High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace
On September 6, 2013, the President of the UN General Assembly, in cooperation with the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace, convened a High Level Forum to address the implementation of the 1994 UNGA Programme of Action on the Culture of Peace. The daylong event featured several keynote addresses, a high level event, and several panels. Panels were dedicated to “The Role of Interfaith Cooperation in Promoting a Global Culture of Peace”; “The Culture of Peace as the Agenda for a New Global Civilization”; and “Strategy for Advancing the Implementation of the UN Programme of Action on Culture of Peace.” Participants included UNGA President Mr. Vuk Jeremic, Abigail Disney of Peace is Loud, (1998-99) UNGA Chair of the UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace H. E. Anwarul K. Chowdhury, various religious leaders, among others.
The forum highlighted the need for building a global culture of peace throughout education and integration, where women and youth are main actors of peacebuilding. Anwarul Chowdhury, representing civil society and The Global Movement for The Culture of Peace, highlighted that development, peace and women participation are highly interconnected, with all three needing to co-exist together in order to facilitate real concrete change and action. Dipu Moni, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, stressed the importance of having women at the table of negotiation about peace. Lakshmi Puri (UNWomen) stressed that there cannot exist a culture of peace when half of the world's population cannot participate. Further, Grace Akallo (United Africans for Women and Children's Rights) emphasized the crucial role of gender justice and gender perspectives in areas such as poverty, health, education and environment, all pillars of the Millennium Development Goals. While the importance of women's participation was recognized, it was not a major area of focus in the overall discussion.
Click here for read the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report on the progress towards the MDG.