how to promote peace and justice essay

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What’s the Relationship Between Peace and Justice?

“If you want peace, work for justice.” 

This famous quote comes from Pope Paul VI’s address for the Day of Peace in 1972, and touches on the important connection between peace and justice. As we are faced with many challenges that threaten peace and justice in our present day, the words of Pope Paul still ring out with the strength of truth.

We all want to see a more peaceful and just world, but what will it take to get us there?   A great place to begin answering this question is with a more comprehensive understanding of global peace and justice and their relationship to one another. 

Working toward Global Peace and Global Justice

Peace and justice are common words. We use them in our workplaces, in our homes and in everyday interactions. They help us to describe the state of our souls or to illuminate our sense of being wronged. Every human has personally experienced the meaning of these words through their sense of well-being or unease and anger. 

Peace and justice are also global words. They express something we look for in the world at large. We long to see them present in global economies and societies. We want the whole world to be at peace and the whole world to operate in justice.

Why do these concepts seem inextricably linked? Let’s explore the meaning and relationship between these key concepts and look at some of the ways peace and justice are violated in the world today.

What’s the Connection Between Peace and Justice?

The connection between peace and justice is intrinsic. Peace is an indication that the current state of affairs (interiorly in the case of a person’s mind or soul or exteriorly between peoples or nations) is harmonious and properly ordered. It is a state of tranquility, a sense that “all’s right with the world.”

Here’s how Pope Paul VI explains it :

“It is difficult, but essential, to form a genuine idea of Peace. It is difficult for one who closes his eyes to his innate intuition of it, which tells him that Peace is something very human. This is the right way to come to the genuine discovery of Peace: if we look for its true source, we find that it is rooted in a sincere feeling for man. A Peace that is not the result of true respect for man is not true Peace. And what do we call this sincere feeling for man? We call it Justice.”

According to Pope Paul VI, justice is a sincere feeling toward the other.

A nation with a sincere feeling toward a marginalized group living within its borders will not oppress, persecute or drive them out. A person with a sincere feeling toward another person will not steal from them, cheat them or spread rumors about them. People with sincere feelings toward themselves will treat themselves with respect and kindness.

By Pope Paul’s explanation, sincerity is something we owe each other by virtue of our worth as human beings. Any action or state of being that diminishes or does not recognize our human value is unjust.

How to Establish Peace and Justice in the World

When the state of the world feels uneasy, it can be difficult to know what to do or where to turn. Our own actions may not seem like enough, and yet—we are called to speak out against injustices in the world. There are many simple ways each of us can work to establish peace and justice in the world. Here are three simple things you can do right now:

• Speak out when we see injustices. Sometimes all it takes to begin building a more peaceful and inclusive society is one person who is willing to stand up for what is right.
• Take action to overcome our own barriers. When we treat ourselves with love and kindness we are bringing more peace into our own lives, which we can in turn share with others. 
• Offer up prayers. The power of prayer can change the hearts of people all over the world and bring them greater peace. It can also soften our own heart to be more attentive to the needs of our suffering brothers and sisters.

Prayer is the most powerful tool we have. It allows God to enter our heart and fill us with his love. Consider adding the following prayer into your daily reflections:

Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World

"Lord Jesus Christ, who are called the Prince of Peace, who are yourself our peace and reconciliation, who so often said, 'Peace to you,' grant us peace. Make all men and women witnesses of truth, justice, and brotherly love. Banish from their hearts whatever might endanger peace. Enlighten our leaders that they may guarantee and defend the great gift of peace. May all peoples of the earth become as brothers and sisters. May longed-for peace blossom forth and reign always over us all." —Saint John XXIII

Learn More About the Relationship Between Peace and Justice

Divine Word Missionaries work passionately to address issues related to peace and justice and to help those who are most affected by conflict. From our work fighting human trafficking to our work supporting migrants and refugees, we are confronting sources of conflict and attempting to bring true and lasting peace.

If you are interested in learning more about peace and justice in the world today, explore our  informative resource and discover facts about the state of global conflict. 

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Essay on Peace

500 words essay peace.

Peace is the path we take for bringing growth and prosperity to society. If we do not have peace and harmony, achieving political strength, economic stability and cultural growth will be impossible. Moreover, before we transmit the notion of peace to others, it is vital for us to possess peace within. It is not a certain individual’s responsibility to maintain peace but everyone’s duty. Thus, an essay on peace will throw some light on the same topic.

Importance of Peace

History has been proof of the thousands of war which have taken place in all periods at different levels between nations. Thus, we learned that peace played an important role in ending these wars or even preventing some of them.

In fact, if you take a look at all religious scriptures and ceremonies, you will realize that all of them teach peace. They mostly advocate eliminating war and maintaining harmony. In other words, all of them hold out a sacred commitment to peace.

It is after the thousands of destructive wars that humans realized the importance of peace. Earth needs peace in order to survive. This applies to every angle including wars, pollution , natural disasters and more.

When peace and harmony are maintained, things will continue to run smoothly without any delay. Moreover, it can be a saviour for many who do not wish to engage in any disrupting activities or more.

In other words, while war destroys and disrupts, peace builds and strengthens as well as restores. Moreover, peace is personal which helps us achieve security and tranquillity and avoid anxiety and chaos to make our lives better.

How to Maintain Peace

There are many ways in which we can maintain peace at different levels. To begin with humankind, it is essential to maintain equality, security and justice to maintain the political order of any nation.

Further, we must promote the advancement of technology and science which will ultimately benefit all of humankind and maintain the welfare of people. In addition, introducing a global economic system will help eliminate divergence, mistrust and regional imbalance.

It is also essential to encourage ethics that promote ecological prosperity and incorporate solutions to resolve the environmental crisis. This will in turn share success and fulfil the responsibility of individuals to end historical prejudices.

Similarly, we must also adopt a mental and spiritual ideology that embodies a helpful attitude to spread harmony. We must also recognize diversity and integration for expressing emotion to enhance our friendship with everyone from different cultures.

Finally, it must be everyone’s noble mission to promote peace by expressing its contribution to the long-lasting well-being factor of everyone’s lives. Thus, we must all try our level best to maintain peace and harmony.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Peace

To sum it up, peace is essential to control the evils which damage our society. It is obvious that we will keep facing crises on many levels but we can manage them better with the help of peace. Moreover, peace is vital for humankind to survive and strive for a better future.

FAQ of Essay on Peace

Question 1: What is the importance of peace?

Answer 1: Peace is the way that helps us prevent inequity and violence. It is no less than a golden ticket to enter a new and bright future for mankind. Moreover, everyone plays an essential role in this so that everybody can get a more equal and peaceful world.

Question 2: What exactly is peace?

Answer 2: Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in which there is no hostility and violence. In social terms, we use it commonly to refer to a lack of conflict, such as war. Thus, it is freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups.

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December 2, 2021

Peace Is More Than War’s Absence, and New Research Explains How to Build It

A new project measures ways to promote positive social relations among groups

By Peter T. Coleman , Allegra Chen-Carrel & Vincent Hans Michael Stueber

PeopleImages/Getty Images

Today, the misery of war is all too striking in places such as Syria, Yemen, Tigray, Myanmar and Ukraine. It can come as a surprise to learn that there are scores of sustainably peaceful societies around the world, ranging from indigenous people in the Xingu River Basin in Brazil to countries in the European Union. Learning from these societies, and identifying key drivers of harmony, is a vital process that can help promote world peace.

Unfortunately, our current ability to find these peaceful mechanisms is woefully inadequate. The Global Peace Index (GPI) and its complement the Positive Peace Index (PPI) rank 163 nations annually and are currently the leading measures of peacefulness. The GPI, launched in 2007 by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), was designed to measure negative peace , or the absence of violence, destructive conflict, and war. But peace is more than not fighting. The PPI, launched in 2009, was supposed to recognize this and track positive peace , or the promotion of peacefulness through positive interactions like civility, cooperation and care.

Yet the PPI still has many serious drawbacks. To begin with, it continues to emphasize negative peace, despite its name. The components of the PPI were selected and are weighted based on existing national indicators that showed the “strongest correlation with the GPI,” suggesting they are in effect mostly an extension of the GPI. For example, the PPI currently includes measures of factors such as group grievances, dissemination of false information, hostility to foreigners, and bribes.

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The index also lacks an empirical understanding of positive peace. The PPI report claims that it focuses on “positive aspects that create the conditions for a society to flourish.” However, there is little indication of how these aspects were derived (other than their relationships with the GPI). For example, access to the internet is currently a heavily weighted indicator in the PPI. But peace existed long before the internet, so is the number of people who can go online really a valid measure of harmony?

The PPI has a strong probusiness bias, too. Its 2021 report posits that positive peace “is a cross-cutting facilitator of progress, making it easier for businesses to sell.” A prior analysis of the PPI found that almost half the indicators were directly related to the idea of a “Peace Industry,” with less of a focus on factors found to be central to positive peace such as gender inclusiveness, equity and harmony between identity groups.

A big problem is that the index is limited to a top-down, national-level approach. The PPI’s reliance on national-level metrics masks critical differences in community-level peacefulness within nations, and these provide a much more nuanced picture of societal peace . Aggregating peace data at the national level, such as focusing on overall levels of inequality rather than on disparities along specific group divides, can hide negative repercussions of the status quo for minority communities.

To fix these deficiencies, we and our colleagues have been developing an alternative approach under the umbrella of the Sustaining Peace Project . Our effort has various components , and these can provide a way to solve the problems in the current indices. Here are some of the elements:

Evidence-based factors that measure positive and negative peace. The peace project began with a comprehensive review of the empirical studies on peaceful societies, which resulted in identifying 72 variables associated with sustaining peace. Next, we conducted an analysis of ethnographic and case study data comparing “peace systems,” or clusters of societies that maintain peace with one another, with nonpeace systems. This allowed us to identify and measure a set of eight core drivers of peace. These include the prevalence of an overarching social identity among neighboring groups and societies; their interconnections such as through trade or intermarriage; the degree to which they are interdependent upon one another in terms of ecological, economic or security concerns; the extent to which their norms and core values support peace or war; the role that rituals, symbols and ceremonies play in either uniting or dividing societies; the degree to which superordinate institutions exist that span neighboring communities; whether intergroup mechanisms for conflict management and resolution exist; and the presence of political leadership for peace versus war.

A core theory of sustaining peace . We have also worked with a broad group of peace, conflict and sustainability scholars to conceptualize how these many variables operate as a complex system by mapping their relationships in a causal loop diagram and then mathematically modeling their core dynamics This has allowed us to gain a comprehensive understanding of how different constellations of factors can combine to affect the probabilities of sustaining peace.

Bottom-up and top-down assessments . Currently, the Sustaining Peace Project is applying techniques such as natural language processing and machine learning to study markers of peace and conflict speech in the news media. Our preliminary research suggests that linguistic features may be able to distinguish between more and less peaceful societies. These methods offer the potential for new metrics that can be used for more granular analyses than national surveys.

We have also been working with local researchers from peaceful societies to conduct interviews and focus groups to better understand the in situ dynamics they believe contribute to sustaining peace in their communities. For example in Mauritius , a highly multiethnic society that is today one of the most peaceful nations in Africa, we learned of the particular importance of factors like formally addressing legacies of slavery and indentured servitude, taboos against proselytizing outsiders about one’s religion, and conscious efforts by journalists to avoid divisive and inflammatory language in their reporting.

