INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
September 21, 2021

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

By 2021 Diana Award recipient, Fibha Frameen from Sydney, Australia

Fibha is a ‘Global Peace Ambassador’, ’Multicultural Ambassador’ and ‘Country Coordinator’ for Australia in the ‘Global Youth Parliament’.

Fibha is a ‘Global Peace Ambassador’, ’Multicultural Ambassador’ and ‘Country Coordinator’ for Australia in the ‘Global Youth Parliament’. During COVID-19, she supported the ‘UNHCR’s Global 555’ fundraising campaign to protect vulnerable refugees whilst also collaborating with NGOs in Somalia and Pakistan to distribute food to internally displaced families. As a first-generation migrant, Fibha created ‘Design Your Destiny’ Project to help newly arrived migrants build friendships, a sense of belonging and confidence via storytelling and zine-making workshops. She also initiated ‘Walk Towards Peace’, which builds peaceful, multicultural ties of acceptance and tolerance. Fibha is devoted to humanitarian work and creating harmonious relations.

Peace, A notion of tranquillity and security, Coexisting with freedom and harmony; With an absence of conflict, hostility and violence. Doesn’t this sound like a utopian dream?

Today, over 82 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, and human rights violations (UNCHR, 2020).

Each year, on 21 September, the United Nations calls on everyone to observe 24 hours of non-violence and ceasefire. The International Day of Peace (Peace Day) was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. In 2001, the UN General Assembly declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace across the world, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.

The 2021 theme for Peace Day is “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world”. As we heal and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is of utmost importance to come together as one to relinquish stigma, discrimination & hatred and put our hands forward to spread peace. To be able to recover from the devastation of the pandemic, we must make work together to create peace within our communities and with one another.

And we must make peace with nature. Despite border closures and travel restrictions and economic shutdowns, climate change is not on pause. What we need is a green and sustainable global economy that produces jobs, reduces emissions, and builds resilience to climate impacts. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented wake-up call, laying bare deep inequalities and exposing precisely the failures that are addressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has intensified the need for states to use the UN SDGs as a roadmap for a sustainable recovery to eliminate an emerging threat to global peace and security as well as to reduce growing inequalities. We need to collectively work towards transforming our world into one that is more equal, just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable and healthier.

To join the efforts of the United Nations peacebuilders and to support SDG no 16, let’s celebrate peace by standing up against acts of hate online and offline, and by spreading compassion, kindness, and hope in the face of the pandemic, and as we recover better for a more equitable and peaceful world.

As a Peace Ambassador, I have initiated a ‘Walk Towards Peace’ which aims to gather people on a voluntary basis to hold peace circles and provide them with a safe space to emerge conversations about peace.  Young people from different cultural and interfaith backgrounds come together to discuss what peace means to them and how they can support and promote UN SDG no 16. We bring people together and empower them to promote social inclusion and harmony. Peace circles are held in an outdoor setting during our monthly hikes to support local tourism and promote skills such as acceptance, tolerance & compassion to enhance peacebuilding amongst young people to cultivate a culture of peace.

Fibha Frameen: Fibha is a Global Peace Ambassador & Rotary Inspirational Woman of the Year advocating for peace, conflict prevention and resolution at a Rotary International Event.

5 actions you can take to promote peace:

1. Start a #WalkTowardsPeace in your region, please reach out to us via email, Instagram or Facebook.

2. Become a Global Peace Ambassador.

3. Take action: Speak up against prejudice and discrimination.

4. Start a Peace Advocacy Campaign – Locally, Globally, Online or Offline.

5. Join Rotary International and support their mission to create lasting peace.

With a little love, we’ll make a start; to regain the peace that we have lost. World peace begins with inner peace.  Let’s join hands around the world, to recover better for a sustainable and equitable world whilst creating a magnitude of peace.

“Peace begins with you – Great changes start with individuals; the basis of world peace is inner peace, in the hearts of individuals, something we can all work towards” – Fibha Frameen

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