace

3. Ensure approaches and solutions are contextualized and locally owned

4. Ensure decision-making is responsive, inclusive, and participatory

Ministries and Departments for Peace ensure and promote the full and meaningful participation of all segments of society, including women, youth and vulnerable groups. Efforts must be made to create spaces for the participation and leadership of key stakeholders, particularly of women.

5. Build capacities as well as social and cultural competencies for peace

6. Promote the Culture of Peace as an enabler for sustaining peace

7. Form innovative partnerships

8. Link sustaining peace with sustainable development

Join in co-drafting the UN Resolution ﻿here →﻿

If you identify as a peacebuilding practitioner, peace activist or peace worker of any kind your voice and experience is greatly needed and much appreciated. Join ﻿here﻿﻿.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

Download the draft UN Resolution here →

Join in co-drafting the UN Resolution here →

If you identify as a peacebuilding practitioner, peace activist or peace worker of any kind your voice and experience is greatly needed and much appreciated. Join here.