Today, global indices drive funding and program decisions that impact countless lives, making it critical to accurately measure what contributes to socially just, safe and thriving societies. These indices are widely reported in news outlets around the globe, and heads of state often reference them for their own purposes. For example, in 2017 , Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, though he and his country were mired in corruption allegations, referenced his country’s positive increase on the GPI by stating, “Receiving such high praise from an institute that once named this country the most violent in the world is extremely significant.” Although a 2019 report on funding for peace-related projects shows an encouraging shift towards supporting positive peace and building resilient societies, many of these projects are really more about preventing harm, such as grants for bolstering national security and enhancing the rule of law.

The Sustaining Peace Project, in contrast, includes metrics for both positive and negative peace, is enhanced by local community expertise, and is conceptually coherent and based on empirical findings. It encourages policy makers and researchers to refocus attention and resources on initiatives that actually promote harmony, social health and positive reciprocity between groups. It moves away from indices that rank entire countries and instead focuses on identifying factors that, through their interaction, bolster or reduce the likelihood of sustaining peace. It is a holistic perspective.  

Tracking peacefulness across the globe is a highly challenging endeavor. But there is great potential in cooperation between peaceful communities, researchers and policy makers to produce better methods and metrics. Measuring peace is simply too important to get only half-right. 

Making Peace

• Posted December 23, 2015
• By Leah Shafer

As 2015 draws to a close, we hope for a new year where cooperation and empathy supersede violence and suspicion. For our final article this year, Usable Knowledge asks: Can education foster a more peaceful world?

According to Silvia Diazgranados Ferráns , an instructor and doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education , it can. Her research on peace education reveals a complex field that seeks to help schools build communities that foster peacemaking and citizenship — to encourage students to become empathetic, inclusive, critical thinkers who have the skills to live peaceful lives.

The Goals of Peace Education

The goals of peace education vary widely across the world. In developing countries, where there is no specific enemy or conflict but a general lack of human rights, peace education seeks to elucidate sources of inequality to promote a more equitable, stable future. In areas of intractable conflict between specific groups, as in Israel and the Palestinian territories, peace education seeks to promote alternate narratives of the conflict to encourage mutual understanding, respect, and collaboration.

In areas where there is no active conflict or violation of human rights, peace education seeks to promote individual skills that reject the use violence and create stronger communities.

Peace Education in Action

For U.S. educators, a successful peace education program focuses on helping children develop the skills they’ll need to get along with others, solve conflicts in nonviolent ways, contribute positively to their communities, respect intergroup differences, and value diversity. Young children need to learn and practice these skills in relationship to their peers, teachers, and family members, Diazgranados Ferráns says. As they grow older, children need opportunities to practice these skills in the context of their broader community and to reflect on their potential global impact.

Diazgranados Ferráns notes that peace education lessons will only take root if peace education is a schoolwide effort that goes beyond a particular subject, embodied by every adult in the building and demonstrated throughout the school day. She outlines several ways that teachers and school leaders can incorporate peace education into their work, teaching students how to be empathetic, responsible, and active learners and leaders:

Model kindness and empathy Teachers, principals, and staff throughout the building can model how to love and care for others through their interactions among each other and with students. Adults should get to know students individually, appreciating the unique strengths and needs of each student and member of the school community.

Repair, don’t punish When students commit an offense, use models of restorative justice to help them understand the effects of their actions and how they can repair any damage done. Instead of punishing or excluding offenders, facilitate conversations on what would need to happen to restore balance in the community. The end goal is for children to understand the impact of their actions and to learn to take responsibility for them.

Create a democratic space Involve student voices in establishing and revising school and class norms. Create classrooms where children are encouraged to share their ideas. Share power with students and give them the space to question authority. Great injustices, inequalities, and atrocities take place when people either are uncritical of authority or aren’t given the appropriate space and courage to question and resist it, says Diazgranados Ferráns.

Give a voice to the excluded On a micro level, this means encouraging students who are commonly excluded to speak up in class. On a macro level, this means incorporating into lessons the narratives of people who have been historically discriminated against or excluded. Have students think critically about why the knowledge and experiences of some groups of people are privileged over the knowledge and experiences of others.

Encourage collaboration in diverse groups Emphasize collaboration and teamwork and deemphasize competition and self-interests. Structure long-term projects that allow children from different social or ethnic groups to work together toward a common goal. Opportunities in which children get to know one another as individuals, says Diazgranados Ferráns, “may help break prejudices and establish caring relationships among members of different groups.”

Discuss controversial issues Facilitate discussions about divisive civic and ethical issues for children of all ages. These debates teach students not only about viewpoints different from their own, but also that it’s okay to disagree with authority figures and peers as long as it’s done respectfully and in a safe environment.

Integrate service learning With younger students, this can mean identifying and solving problems within their classroom. With older students, it can mean creating service projects that help their school, community, or people across world. “Children need to practice, from very, very early on, how to take action, to solve the problems in their community, to have a positive effect,” says Diazgranados Ferráns. “They don’t need to wait until they grow up to change the world.”

Additional Resources

• Read more about Diazgranados Ferráns’ research .

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Exploring the Sustainable Development Goals

Promoting Peace through Community and Opportunity

By Allison Kooser

Originally published in 2017. Updated in 2021.

Seeking Peace | Escaping the FARC and Escaping Violence | How Opportunity Promotes Peace and Justice | Entering Violent Communities to Promote Peace | Moving Forward in Peace

Yineth’s entire childhood was plagued by violence.

As a young girl growing up in rural Colombia , her family struggled to make ends meet. When she was eight years old, she learned that the man that she thought was her father was indeed not, and that her biological father had fathered six other siblings, all about Yineth’s age, with different women. Her mom tried desperately to feed her own six kids, but there was never enough money to go around. And Yineth’s grandmother threw away Yineth’s only toy—a doll—because she thought it was possessed by the devil.

So when Yineth was 12 and guerrilla fighters offered her a way to escape her home, she jumped at the chance. She found a new place to belong and joined a new family—the rebel militia, where she remained as a fighter for five years. 

The country-wide, decades-long violence in Colombia was born as a reaction to an earlier conflict—a civil war known as La Violencia that ran from 1948 to 1958. The resulting rebel militia known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) engaged in a 50+ year struggle against the Colombian government , turning to kidnapping, drug trafficking and violence to fund their revolution and attack those in power. Over the last half-century, internal violence in Colombia has left “220,000 dead, 25,000 disappeared, and 5.7 million displaced.” 1  And perhaps most importantly, it has shaped the lives of every Colombian growing up and defined the recent country's recent history.

Seeking Peace: Sustainable Development Goal 16

It is situations like the one still unfolding in Colombia that underscore the importance of Sustainable Development Goal 16:

“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.” 2

Without peace, it is nearly impossible to achieve any of our other development objectives . When life itself is uncertain, people are not investing in flourishing—focusing instead on simple survival, on making themselves feel safe.

Freedom from fear is as important as freedom from want. It is impossible to truly enjoy one of these rights without the other. Amartya Sen

Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission writes in his book The Locust Effect , “For nearly a decade, the World Bank has been reiterating its finding that ‘crime and violence have emerged in recent years as major obstacles to the realization of development objectives.’ The Bank has stated flatly, ‘In many developing countries, high levels of crime and violence not only undermine people’s safety on an everyday level, they also undermine broader development efforts to improve governance and reduce poverty.’ Multiple studies by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have concluded that restraining violence is a precondition to poverty alleviation and economic development, plainly stating that ‘a foundational level of order must be established must be established before development objectives can be realized.’” 3

Haugen goes on to say, “When it comes to violence, researchers are increasingly concerned that development experts are missing Amartya Sen’s insight that ‘development [is] a process of expanding the real freedoms people enjoy,’ and are failing to appreciate the idea ‘that freedom from crime and violence are key components of development. Freedom from fear is as important as freedom from want. It is impossible to truly enjoy one of these rights without the other. ’” 4

By including Goal 16 among the Sustainable Development Goals, the global development community has recognized and affirmed these truths—moving toward peace and justice, while simultaneously addressing more traditional development needs like clean water,  access to food  and  healthcare .   

Escaping the FARC and Escaping Violence

Healthy pregnancies, deliveries, infancies, and early childhoods prepare children to succeed later in life. Conversely, health challenges in the first few years of life can lead to lifelong developmental delays. In order to build the next generation of world changers, we must first make sure that the youngest members of our world are well cared for and healthy.

Yineth’s longing for freedom from want drove her to join the militia at age 12, but it was her longing for freedom from fear that motivated her to escape the guerillas at age 17. Unfortunately, by the time she figured out that she didn’t want to fight anymore, she had also learned just how hard it would be to leave. Nonetheless, she plotted her course, and one night began to run—away from the guerrillas, away from the mountains, away from the life that she had known. She ran for three days and two nights; alone, hiding and desperately hoping to survive.

When she reached a town, a local policeman saw her, but instead of offering help to the ragged girl running through the streets, he treated her as a criminal and beat her so bloody that she spent the next week in the hospital. Thankfully, another policeman recognized her innocence and offered her the chance to stay at his home. There, she recovered for the next few months. For the first time ever—at age 17—she learned to eat with utensils. 

We promote peaceful and inclusive societies by operating peacefully and inclusively, recognizing that our other development priorities—creating jobs, empowering women, addressing global hunger, developing infrastructure—cannot happen without an undercurrent of peace. 

Eventually, the policeman’s family told Yineth that it was time to leave, so she went to live in a girls’ home where other escaped fighters from all sides of the conflict went to live. During her time at the girls’ home, Yineth began to study. She finished her primary and secondary education, and she was then connected with ACR—a governmental agency devoted to re-entry for former combatants. There, Yineth learned life skills, was given resources to begin a new life in Bogota on her own, eventually met her now-husband and got a job with Opportunity International.

As an Opportunity employee, her dream was to fight for freedom from want and fear: to address the violence that plagued her country for decades by encouraging connection and possibility. Her hope is that by providing jobs and education, she’ll help prevent any other kids from having to choose an experience like hers. She is creating the stability that prevents violence in the first place.

How Opportunity Promotes Peace and Justice

Yineth is a shining example of how Opportunity responds to violence and fosters peace.

In the face of some of the world’s most pressing challenges, Opportunity generates possibilities. In response to ostracized communities, isolated populations and severe divisiveness, Opportunity encourages connection. 

Through Trust Groups , Opportunity brings together neighbors and links their success to each other. By its very design, you cannot view those around you as the “other;” you must view them as your colleagues, champions and friends.

In the same way, we view our clients not as the “other,” but as our colleagues, champions and friends. When we succeed, our clients succeed. And when our clients succeed, we succeed. Our thriving is inextricably linked. 

We fight discrimination by working with some of the world’s most marginalized people—people who have long been excluded from the formal economy, the global stage or even their own neighborhoods. We come alongside these incredible people and believe in them, cheer for them and connect them to one another. We stare violence down and challenge it with connection and friendship. We seek justice by creating opportunities for all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. We promote peaceful and inclusive societies by operating peacefully and inclusively, recognizing that our other development priorities— creating jobs , empowering women , addressing global hunger , developing infrastructure —cannot happen without an undercurrent of peace. 

Entering into Violent Communities to Promote Peace

Historically, Opportunity has not shied away from investing in communities plagued by violence.

