High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace Friday, September 6,2013

“Peace in the world starts with our own private world,” said President of the General Assembly, Mr Vuk Jeremic, “building a culture of peace is the most important thing we can do for the world.” A fitting start to the events of the High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, with member states of the General Assembly and various representatives from NGOs filling the Trusteeship

Council Chamber, all eager to see how the day pans out.

The panelists were all of a high calibre and included people such as H.E. Ms Dipu Moni (Bangladesh’s first woman foreign minister), H.E. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, Rev. Dr. Katherine Henderson (internationally renowned religious leader), Ms Lakshmi Puri (Deputy executive Director of UN Women) and Abigail Disney (filmmaker and producer). The topics that were discussed during the day ranged from the role of religion and faith in creating a culture of peace, gender equality and the rights of women and children, poverty and the equitable distribution, shared values, violence and non-violence, the importance of communication and dialogue and youth. Each discussion covered very broad areas and addressed almost all the different facets of society, and the key theme, which emerged, was partnerships and collaborations. It is a very heart warming concept actually as it goes to show that humanity essentially needs one another. No man is an island and no matter what role I have to play, someone needs me and is relying on me; and they could even be a perfect stranger.

The whole day was very thought provoking and it makes you realise that in the world, there are a lot of people with genuinely good intentions and who do care. I was particularly reflecting on these words “Culture of Peace”. A truly touching phrase, but what does it really mean? What does it mean to build a culture and how do you even go about building a culture? The word culture comes from the Latin word cultura, which literally means cultivation. In our present context we could take this to mean the cultivation of society, cultivation of a higher set of material and spiritual values and a cultivation of certain habits and practices. How do you build a culture of peace then? Do we know what peace means? It seems difficult.
What if I were to say that peace is simply just who you are? Visualise if we could cultivate societies and communities where we all honestly connected to who we really are, and act on the best of our intentions. I strongly believe that a culture of peace, or even cultures of peace, can be created by making peace with ourselves first. So, tonight, you’ll find me by a quiet space somewhere, attempting to create a better world by getting to know myself more. “Peace in the world starts with our own private world,” said President of the General Assembly, Mr Vuk Jeremic, “building a culture of peace is the most important thing we can do for the world.” A fitting start to the events of the High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, with member states of the General Assembly and various representatives from NGOs filling the Trusteeship