So many of the countries in which we work have faced violence and instability stemming from political insurrection, rebel groups, contested elections and more. In the Philippines , Kenya and the DRC , we have sought to bring people together as violence seeks to tear them apart. Through community training and Trust Groups that connect neighbors, and economic empowerment that generates freedom from want, we have fought for Sustainable Development Goal 16. 

In Colombia, Opportunity has worked with former combatants like Yineth, and built Trust Groups comprised of people displaced by internal violence. We have brought together people whose homes and neighborhoods have been destroyed and created new communities of women and men who are creating new futures together. The violence in Colombia has been largely unavoidable, but we have worked to create opportunities in spite of it.

Halfway around the world, Petronire Hakurink’s Trust Group in Rwanda exemplified this same movement toward community and peace. Her group is called “Remera Abahule” which means “We come together” or “We understand each other, we are one.” 

The significance of this name is not lost on Petronire, whose life has been marred with unimaginable violence, stemming from severe division among people, neighbors and ideologies.

When the genocide began in Rwanda in 1994, Petronire was married with five children. The violence quickly found its way to Petronire’s front door, destroying her home, forcing four of her children to escape to Congo , causing Petronire to flee with a baby on her back, and violently attacking her husband and burying him alive. Petronire was abused, and described her existence as one of “bodies walking, but being dead inside.”

In the face of some of the world’s most pressing challenges, Opportunity generates possibilities. In response to ostracized communities, isolated populations and severe divisiveness, Opportunity encourages connection. 

Petronire’s entire life was destroyed by violence. She lost her beloved husband, was separated from her children for three long years, uncertain if they were alive or dead, and faced repeated assaults from the men around her. She was broken, isolated and devastated.

But Opportunity knew that Petronire still had a future.

We came alongside Petronire and other genocide survivors and began to foster community. We created Trust Groups like Remera Abahule and provided vocational training so that widowed women could learn to support themselves.

Petronire says, “Opportunity got me out of isolation. It has changed my life.”

Opportunity didn’t end the Rwandan genocide or stop the violence, but it did foster relationships and connectivity where division and loneliness had reigned free. It created opportunities, not only for economic advancement, but for freedom, safety, community and human flourishing. 

Moving Forward in Peace

In the same way that Rwanda has moved from tremendous violence to an era defined largely by development and progress, Colombia has entered a new season of peace building.

On November 24, 2016, FARC leaders and the Colombian government signed a revolutionary peace deal that sought to end the decades-long violence.

Of course, the transition to peace is never an easy one. 

On November 24, 2016, FARC leaders and the Colombian government signed a revolutionary peace deal that sought to end the decades-long violence. 

The reason “promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development” is a valuable Sustainable Development Goal is precisely because it’s hard to achieve. It will take considerable attention, effort and progress for us to achieve peace and justice on a local, national and global level.

Colombia’s peace-building process is demonstrating these difficulties for us as we speak. Former FARC fighters have broken away and continue to operate in jungle hideouts, and old FARC territory has been captured by new rebel groups. 5  The progress is slow and complicated, and Colombia still faces countless challenges.

But there is progress toward peace.

As slow and winding as it might be, the global community continues to fight for Sustainable Development Goal 16.

And through it all—violence, peace and the in-between—Opportunity remains committed to its clients.

We are proud to serve alongside hard-working women and men as they weather violent storms and as they recover through the aftermath. We build community to counter division, and celebrate when peace enters in.

We “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels” because we know that our clients must be free from both want and fear. We continue to bring people together and create opportunities so that clients, regardless of the chaos of their circumstances, can build bright futures for themselves, care for their families and transform their communities from the inside out.

Allison is a professional storyteller, freelance writer, and avid traveler. She spent the last year backpacking around the world meeting and interviewing incredible people with remarkable stories, eating amazing food, and climbing very scary mountains. Now, she lives in Chicago where she runs a small business helping nonprofit organizations identify, create, and share their stories, equipping them to better do the work they were born to do. When she's not working, you can usually find her reading a book, planning her next trip, or baking the best cookies on the planet.

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• https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/colombias-civil-conflict
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• http://www.thelocusteffect.com/
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• Table of Contents
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• Facilitation of Community Processes
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• Section 5. Promoting Peace

Chapter 28 Sections

• Section 1. Overview: Some Spiritual Assets for Community Building
• Section 2. Being Compassionate
• Section 3. Being Charitable Towards Others
• Section 4. Forgiveness and Reconciliation
• Section 6. Spreading Hope
• Section 7. Promoting Hospitality as a Way of Life
• Section 8. Mindfulness and Community Building
• Section 9. Gratitude and Appreciation
• Section 10. Mercy
• Main Section

This and other sections in the Tool Box chapter on Spirituality and Community Building (Chapter 28) have been written with the support and contributions of experts connected with the Charter for Compassion. For more information about the Charter and its work, visit  www.charterforcompassion.org .

“Everyone must be committed in the matter of peace, to do everything that they can …

Peace is the language we must speak.” — Pope Francis

Introduction

This section is about peace – a most fundamental asset to community building, to personal growth, and to the very survival of our planet. At the heart of many faiths, practices, and cultures, advancing peaceful co-existence is essential to ensuring productive, meaningful lives and sustainable societies.

After providing a working definition of peace, our main focus will be on practical steps one can take to advance peace, so that we can strengthen ourselves and our communities. We’ll supplement this guidance with examples throughout. These come from initiatives stimulated by the Charter for Compassion , its partner organizations, and many others who offer practical models that individuals, groups, and/or governments can employ for peace-building. We will also consider how we, as individuals, can be enriched by establishing peace within our individual lives, even in the most challenging of circumstances.

Throughout this section we draw from actual events and emphasize personal experiences. Assisting in authoring is September 11 th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows , whose members have connected with others from over 25 countries – from Rwanda and South Africa to Japanese survivors of atomic bombs; these individuals have lost loved ones, or themselves been injured by mass violence through war, terror, or other incidents, but they have joined together to work toward a more peaceful future.

To get us started on the topic of promoting peace, let us look to what may seem at first to be an unlikely source for leadership and inspiration – the mountains of Afghanistan. There live a group of young people who have been surrounded by war from birth, from Soviet invasions to warlords, Taliban fighting, and more recently the American invasion. As a result, several of them have been severely injured and/or lost family and friends due to conflicts that have nothing to do with their interests. 

Yet they have not responded with a violent thirst for revenge, but rather by forming the Afghan Peace Volunteers . This group has held peace marches and vigils in areas across the Middle East and has worked to support other youth and victims of war, while strengthening education and justice within their own communities. They challenge you and me, and the entire world, with their simple question: "Why not friendship?" Perhaps you would like to respond to their heartfelt plea. They welcome everyone to join in their conversations toward mutual understanding, called Global Days of Listening .

Youth and adults across the U.S. and the world have joined in these calls to discuss ways to make our communities safer and to live together in peace. Later in this section, we will discuss how a student group in Groton, MA participated, sharing dreams and strategies. If these young people can embrace peace and see a way forward through mutual support with those who have been enemies, we can all find that path, whether in our home communities or across the globe.

The Author’s Personal Story As a 9/11 family member, this topic of peace is profoundly important to me. My brother, Donald Freeman Greene, having hugged his beloved wife and young children goodbye, headed off on an early flight on September 11, 2001 to visit our siblings on the West Coast. He died on that beautiful morning as a passenger aboard United Flight 93. Young men, deluded into thinking that they were acting in accordance to their religion’s beliefs and/or to benefit their people, had taken over the plane in an act of extreme violence. Their intent to use the airplane as a weapon, most likely aimed at the United States Capitol, was thwarted by passengers who came together to retake control of the cockpit. In my anguish and personal loss, it was still painful to me to hear the call of the Flight 93 passengers – "Let's Roll" – taken up across the nation and used as a justification to head to war. The nation embraced the idea that a military approach would teach our enemies a lesson and destroy them. Yet we must ask ourselves, what is the lesson? As hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, predominantly women and children, have died due to the ensuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have failed to demonstrate in any way that violence against civilians is ever justified. We have lost far more young soldiers than the number of people who died in the September 11th attacks. The wars seem to have perpetuated the same misguided belief held by the terrorists – that enemies can simply be eliminated. Prior to the wars, the group that launched the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaeda, was a very small extremist faction with virtually no presence in Iraq. Now ISIS, an extreme offshoot of Al-Qaeda, has emerged and taken over large sections of the country, even as the Taliban has crept back into power in Afghanistan. Eventually, I learned of other 9/11 family members who shared my perspective and had formed September 11 th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, turning our grief into actions for peace. Our goal is for no other families anywhere in the world to suffer needlessly due to violence, whether from terrorism, war, or other causes. Our name comes from the prescient quote by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.: "The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." (Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr, "The Casualties of War in Vietnam,” Speech, Los Angeles, CA, January 1967.)

Several elements are useful in defining peace. On an individual level, peace may start with having calmness within oneself. Expanding outward, peace entails agreement and harmony among people. At its largest scale, peace is to live without violent conflict or war. Peace underlies our quality of life and the fabric of our communities; and, as our weaponry becomes ever more powerful, our very survival as people on this planet depends upon it.

Many spiritual traditions and teachings throughout history have emphasized peace, both as an inner journey and as an outward commitment to live in mutual benefit with our families, our communities, and in the world. Yet in our current global landscape we often see peace described in an inverted way, so that “keeping the peace” has come to refer to soldiers and “peace-keepers,” or to armed militia.

A number of other terms and concepts are necessarily related to the creation of peace, including fairness, justice, inclusiveness, and human rights. These must be embedded into the community in order to foster agreement and harmony. Peace is strongest when derived from social justice, which can be defined as ensuring fundamental rights and equity to all. Strengthening civil society – the rules that bind us and allow us to live productively together, with established means of resolving conflict – is the means to those ends.

The Importance of Peace to Community Building

Peace enriches our communities and individual lives, as it directs us to embrace diversity and support one another to the fullest extent possible. Through caring, generosity, and fairness we provide a cornerstone for attaining a sustainable, just, meaningful, vibrant, and fulfilling personal and community life.

To bring home this point, consider the following questions:

• Can our families and communities thrive without mutual support and peace with our neighbors?
• Can peaceful communities exist without attention to justice and equity?
• What would be the prospects of a world without peace?

Situations Favoring the Promotion of Peace

Detection and action.

Promoting peace requires valuing and considering both oneself and others. As such, peace is central to every situation throughout our lives. Just as a child is enriched as he or she learns to take on more responsibilities, the meaning in our lives grows as we learn to recognize and take more responsibility for one another and the world.

While such a broad application is encouraged, individuals or communities can enhance their impact by strategically focusing their efforts. In community organizing, promoting peace is in many ways similar to other areas of strategic planning. The Charter for Compassion and the Community Tool Box recommend the following four steps that can help to detect and set peace-building priorities, then develop peaceful action opportunities:

1. Discover and Assess

Learn more about the issues and assets that affect peace in your community. A quick snapshot of concerns can be identified through statistics on criminal activities, hate crimes, and school incidents. Many of these statistics can be found on the FBI website  or on commercial sites such as city-data.com .

More in-depth information may be gained from discussions with residents, local human rights commissions, and/or parent-teacher associations. The cultural and spiritual organizations in your area can also be valuable in engaging diverse residents to share their cultures and to promote your learning about current efforts devoted to harmony and cross-cultural/interfaith understanding. You can reach out and participate in some of their activities.

Participatory Asset Mapping builds on discussions with community residents in order to identify and map locations of issues of concern (such as high crime areas), community assets to protect (such as parks, schools and organizations), and factors that impact community violence (such as vacant lots and abandoned buildings). For helpful guidance, refer to the tools available from organizations such as the Advancement Project .

2. Focus and Commit

With this information in hand, choose the most important issues to you and your community, particularly those you can commit to in promoting peace. Here are some among many potential areas of focus that individuals and community peace organizations have chosen, ranging along a continuum from simple to more extensive:

• Arts, music, and cultural programs that promote peace
• Peace and interfaith collaborations, events, vigils, and rallies
• Anti-bullying and other violence prevention initiatives in schools
• Restorative justice programs in schools and community settings that focus on healing rather than punishment
• Partnership strengthening between residents and police
• Formation of local peace commissions
• Establishment of sister-city programs with other communities
• Instituting community by-laws and other policies that foster peace and justice

Several of these will be discussed in more depth, with examples, later in this section.

3. Build and Launch

You don’t have to start building from scratch. Join with others already active in your community to pursue your goals for peace-building. Learn if your town has a peace commission or similar organization. Even if not, the Charter for Compassion lists many communities that have committed to the principles of compassion and are mobilized to take action. You can contact the local organizers of such efforts, or follow their guidelines to help start and implement your own.

4. Evaluate and Maintain

Evaluating your peace-building efforts can help ensure they are effective and sustained. Setting clear and measurable objectives can pave the way for progress that can easily be transparently monitored.

It is vital to be inclusive and listen to the voices of the entire community as you develop, implement, and evaluate as well as celebrate the success of your actions. Guidance is available on the Creating and Maintaining Partnerships portion of the Community Toolkit.

Contexts for Promoting Peace

Below are several different contexts and situations for strategically promoting peace: all involve being inclusive, proactively addressing needs, and anticipating situations that may arise.

When Defining Community

 As we form and define our communities, the groundwork for promoting peace can be laid by ensuring that all in the community are welcome and that none are excluded.

When Strengthening Policies and Initiatives

Peace-building calls upon us to ensure that policies and procedures benefit the entire community. A fundamental first step is to establish and follow a clear, fair, and just rule of law. This relies on full participation of diverse residents and stakeholders in its development and maintenance so that everyone’s needs and contributions can be incorporated.

Consider, as an example, the long history of unequal law enforcement in the United States. The mission of the police is to advance justice: Yet too often black youths and other people of color have been profiled by the police, resulting in unfair, and in some instances life-threatening, treatment. We must recognize the persistence of discrimination even as we make progress and take action to root out its many forms.  For instance, Maryland responded to recent serious incidents by issuing new guidelines for police departments throughout the state. These guidelines explicitly condemn the arbitrary profiling of certain races, ethnicities, and other minority groups, and restrict the circumstances under which police officers can consider those characteristics during interactions with the public. The guidelines are accompanied by new training programs for police officers and ways to partner with residents. As reported by the Baltimore Sun , Attorney General Frosh wrote in a memorandum, “The time has come for these principles to be transformed into uniform practice” across the state – covering not just race and ethnicity, but also national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. “Experience has taught us that improper profiling by police exacts a terrible cost, discouraging cooperation by law-abiding citizens… and eroding community trust.” Furthermore, the Baltimore Police Department has established a Community Collaboration Division that recognizes the importance of a close partnership with residents and other community sectors. Its mission is "to develop strategies that produce collaborative partnerships between law enforcement, Baltimore city residents, faith-based organizations, businesses, schools, media, other government agencies, and non-profit organizations.”

When Others in the Community Fall under Our Care

Paying attention to maintaining individuals’ dignity and quality of life when they are under our care can help ensure the ability of all residents to live more peaceful, tranquil lives. As we consider the following circumstances, remember that we, or those we care about, all might fall within these categories at one point in our lives; and while we are responsible for others they also are responsible for us:

• Children are a joint responsibility of our community. Whether in our families, foster care systems, schools, or society in general, we collectively bear responsibility for ensuring children’s safety and fostering conditions and opportunities that help them flourish.
• A number of other vulnerable populations fall under our care, including those who are frail, ill, or have other special needs.
• It is also a community responsibility to ensure that those who are incarcerated, in mental health facilities, or otherwise institutionalized are treated fairly and humanely.
• Refugees and recent immigrants need us as well, while they in turn contribute to strengthening our communities. Opening one's community and one’s heart is a great act of compassion – one many of our own families may have relied upon at some point in their history.
• All who inhabit our Earth: It is important to recognize that our responsibility for peaceful cohabitation ultimately extends to every human being, across all corners of the earth. We even need to consider how best to co-exist with other living creatures, as they are important contributors to the interdependent ecosystems of which we are a part and on which we depend for survival on this fragile planet.

As documented in books such as Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization , by Steven Solomon, caring for the earth is essential for being able to live in peace with one another. Many of the most serious conflicts that have arisen, from genocide in the Sudan to the recent fighting in Syria, have stemmed from environmental collapse and resource depletion.

Acknowledging our connections and responsibilities to one another and our world does not mean that everyone needs to take on every issue; but awareness of mutual dependency is an important foundation to acting peaceably. Spiritual traditions offer many ways of safeguarding this care, calling for us to be good shepherds of the earth.

For example, First Nation tradition recognizes that we are all guests on the earth and responsible for taking care of nature for those yet to come. The law of the Iroquois, for instance, guides us to make community decisions that will serve those who will be born seven generations into the future.

In sum, there are few if any situations in which being conscious of respect, inclusiveness, and justice will not help to promote peace. The public health community has recently been embracing the concept of “Health in All Policies,” and this is equally true for peace and justice.

STEPS IN DEVELOPING AND PROMOTING PEACE

There are many paths to climbing a mountain; similarly, there are many paths through which a commitment to peace can be used to strengthen oneself and one's community. There are approaches one can take as an individual, a family, an organization, or a community, nation, or general society. Some of these are simple, while others require more commitment and resources. Let us consider each approach in more detail.

Finding Peace Within

Many maintain the importance of establishing peace within oneself in order to bring about peace in the world. Quelling the tendency to be at war with oneself, and with those closest to us, can be among the most rewarding, if difficult, accomplishments. You could start by acknowledging your worth and your flaws – we all have both. With that acceptance, show compassion toward yourself, and seek out strategies and supports best suited to you and your circumstances.

In the box below is a story from another member of September 11 th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Antonio Aversano. An artist who works with young men involved in the juvenile justice system, Antonio describes his inward journey and choices.

A Son’s Personal Lessons from 9/11 At the time of this writing – almost 14 years since September 11th, 2001 – it seems effortless to share these words as they are unencumbered by some of the traumatic feelings and perceptions from the day my Dad, Louis F. Aversano, Jr, was killed in the World Trade Center. The experience of losing my Dad through such a globally impacting tragedy was one of feeling broken open . All that I knew to be “reality” was shattered. And, from this breaking of all that I knew and all I knew myself to be, I believe I experienced what some call Grace – as the Soul of who I am rose to the surface and since has become an integrated and instrumental part of who I am and how I live my life. It is from this place of new perception that came the main life lesson that I received from my Dad’s death: I HAVE CHOICE! How would I choose to live my life from that moment on? Just the realization that I had a choice was itself a transformation. To both be washed over by grief, anger, and the temptation of revenge, while also clearly sensing that beyond my pain there was another way forward, felt like I was given a huge Divinely-guided gift. Day by day I came to accept what happened in my life and decided to honor the best of who my Dad was, who I am, and who we all are by living a life guided by Love and dedicated to Peace. In essence, I learned that if I want to live in a peaceful world, the seeds of Peace must first bloom within me. Living in Peace is a process reflected in each moment by what I choose to believe, how I filter my perceptions, and all the ways I then act, create, and live the gift of my life.  By witnessing and having compassion for the impulses of fear, hatred, and ill will in my own mind and heart, I learned that self-awareness and a commitment to personal transformation is the most profound action that I can take in cultivating Peace in my own life. By doing so, the possibility for Peace comes alive in every moment, in every interaction, and in every way I am called to serve others. The Peace that shines from within becomes a beacon for a peaceful way of being that, through its demonstration in everyday life, has a profound and incalculable ripple effect with the potential to reach its waves around the world.

Ensuring Peace within Families

Domestic violence and child abuse are urgent problems that have often been viewed inappropriately as private, rather than as community concerns. Correcting this misperception is an important first step to addressing these too-prevalent crimes that have risen to epidemic proportions in the U.S., and are routine in many other nations as well. A World Health Organization report cites annual costs of child abuse and domestic violence to the United States economy as a staggering 106 billion dollars annually (1.1% of the gross national product).

Nearly one-third of U.S. women have experienced domestic violence, with almost one-quarter reporting severe physical violence such as being strangled, hit with a fist, or stabbed (as reported by NPR and the Washington Post ). Bureau of Justice statistics indicate that a majority of homicides of women in the U.S. are committed by a family member or intimate partner, while the World Health Organization reports that internationally this figure is as high as 38 percent.

Author and advocate Gloria Steinem emphasizes that these are crimes of domination rooted in unequal power dynamics. Those perpetrating such crimes in families, she observes, are more likely to eventually commit crimes in community settings linked to dominance as well, such as hate crimes. When these domestic crimes are ignored or inadequately addressed, it places everyone at risk. In her book Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide , Andrea Smith traces linkages in the other direction, from the community to the individual and family. She describes the many arenas in which historic and ongoing violence and oppression waged against Native American communities has segued into violence against women.

Security analysts from Texas A&M, in their book, Sex and World Peace (Hudson, et al., 2012), further trace gender violence as predictive of a society’s use of violent means of conflict resolution, finding gender equality an important indicator of the security of a nation. Despite the scale of such violence, there is evidence that it is neither universal nor inevitable. The World Health Organization has established that effective interventions exist to address individual, relationship, community, and societal factors. Recommended community-level interventions include:

• Reducing the availability of alcohol
• Changing institutional settings – e.g., schools, workplaces, hospitals, and long-term care institutions for the elderly – by means of appropriate policies, guidelines, and protocols
• Providing training to better identify and refer people at-risk for interpersonal violence; and Improving emergency care and access to health services.

Gender violence activists often emphasize that these problems are best solved through empowerment and community strengthening. For example, the organization MASUM , based in India, holds that a “primary belief is that people can resolve their own problems collectively with some amount of external support; thus, rather than create dependence on itself, MASUM focused on strengthening people’s perspectives on democracy, equality, secularism, and social justice.”

While providing counseling for women victims of violence, MASUM also engages women and men in changing the community context. This includes public actions that raise awareness across the community, exerting pressure on village leadership to act on behalf of the victim /survivor, instituting programs from early childhood to prevent violence and discrimination against women, and fostering efforts by young men and husbands to advance women’s rights.

Living Peaceably with Others

As individuals, we need to recognize the extent to which all of us are interdependent. It behooves us to direct our energy and resources toward supporting, not harming, one another. The person we dismiss or even hate today may be connected in ways we don't realize to our own well-being.

You can make a tremendous difference by welcoming others into your life and community. This starts with gaining an awareness of those you may not have thought about who are new to the community, or simply new to you. They may be at work, at schools you or your children attend, down the street, or in isolated pockets of your community.

Thirteen percent of people living in America were born outside the country ( American Community Survey 2013 estimate ). Rather than being fearful or resentful, learn about those in your area who are following America’s great tradition of immigration and their contributions to its prosperity. What are their cultures, traditions, assets, and needs? How can you draw upon what they have to offer, ease their transitions, and help welcome them into the fabric of your community?

To learn the answer, you may have to reach out and extend yourself. You might start by going to events where you can learn more and offer assistance.

Providing Assistance to New Americans Need inspiration? Consider this story about Omar Shekhey , a Somali-American cab driver who founded and runs the nonprofit  Somali American Community Center , based in Clarkston, Georgia. The Center works to help refugees integrate and adjust to life in the United States through programs and services addressing social adjustment, education, health, and advocacy. Its services help refugees find housing, obtain food, and navigate the immigration process. With after-school programs for youth, the Center also provides assistance with homework, builds math and reading skills, and helps refugee students successfully integrate into the American school system.  

Seeking Reconciliation

Many of us must confront having been harmed, either directly or through a history of harms done to our family or people. There is a choice to be made: to exact revenge, or to seek justice and reconciliation. By separating the deed from the whole person, we can begin to forge connections and to heal. Empathy can arise when we acknowledge that we might have acted in a negative way under the same circumstances, or by recognizing that people are multidimensional and can change and grow.

Below is a poignant example, of someone who chose to honor his fallen family members by forgiving their murderers. The Forgiveness Project has gathered additional stories of victims and perpetrators who have traveled on the path toward forgiveness and reconciliation in an effort to encourage people to consider alternatives to resentment, retaliation, and revenge. The Community Tool Box section on Forgiveness and Reconciliation  explores these journeys in more depth.

Father Romain’s Story Romain Ruringarwa is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. He was away at school, studying to be a priest, when the genocide broke out. He returned to his village to find his parents, all eight of his siblings, and many other family members slaughtered by neighbors whom they had lived with throughout his life. He himself had to hide for several months in the bushes with other youth struggling to survive and avoid the carnage. In facing his deep loss, his heart would often fill with an intense anger. At night, he would console himself by looking up at the stars hanging so brightly above him in the open air, and thinking of them being members of his family shining above him, a blanket of light and love keeping a safe watch over him. He would get himself to sleep by recounting the many rich stories they would tell him and the other children in the village about the stars. As Romain thought of his family, all he could remember was people who were full of love, not just for him but for others as well. They made every effort to help their neighbors. When thoughts of revenge came in waves upon him, he felt that such feelings drove away memories of his family. As he weighed the future before him, he made a choice. He would honor his family, not by revenge – acting in kind in the same fashion as those who had committed such horrible deeds – but instead by compassion and working toward peace and reconciliation in the tradition of his family. It was in many ways the harder choice; but it has been deeply fulfilling, as it keeps their memories alive and offers hope for a better future. (Source: Presentation, Trinitarian Congregational Church, Concord, MA, May 9, 2007.)

Advancing Peace in Community Building

Under this heading are some practical steps you can take to develop and promote peace in your community or region, and more examples you can draw upon for inspiration. We start with some peace-building actions one can take among neighbors, then consider what one can do to strengthen school programs and workplace initiatives, and lastly suggest ways to support policies that promote peace in your broader community.

Working with Neighbors

Peace with neighbors starts with broader understanding. Simple actions can further such understanding. These can include holding interfaith discussions, organizing films or guest speakers to showcase approaches to peacebuilding, and gathering with neighbors to identify local issues and opportunities.

Residents in local peace groups, whether organized independently or through schools or faith-based organizations, magnify individual efforts by identifying local issues in their community and tying these to an understanding of national and global issues of peace and justice. The phrase “Think globally, act locally!” applies here in crafting your efforts. Below are some activities groups have engaged in to advance peace:

Interfaith Events. One of the most rewarding methods for building community peace can be participation in interfaith gatherings and efforts to end religious intolerance. These types of events vary widely, and include small discussion groups; after-school programs where local youth can meet students from different religions; community gatherings to celebrate unity; and calls for greater religious tolerance issued jointly by diverse religious leaders.

For example, in the wake of 9/11, three women neighbors in New York City – one Muslim, one Christian, and one Jewish – launched what they called a “Faith Club” to discuss their respective religions. It changed their lives. They wrote a book about the experience that has led to Faith Clubs arising in many cities. You can start your own faith club .

At a broader level, many communities and states have interfaith councils or similar collaborating organizations. Such efforts are important, as U.S. law enforcement reported over 6,000 hate crimes motivated by bias in 2014. In Birmingham, Alabama for example, a multi-faith, multi-racial organization called Greater Birmingham Ministries was established to pursue peace and justice in their community. It engages “the poor and the non-poor in systemic change efforts to build a strong, supportive, engaged community and pursue a more just society for all people. To do so, it unites people across racial, economic, political, and social identities to build working relationships among faith communities, businesses, civic groups, and social service networks.”

Among the Ministries’ partners is the Council on American-Islamic Relations , with whom it joins to condemn terrorism and anti-Muslim sentiments. CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Peace Gatherings. Whether organizing a local community peace vigil, or larger symposia at universities or major international gatherings, it is important to gather together to advocate and showcase support for peace. In communities strained by conflict, bringing diverse people together to advance peace can offer powerful opportunities for healing and moving forward, as witnessed in events ranging from Healing Conversations to End a Culture of Violence and Intolerance  in Harlem, NY to marathons for Peace in Iraq .

Working with Schools

 Whether as a student, parent, teacher, administrator, policymaker, or community member, there are any number of creative and powerful ways to support schools to effectively advance peace. Many effective models can be drawn upon. These can be embedded in the design of school systems, initiatives targeted to local needs and assets, ethics and peace curricula, and other services. Elements in school system design can start within a school's mission and vision and then range anywhere from graduation requirements (e.g., a minimum number of volunteer hours before graduation) to a disciplinary system based on restorative justice.

As examples, Quaker schools commonly provide a model of supporting students to follow a spiritual and ethical commitment to peace. The mission of the Friends Academy in Locust Valley, NY, emphasizes that “Global citizenship at Friends is rooted in the understanding that ‘the peoples of the world are one people, enriched by individual differences and united by a common bond of humanity.’ ” The stated philosophy behind the Cambridge Friends School includes being a “learning community that chooses...peaceful resolution of conflict over aggression.”

Bullying. Many schools and states have adopted policies and programs to specifically address the problem of bullying, a form of aggression that can entail verbal, physical, and/or cyber (social media) means to harm others. A review of the nature, extent, and prevention of bullying conducted by Dr. Rashmi Shetgiri, of the Dallas Children’s Hospital, offers several insights (Shetgiri, 2013). Of concern is the widespread extent of bullying and that both bullies and victims are at high risk for negative short- and long-term consequences. Dr. Shetgiri calls on clinicians to play a role in identifying bullies and victims, evaluating them for developmental conditions that might be risk factors, and providing resources and referrals as necessary.

Effective bullying interventions embrace the entire school to create a culture of safety and support, engage and train teachers and parents, and are of enduring intensity and duration. Researchers have found that many types of less intensive anti-bullying programs that at first glance seemed promising resulted in only slight decreases in bullying and victimization. They caution that programs focusing solely on individuals and outreach to peers can even backfire (see Jeong & Lee, 2013 and Farrington & Ttofi, 2009).

Guidance and evidence-based approaches to addressing bullying are also available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on its website: Stopbullying.gov . In addition, this website offers Bullying Prevention Training Modules, with tools and resources to organize effective prevention efforts in your community.

Restorative Justice. Public and private schools of all types are also adopting systems of restorative justice. Punishing and excluding students who violate school rules or harm others may be counterproductive, in that these actions can lead to further alienation and lack of opportunities; they may also hinder education, ultimately leading such children to higher rates of future incarceration.

In contrast, restorative justice has been very effective at improving school safety and safeguarding the futures of young people. It keeps students who conduct offenses in school, ensuring their accountability through restitution, and deals with underlying issues while supporting victims. Many schools use talking circles to bring together students, parents, faculty, and administrators to discuss and address incidents, with written commitments to resolve the harm.

In the words of Fania Davis, Director of Restorative Justice Oakland Youth, “This is a justice that is not about getting even, but about getting well. A justice that is not a battle ground but a healing ground. A justice that seeks to transform broken lives, relationships, and communities rather than damage them further."

In the aftermath of the well-publicized shootings in Columbine, the state of Colorado tried instituting a zero-tolerance school policy for youth who committed offenses, with mandatory expulsions. But they found this policy did not work, and only exacerbated problems among students.       Watch this video to learn why some schools have turned instead to restorative justice for more effective solutions.

Youth as Leaders. How educational approaches are designed can be as important as implementation. Engaging students, families, and faculty in choosing, adapting, and/or designing the approach and in selecting materials makes those materials more likely to be locally relevant and culturally appropriate, and facilitates strong buy-in and momentum.

Students themselves do not just present risks; they are valuable leaders and allies in promoting peace. As a first step to engage youth in peace-building, rather than simply holding an event and hoping that youth will join what you have planned, go to them first and see how you can build upon their interests and ideas. You may be surprised by the resources they offer.

Bookmakers and Dreamers The sky is the limit in youth creativity and energy, as demonstrated by youth in the Groton/Dunstable school district in Massachusetts. Forming a Bookmakers and Dreamers Club , these young people, many from families in military service, decided they wanted to learn how to promote peace. They then launched a project to create the world's largest book, with peace as its topic. Working over many years to accomplish that goal, they were supported by a committed teacher, Betsy Sawyer, who helped them enlist others across the community. Parents, businesses, and area universities contributed expertise and resources. The students gathered advice from hundreds of peace leaders, including Nobel Peace Laureates, to include in their book. Using new technology to print and turn the pages of such a large volume, the completed book has been showcased at the United Nations and other venues. The Club has also launched community peace events; for one event, they invited 9/11 first responders from New York City, who came and referred many times to the importance of educating young leaders who can contribute to a more peaceful future. In a related and widely-publicized effort, the Groton students also accepted the invitation of young persons in the Afghan Peace Volunteers to engage in peace discussions held via Skype conference calls. That initiative changed the lives of students, several of whom have now graduated and are pursuing careers advancing peace. It also sparked important dialogue across the community on the importance of peace-building as a response to conflict.

Several additional models and resources for promoting peace are available on the Peaceful Tomorrows and the Charter for Compassion websites. Schools can sign the Charter for Compassion and join others in shared commitment and resource-sharing. In addition, The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, teaming up with The WGBH Educational Foundation , has gathered many resources for teaching ethics. Also, the Teaching Tolerance Project offers free lessons, videos, toolkits, and other resources to promote tolerance and inclusivity in the classroom.

Committing Your Organization or Business

Peace-building also involves awareness of the needs and assets of those in your group or organization, along with those in the community where you live or provide services. Devote time to how you may address those needs and build upon existing assets.

As one case in point, important models and guidance for businesses to address domestic violence, many of which can be applied to other forms of violence, are profiled in the workbook Interrupting the Cycle of Violence: Addressing Domestic Violence through the Workplace . Compiled by a team of employers, researchers, public health specialists, and battered women service providers, the workbook outlines strategies including assessing those at risk, providing supports, and working with one’s community, through which “every organization can make a difference.”

To relate this to your own situation, consider the following questions:

• What is your organization’s commitment to social responsibility and community service?
• Does it include a stated policy that focuses on promoting peace, and implementing that commitment, in your own community setting?
• What partnerships do you engage in to support peace and prosperity in your home community?

By exploring these questions, you are likely to find ways to strengthen both your organization and your community impact. Many businesses, large and small, are realizing that a commitment to social responsibility not only contributes to strengthening communities, but also raises employee satisfaction and even increases the bottom line.

Some Examples of Business Leadership There are several ways that businesses have advanced peace in local and even in international contexts. One is to provide job opportunities for local youth during summer months – this is a proven strategy to reduce local crime and provide community advancement. Beyond that: Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company has been a leader in social responsibility , including initiatives specifically focused on advancing peace. These include launching a nonprofit, 1% for Peace, whose focus is a campaign to divert funds from the military to civilian uses. They have also partnered with the organization Peace One Day, to support the development of nonviolence and conflict-resolution curriculum materials used in U.S. schools. They have joined as well with the Peace Alliance and the Student Peace Alliance to support peace-building legislation, such as the Youth Promise Act. Business leaders have also acted to maintain and strengthen community unity, for instance by refusing to ostracize and discriminate in ways that can divide a community. In Indiana and Arizona, many businesses have joined together to take a stand against discrimination based on sexual orientation . Healthcare Without Harm provides an example of proactive organizational commitments to live peaceably with their neighbors by safeguarding environmental health. This initiative promotes best practices to protect the quality of local air, water, and land, encouraging healthcare facilities to consider their impacts not only on the health of staff and patients, but on host communities as well. This conscientiousness is one way to secure the safety of a community, including safety from the threat of chemical accidents such as the devastating 1984 incident in Bhopal, India, which killed several thousand persons and injured over 500,000 (Varma & Varma, 2005).

Community Civic Leadership

A strong community is one that has integrated a commitment to advancing peace throughout its systems, policies, and initiatives. A strong partnership across sectors – including community agencies, local organizations, and businesses – underlies many peace-building efforts. Any such efforts should be shaped and driven by the contributions of community residents, which require early engagement and capacity-building to maximize their participation and leadership. Below are some examples of community initiatives that exemplify peace-building in innovative ways:

Community Safety

An important focal area of policy to stem violence is policing and the criminal justice system. The U.S. is presently incarcerating over 1,500,000 people, a larger percentage of national population than any other country in the world. We must begin to realize that imprisonment is not where the solution lies. Being “tough” on crime is not necessarily being effective in reducing it. Many alternative models work to bring communities together to reduce violence.

One effective model program for communities is the Advancement Project . Activists working in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, once infamous for gang violence, have worked with residents and all sectors of the community to drastically improve community safety; they have had tremendous success. A few key elements of their approach include:

• Engaging police with youth and other residents to dismantle the “us” versus “them” viewpoints, and instead working together for the community.
• Bringing in all residents and partners into this effort. A priority has been ensuring the safety of all children. As children walk to and from school, community organizations of all descriptions open their doors, with staff standing outside to ensure safe passage. Even former gang members have joined in as escorts through particularly dangerous neighborhoods.
• Learning from residents about their community – what facilitates violence, and where are dangerous hotspots? In Watts, the City had built a new library and playground to improve a very high crime area, yet residents did not use them. The Project learned from residents that the area still had vacant lots, broken street lamps, and a liquor store with couches outside, all fostering crime. By working with the liquor store, the Project helped clean up the area, making it much safer; as a result, the playground and library are now well used.

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice programs , mentioned above in the contexts of school delinquency, can also be applied to criminal justice as an alternative to incarceration. In a community context, restorative justice works proactively to promote safety across the community. It emphasizes aiding and protecting those who have been harmed, and requires restitution by responsible parties, effectively engaging them to become constructive members of society.

To be most successful, restorative justice strengthens civic participation. This can include promoting truthful crime reporting and testimony, participation in jury duty, identification of factors that facilitate or impede crimes, and other forms of public engagement. As proven crime reduction practices are adopted, safety improves.

Mass Violence

Domestic incidents of mass violence in community settings are defined as those in which three or more persons are killed. Such incidents occur almost daily in the United States; according to the American Public Health Association, over 350 incidents were reported in 2015 alone. Some factors associated with such incidents include terrorism, mental illness, and gang violence. Each is discussed below.

Terrorism . Terrorism has been a factor in relatively few, if high impact, cases of mass violence. The Department of Homeland Security is engaged in a number of initiatives to advance community safety. Among these are:

• National Network of Fusion Centers , which gather, centralize, analyze, and share threat-related information among federal government, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners.
• Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative , which entails coordination with the Department of Justice to report, track, and provide information “in a manner that rigorously protects the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.”

Domestic terrorism has been perpetuated by extremist individuals and groups of different backgrounds. It is vital to distinguish violent extremists from the religions they claim to represent. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was conducted by an individual claiming to be protecting Christian principles. Those responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 claimed to be protecting Islamic societies. Yet the vast majority of Christians and Muslims do not condone violence, and their adherents and leaders are great allies in combatting domestic terrorism.

Hate crimes against Muslims (as well as those mistaken for Muslim, such as Sikhs), have risen dramatically following terrorist incidents. In the year of the September 11 attacks, the FBI reported 481 anti-Muslim hate crimes; similar spikes have continued to occur. Communities can anticipate and help forestall these responses by educating their residents and holding interfaith activities to help prevent hate crimes and heal communities in the wake of incidents that may arise. Political leaders can also help stem violence through their messaging; after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush reminded us that “Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others. Ours is a country based upon tolerance and we welcome people of all faiths in America.” (Remarks to reporters by George W. Bush, Washington, DC, November 13, 2002)

Mental illness . It is often assumed that perpetrators of mass violence suffer from mental health disorders. However, the American Psychological Association (APA) has noted that the vast majority of those suffering from a mental illness are not dangerous; rather it is a history of violence that poses the greatest risk factor for further such acts (see text on domestic violence, above).

Nevertheless, the APA advocates the following, which you can support in your community:

• Greater access to mental health treatment for those at risk for violence due to mental illness, suicidal thoughts, or feelings of desperation.
• Behavioral threat assessment as a standard of care for preventing violence in schools, colleges, in the workplace, and against government and other public officials. In such assessment, teams gather and analyze information to assess whether a person poses a threat of violence or self-harm, and if so, outline steps to intervene.
• Firearms prohibitions for high-risk groups – domestic violence offenders, persons convicted of violent misdemeanors, and those with mental illness who have been judged to be a threat to themselves or others.
• Early childhood programs to help parents raise emotionally healthy children, along with efforts to identify and intervene with troubled individuals who are threatening violence.
• Collaborative problem-solving models that bring together various community service systems, which may too often operate in isolation. One example is mental health crisis intervention training for police and other community service providers.
• Extensive public health campaigns on firearms safety, as expanded upon just below.

Firearms safety . 30,000 people die annually from firearms injuries in the United States; these were the second leading cause of death for individuals aged 15 to 34 ( Gunderson, 1999 as cited by WHO ). The American Public Health Association (APHA) considers gun violence to be an epidemic that can be solved, as with Ebola or other public health threats, given adequate research and resources. While firearms policies are hotly debated, the evidence is clear that gun ownership does not ensure family safety. According to researchers from the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control , those living in households with guns are at significantly greater risk of dying from homicide or suicide, even when these households have similar characteristics and live in similar neighborhoods.

The application of a public health approach is at the heart of the initiative Cure Violence , which has reduced shootings 41% to 73% in seven communities studied. Just as in disease outbreaks, hotspot areas are identified. One intervention has been to enlist former gang members, or others with credibility and access, to quell potential outbreaks of violence before they erupt, and to support members in transitioning out of gang activity. Information on these and other well-researched models (also focusing beyond the problem of gang violence, such as removing firearms from domestic violence offenders) is available at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research .

Additional firearms safety policies recommended by the APA and APHA include:

• Licensing of handgun purchasers
• Background check requirements for all gun sales
• Close oversight of retail gun sellers to reduce the diversion of guns to criminals
• Increased availability of data and funding to reduce gun violence through all available interventions, including those from the legal, public health, public safety, community, and health systems. (At this writing, a Congressional ban limits federally-sponsored research into gun violence, forcing researchers to seek private or academic funding. Finding ways to support research on gun violence impact and on promising solutions is another area where one can actively promote peace . )

Gang violence . Gang violence is a specific problem emerging in rural as well as urban areas. According to the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice (OJJDP), gang violence peaked towards the end of the 1990s but has been rising again in recent years.

The Department recommends that communities conduct a gang-problem assessment as a first step, offering A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem to help answer:

• Who is involved in gang-related activity? – and what is the history of current gangs?
• Where is gang-related activity primarily occurring?
• What crimes are these individuals committing?
• When are these crimes being committed?
• Why is the criminal activity happening (e.g., individual conflicts, gang feuds, gang members acting on their own)?

This type of assessment is important to identify youth gangs and youth who are at greatest risk of joining. Keep in mind that counter to stereotypes, youth engaged in gangs are of diverse race, ethnicity, and gender, with studies cited by OJJDP estimating that almost half of gang members are girls.           

Gang violence prevention activities recommended by OJJDP focus on:

• Primary prevention – the effort to prevent youth from joining a gang targeted to all adolescents. OJJDP has shown that “youth join gangs for protection, enjoyment, respect, money, or because a friend is in a gang.”
• Intervention strategies aimed at youth who exhibit risk factors for gang participation. These factors fall under the realm of individual, family, school, peer, and community risks. Youth are at higher risk of joining a gang if they “engage in delinquent behaviors, are aggressive or violent, experience multiple caretaker transitions, have many problems at school, associate with other gang-involved youth, or live in communities where they feel unsafe and where many youths are in trouble.”
• Suppression strategies that clamp down on gang activity through increased policing have also been used. However, the OJJDP notes that these strategies have not been proven to be effective. They instead emphasize that “Intervention strategies that address risk and protective factors at or slightly before the developmental points at which they begin to predict later gang involvement and other problem behaviors, are more likely to be effective.” (Institute of Medicine, 2008 as cited by OJJDP )

The OJJDP also offers a Model Programs Guide as an “online tool that offers a database of evidence-based, scientifically-proven programs that address a range of issues, including substance use, mental health, and education...” To prevent youth from joining gangs , the ODJJP advises that communities emphasize the following tasks:

Some Actions to Prevent Gang Formation Strengthen families. Review and soften school “zero tolerance” policies, to reduce suspensions and expulsions. Ensure that punitive sanctions target delinquent gang behaviors, not gang apparel, signs, and symbols. Provide tutoring for students who are performing poorly in school. Provide a center for youth recreation and referrals for services and after-school programs. Provide gang awareness, conflict mediation, and other skills training for school personnel, parents, and students. Provide interpersonal skills training to students to help resolve conflicts.

Peace Commissions

Learn if your community has a Peace Commission (or similar institution) specifically dedicated to peace promotion, and, if so, see how you can get involved. If not, assist in forming one. Their aims are to involve local citizens in reducing or preventing conflict by protecting and promoting human rights, ensuring ethnic and interfaith harmony, and encouraging understanding through education on cultural differences.

One model of a particularly active peace commission is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Cambridge Peace Commission works in three main areas:

• Addressing violence and promoting peace in the community
• Supporting diversity, building connections and relationships, and recognizing peacemakers
• Connecting with the community and the wider world

Toward these ends, the Commission coordinates responses to traumatic events and violence affecting Cambridge. It emphasizes building trust and relationships among diverse community residents through events such as community conversations and vigils. Over the years it has also sponsored many programs and events to foster peace and has worked with other communities worldwide.

Sister Cities

Establishing relationships with other communities can also be a powerful path to peace. There are currently 545 communities engaged in a Sister City program . Sister Cities International is a central coordinating body for those efforts, whose mission is “to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time.”

These are just a few among many local community actions to promote peace. See the resource listings at the end of this section to explore more possibilities.

Preventing War and Terror: Merging Realism with Hope

It is important to be realistic about the severe challenges to peace in this world and to be prepared for the serious commitment required to face them. Nevertheless, there are proven and effective means of advancing peace to help us take on these challenges. Even one simple action can make a tremendous difference. By merging realism with hope we can move forward to a more peaceful tomorrow.

Researchers have noted that despite the common perceptions that the world is a more violent place, much evidence points rather to a decline in both individual and social violence over time. The book The Better Angels of Our Nature  by Steven Pinker documents these trends, laying out many elements that have advanced peaceful coexistence. In general, he notes that our civilizations and societies have evolved toward a greater respect for human rights, acceptance of human diversity, and the development of systems of civil society that help resolve conflict.

Pinker acknowledges that although this progress can regress, and has regressed in many regions, strong forces remain at work to re-establish better-functioning societies, even in the most extreme instances of collapse. Among these is the force of the majority who want peace, no matter what the context.

Just as individuals must choose their own productive path forward, rather than succumbing to fear and hatred, so do we face this choice as a larger society. In this nuclear age, where scenarios of “mutually assured destruction” have emerged, it is reasonable to question whether a more powerful military force offers greater security or greater risks to humanity. Warfare over time has become increasingly destructive, including not only direct loss of life, but also long-term, even irrevocable, damage to the environment upon which we all depend.

As we build ever more powerful weapons with leaps in technological sophistication, we must develop even more powerful means of avoiding their use. So let us consider some of the forces that lead to global instability, along with those that build the foundation for peace, and suggest how you can play a part in shoring up the latter:

Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution is a central alternative to warfare. The notion that we can destroy our enemies and even “win” a war is important to question in this age of terrorism. War and terrorism can now extend beyond the bounds of the battlefield and into every corner of our communities. The casualties are predominantly civilians, not soldiers, and very frequently are women and children.

Strengthening Civil Societies

An effective counter to terrorism and other forms of conflict is to strengthen civil societies . The rule of law is a civilizing force that unites members of society to advance productively together. War and terror stress societies, setting in motion a downward spiral. Every societal effort needs to be made to strengthen communities and social structures in accordance with local values and the protection of essential human rights. Three good examples follow:

La’Onf  Much of what we learn in the media about Iraq is about violence. However, the ­Iraqi civil society organization La'Onf (which means “no violence” in Arabic) is a network of Iraqi activists building a nonviolent movement to resist occupation, terrorism, and corruption in Iraq. We need to promote awareness of organizations such as La'Onf, to remind ourselves that the seeds of peace can find fertile ground in all corners of the world.       Lessons of the Hibakusha  To the Hibakusha, there is no greater mission than to raise worldwide awareness that there are no winners in a nuclear confrontation. The Hibakusha are those few who survived the nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians died in a matter of hours. Their advocacy has played an important role in the major nuclear powers steadily reducing their arsenals. They continue to warn that we must never lessen our vigilance over the threat of nuclear weaponry. As more nations claim their perceived rights and needs to develop such weapons, the Hibakusha have redoubled their efforts to diminish this ultimate threat. Mayors for Peace  One opportunity to help in the Hibakusha’s efforts is to encourage your community to join Mayors for Peace . Formed in 1982, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki called on mayors around the world "to transcend national borders" and "work together to press for nuclear abolition." As of August 1, 2015, membership stood at 6,779 cities in 161 countries and regions.

Below are three additional pillars to support the development and maintenance of international peace:

Committing to Nonviolence

Nonviolence is central to stemming conflict while effectively advancing positive social and political change. We can easily draw upon many role models who have been committed to nonviolent principles and who have made a tremendous impact on the world stage.

For example, Mahatma Gandhi stands in history as among the most famous proponents of nonviolence, managing to overcome centuries of British occupation in India through nonviolent means. Martin Luther King, Jr. followed these tenets as he led the civil rights movement in pursuit of his dream of a future where when "all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! "

Beyond Gandhi and King, among current practitioners are members of the Nonviolent Peaceforce , comprised of unarmed civilians who enter regions where violence may or has erupted, to foster dialogue among parties in conflict and to provide a protective presence for threatened civilians. The Nonviolent Peaceforce has been so effective at ensuring and re-establishing peace in regions of conflict that the United Nations has recommended that “Unarmed strategies must be at the forefront of UN efforts to protect civilians.”

It is tempting to assume that a military response to violent conflict is needed. Yet a 15-member panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, which spent 7 months circling the globe reviewing present operations and seeking new strategies, emphasized nonviolent approaches. Its 2015 Report of the UN High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations concluded: “Missions should make every effort to harness or leverage the non-violent practices and capabilities of local communities and non-governmental organizations to support the creation of a protective environment.”

In addition, Ramos Horta, the Panel Chair and former President of Timor-Leste , has supported this nonviolent approach, asserting: “The world is changing and U.N. peace operations must change if they are to remain an indispensable and effective tool in promoting international peace and security.”

Hundreds of other organizations around the world are committed to nonviolent means of stabilizing regions in conflict. To learn about, and contribute to their efforts, explore the Peace & Development Collaborative Network .

Educating for Peace

We need peace education , from early education through graduate programs in universities. The Charter for Compassion is working toward this end, with a growing number of school partners from across the world committed to the principles of compassion. National Peace Academies and Peace Institutes also now exist in Canada, Costa Rica, Romania, Spain, and the United States.

Investing in Peace

We must also invest in peace . This includes establishing “Departments of Peace,” not just departments of war, and devoting more resources toward promoting peace rather than towards developing militias.

The Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace works toward this goal. Four Ministries of Peace have been established as of this posting – in Costa Rica, Nepal, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea – while the South Sudan, Philippines, and Kyrgyzstan have Offices of Peace at the highest levels of government. Such institutions can strengthen international laws and systems of justice that can assure enforcement of human rights.

International assistance also must be directed toward laying the economic foundations for peace. The United States spends only 1.4% of its annual budget on foreign aid; almost one-third of that is for military assistance. Spending within the domestic budget is even more heavily weighted toward the military; for fiscal year 2015, the U.S. invested 16% of its total budget, and 54% of its discretionary budget, in direct military expenditures (not including veterans benefits and other related costs), yet only 3% on education. This has a tremendous impact on all our communities in terms of quality of life and community security.

Emerging Issues

We must prioritize peace as we strive to co-exist on this small and ever more vulnerable planet. As concluded by the U.S. Department of Defense , climate change will put us to the test as never before, as mass migrations from densely populated coastal areas are likely to occur due to sea level rise, and regions will be faced with food, drinking water, and resource depletion. Barricading our borders and employing military solutions to the conflicts projected to arise are destined to fail us. Instead, we need to proactively seek solutions across borders to address environmental and social challenges, strengthen civil society, and foster international collaboration.

To learn more, explore the resources of the  University for Peace  on Climate Change, Water Stress, Conflict, and Migration. Located in Costa Rica, this university was established under UN mandate to promote best practices in conflict prevention and mitigation. The Community Tool Box also plans to develop materials with guidance on climate change.

Challenges and Questions for Reflection

Let us first consider some of the challenges to peace-building in our communities. Below are some that can easily take root. Think about what you have encountered personally and in your communities. What have you found that worked to address those challenges?

Fear: Looking at others as primarily a source of harm. Being insular, without risking or reaching out to others.

Ignorance: Confusing adherence to one's own beliefs and faith with a call to be intolerant of others who have different beliefs and practices. Is the letter or the spirit of the faith teachings most important?

Hatred: Feeling that one's own value depends upon diminishing another person’s. Confusing retribution with justice. Not looking for connections among peoples.

Greed: Many use the premise of “survival of the fittest” as a justification for growing and protecting one's own wealth while allowing others to live in destitution. The “military-industrial complex,” as coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, is a real and growing threat to peace. Military expenditures continue to top those for all other sectors in the United States and many other nations.

The “Military Industrial Complex” As he left office in 1960, President Eisenhower , also a general who witnessed the war machine from the deepest inner circles, warned: We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together... We pray that…in the goodness of time all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

Reflection Questions

Here is a simple gauge you can use to assess whether you are following the principles of peace – advancing the “mutual respect and love that President Eisenhower envisioned – and to find areas for improvement. Look around and see who is at the table – whether it is your table at home, or the tables you belong to at work, school, faith-based organizations, governmental, or other settings. Then consider:

• Is everyone in the affected community represented?
• Who drives decisions?
• Are they just?
• Do they benefit the greatest possible number of people?
• Do they foster connections?
• Do they lead toward peace and better quality of life?

How Can Challenges and Issues Best be Addressed?

While many peace-building strategies have been discussed, on an individual level much of the work of promoting peace comes down to focusing on the following:

• Bring people together , even those who have traditionally been at odds.
• Consider how you can extend your efforts even further, to engage new partnerships, collaborative efforts, and populations.
• View all persons as potential assets that can enrich the community.
• Tie your local work to the larger world community , taking advantage of the increasing ability to connect with communities across the globe.

In our media and entertainment, as well as in our political spheres, we are surrounded by those who emphasize sensationalism and violence. This can feed personal dislike, anger, or even “hate” for a group of people we may hear are taking our jobs, corrupting the nation, or threatening us with destruction. It can lead us to throw up our hands and say that nothing can be done in such a world.

Yet, returning to the beginning of this section, listen instead to the voices of peace, from the youth in Afghanistan to those in each of our own communities. They can help us find hope through the simple solution of extending a hand in friendship.

Promoting peace is not a solitary activity. We are joined in the effort by the vast majority of people in the world who yearn for peace, and work to live together peaceably. For those times when you may find yourself overwhelmed, there is a saying beautifully voiced by the musical group Sweet Honey in the Rock: “Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.” If we keep moving forward step by step, together we will carve out the path toward peace dreamed of by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., alongside so many others.

From finding peace within one's life to demonstrating the greatest compassion and commitment to social justice, extending the principles and the practice of peace to others can guide us to a richer, more secure coexistence. We at the Community Tool Box, in cooperation with the Charter for Compassion and September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, welcome and encourage each of you to further this vision, and to find ways to implement it in your lives, in your communities, and in our world.

Contributor Terry Greene

Editors Bill Berkowitz Barbara Kerr

Terry Greene is a member of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows  whose brother, Donald F. Greene, died aboard United Flight 93. She is a Public Health Consultant and Cambridge Peace Commission honoree who lives in Massachusetts.

Online Resources

The Albert Einstein Institution is a nonprofit organization founded by Dr. Gene Sharp in 1983 to advance the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world.

• 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
• How Nonviolent Struggle Works
• On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict

General Sources: Paths toward Peace

• The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
• Charter for Compassion
• Conflict Prevention: A Toolbox to Respond to Conflicts and Build Peace
• The Global Alliance for Ministries: an Infrastructure for Peace
• The Karuna Center for Peacebuilding
• The King Center
• Mayors for Peace
• The National Peace Academy
• The Peace & Development Collaborative Network
• The Restorative Justice Project
• September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
• United for Peace and Justice

Faith-based and Interfaith Readings

• The Faith Club
• Not in God's Name: Making Sense of Religious Conflict

Healing and Reconciliation

• The Forgiveness Project
• The Institute of Memories
• Parents Circle Family Forum
• Facing History and Ourselves
• The Karuna Center
• PBS Transformative Teachers
• Peaceful Tomorrows Resources for Educators
• The Restorative Schools Vision Project
• Teaching Tolerance
• University for Peace

Military Spending

• The National Priorities Project

Print Resources

Farrington, D. P., & Ttofi, M. M. (2009). How to reduce school bullying, Victims and  Offenders , 4, 321-326.

Hartsough, D. (2014). Waging Peace. Oakland, CA: PM Press.

Idliby R., Oliver, S., & Warner, P. (2006). The faith club: A Muslim, A Christian, a Jew – three women search for understanding. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006.

Jeong, S., & Lee, B. H. (2013). A multilevel examination of peer victimization and bullying preventions in schools,” Journal of Criminology , Vol. 2013, 10 pages. Article ID 735397.

Shetgiri, R. (2013). Bullying and victimization among children. Advances in Pediatrics, 60 (1), 33–51.

Solomon, S. (2010). Water: The epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization. New York: HarperCollins.

Varma, R., & Varma, D. R. (2005). The Bhopal disaster of 1984.  Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society , 25 (1), 37-45.

Making Peace: How Schools can Foster a more Peaceful World

(Original article: Leah Shafer, Usable Knowledge: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Dec. 23, 2015 )

As 2015 draws to a close, we hope for a new year where cooperation and empathy supersede violence and suspicion. For our final article this year, Usable Knowledge asks: Can education foster a more peaceful world?

According to Silvia Diazgranados Ferráns , an instructor and doctoral candidate at the  Harvard Graduate School of Education , it can. Her research on peace education reveals a complex field that seeks to help schools build communities that foster peacemaking and citizenship — to encourage students to become empathetic, inclusive, critical thinkers who have the skills to live peaceful lives.

THE GOALS OF PEACE EDUCATION

The goals of peace education vary widely across the world. In developing countries, where there is no specific enemy or conflict but a general lack of human rights, peace education seeks to elucidate sources of inequality to promote a more equitable, stable future. In areas of intractable conflict between specific groups, as in Israel and the Palestinian territories, peace education seeks to promote alternate narratives of the conflict to encourage mutual understanding, respect, and collaboration.

In areas where there is no active conflict or violation of human rights, peace education seeks to promote individual skills that reject the use violence and create stronger communities.

PEACE EDUCATION IN ACTION

For U.S. educators, a successful peace education program focuses on helping children develop the skills they’ll need to get along with others, solve conflicts in nonviolent ways, contribute positively to their communities, respect intergroup differences, and value diversity. Young children need to learn and practice these skills in relationship to their peers, teachers, and family members, Diazgranados Ferráns says. As they grow older, children need opportunities to practice these skills in the context of their broader community and to reflect on their potential global impact.

Diazgranados Ferráns notes that peace education lessons will only take root if peace education is a schoolwide effort that goes beyond a particular subject, embodied by every adult in the building and demonstrated throughout the school day. She outlines several ways that teachers and school leaders can incorporate peace education into their work, teaching students how to be empathetic, responsible, and active learners and leaders:

• Model kindness and empathy Teachers, principals, and staff throughout the building can model how to love and care for others through their interactions among each other and with students. Adults should get to know students individually, appreciating the unique strengths and needs of each student and member of the school community.
• Repair, don’t punish When students commit an offense, use models of restorative justice to help them understand the effects of their actions and how they can repair any damage done. Instead of punishing or excluding offenders, facilitate conversations on what would need to happen to restore balance in the community. The end goal is for children to understand the impact of their actions and to learn to take responsibility for them.
• Create a democratic space Involve student voices in establishing and revising school and class norms. Create classrooms where children are encouraged to share their ideas. Share power with students and give them the space to question authority. Great injustices, inequalities, and atrocities take place when people either are uncritical of authority or aren’t given the appropriate space and courage to question and resist it, says Diazgranados Ferráns.
• Use experiential learning Arrange lessons so that students learn by doing. Give students assignments that promote creativity and critical thinking. Whenever possible, instead of lecturing material, allow students to grapple with and debate it, to conduct experiments, or to participate in projects.
• Give a voice to the excluded On a micro level, this means encouraging students who are commonly excluded to speak up in class. On a macro level, this means incorporating into lessons the narratives of people who have been historically discriminated against or excluded. Have students think critically about why the knowledge and experiences of some groups of people are privileged over the knowledge and experiences of others.
• Encourage collaboration in diverse groups Emphasize collaboration and teamwork and deemphasize competition and self-interests. Structure long-term projects that allow children from different social or ethnic groups to work together toward a common goal. Opportunities in which children get to know one another as individuals, says Diazgranados Ferráns, “may help break prejudices and establish caring relationships among members of different groups.”
• Discuss controversial issues Facilitate discussions about divisive civic and ethical issues for children of all ages. These debates teach students not only about viewpoints different from their own, but also that it’s okay to disagree with authority figures and peers as long as it’s done respectfully and in a safe environment.
• Integrate service learning With younger students, this can mean identifying and solving problems within their classroom. With older students, it can mean creating service projects that help their school, community, or people across world. “Children need to practice, from very, very early on, how to take action, to solve the problems in their community, to have a positive effect,” says Diazgranados Ferráns. “They don’t need to wait until they grow up to change the world.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Read more about Diazgranados Ferráns’ research and learn about her HGSE course on peace education .

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60 Powerful Ways to Contribute to World Peace

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Table of Contents

60 powerful ways to promote peace in our world

I’m really excited about today’s topic—how we can help make the world a more peaceful place. In this blog post, we’ll talk about some cool and easy ways to contribute to world peace .

This post may contain affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link and purchase something I recommend, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

How we can make the world more peaceful

• Practice kindness. Small acts of kindness , like smiling at strangers or helping a neighbor, can create a ripple effect of positivity.
• Listen more. By truly listening to others, we can understand their perspectives better and reduce misunderstandings.
• Volunteer for peace organizations. Contribute your time and skills to organizations that work towards peace.
• Teach conflict resolution. Share conflict-solving techniques with friends, family, and children.
• Promote education. Support initiatives that provide education to children in conflict zones.
• Advocate for human rights. Speak out against injustices and support organizations that protect human rights.
• Meditation and mindfulness. These practices can help you stay calm and spread peace around you.
• Support refugees. Help refugees in your community by providing help and a welcoming environment.
• Plant trees. Environmental peace is essential, so join tree-planting initiatives.
• Cultural exchange. Learn about different cultures and promote cultural exchange.
• Write letters. Write letters to leaders, urging them to prioritize peace.
• Practice non-violence. Resolve conflicts without resorting to violence.
• Promote gender equality. Support gender equality to reduce violence against women.
• Support fair trade. Buy products that ensure fair wages for producers.
• Community policing. Encourage police-community relations to build trust.

• Campaign against bullying. Take a stand against bullying in your school or workplace.
• Spread awareness. Share peace-related information on social media.
• Promote inclusivity. Make sure everyone feels included in your community.
• Support mental health. Help reduce mental health stigmas and provide support to those in need.
• Conflict-free shopping. Buy products that aren’t tied to conflicts or exploitation.
• Random acts of kindness. Surprise others with unexpected acts of goodness.
• Support peaceful protests. Stand with those advocating for positive change.
• Diplomacy. Encourage peaceful negotiations in international conflicts.
• Fair voting. Advocate for fair and transparent election processes.
• Community gardens. Create spaces where people can come together to grow food.
• Promote renewable energy. Support clean energy to reduce resource-driven conflicts.
• Respect differences. Celebrate diversity and learn from others’ cultures and traditions.
• Conflict journalism. Support media outlets that focus on peace and reconciliation.
• Promote tolerance. Teach children the importance of tolerance and understanding.
• Civic engagement. Get involved in local politics to influence peaceful policies.

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• Advocate for disarmament. Support efforts to reduce the availability of weapons.
• Be a good neighbor. Foster positive relationships with those living near you.
• Promote animal rights. Extend compassion to all living creatures.
• Support fair labor practices. Choose products made by companies that treat their workers well.
• Emergency response training. Learn how to help in emergencies and disasters.
• Conflict-free electronics. Buy gadgets made with ethically sourced materials.
• Promote accessible healthcare. Advocate for affordable healthcare for all.
• Support peace education. Encourage schools to teach conflict resolution and peace studies.
• Community cleanups. Organize or participate in efforts to clean up your neighborhood.
• Fair immigration policies. Advocate for fair immigration laws and support immigrants.
• Promote renewable water sources. Help provide clean water to communities in need.
• Support peaceful art. Promote art and music that inspire harmony and unity.
• Practice patience. Be patient with others, even in frustrating situations.
• Promote animal adoption. Choose adoption over buying pets.
• Support local businesses. Shop locally to strengthen your community.

• Promote restorative justice. Advocate for methods that focus on repairing harm instead of punishment.
• Say no to hate speech. Refuse to engage in or support hate speech.
• Promote fair-trade tourism. Choose responsible tourism options.
• Support youth empowerment. Mentor young people and help them build brighter futures.
• Interfaith dialogue. Engage in conversations with people of different faiths to promote understanding.
• Promote green transportation. Use eco-friendly modes of transportation.
• Share knowledge. Teach others what you know to promote peace.
• Encourage compassion. Encourage empathy and compassion in your circle.
• Promote healthy communication. Teach effective communication skills .
• Respect elders. Show respect and care for older generations.
• Support LGBTQ+ rights. Advocate for equal rights for all sexual orientations and gender identities.
• Promote ethical fashion. Choose clothing made with fair labor practices.
• Educate yourself. Keep learning about global issues and peace efforts.
• Support conflict resolution training. Encourage training programs for resolving disputes peacefully.
• Promote unity. Remember that we’re all part of one big human family, and unity brings peace.

FAQ: Why should we look for new ways to contribute to world peace?

So, why should we bother finding new ways to help make the world more peaceful? Well, the world can be a bit chaotic sometimes, right?

There are conflicts, disagreements, and all sorts of problems. But here’s the thing: If we don’t do something about it, it might just get worse .

We all want to live in a place where we feel safe and happy, right? Well, by chipping in and doing our part for world peace, we’re not just helping others but also making our own lives better.

When there’s peace, we can focus on things we love , like spending time with family, pursuing our dreams, and living without fear.

Besides, contributing to world peace isn’t as hard as it might seem. There are simple, everyday things we can do that add up and make a big difference.

So, looking for new ways to contribute to world peace isn’t just a good idea; it’s like making the world a better place for ourselves and future generations . Pretty cool, right?

What are your favorite ways to contribute to world peace?

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Perspective article, building a culture of peace in everyday life with inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives.

• Facultad de Comercio, Administración y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

In this article, peace is emphasized as a vital condition for all aspects of our existence, as individuals, as a society, and in our planet. The importance of inter- and transdisciplinarity in promoting a culture of peace and peace education is presented. Some examples of initiatives aimed at cultivating a culture of peace from diverse areas of knowledge are also provided. The paper presents a current and interconnected viewpoint on peace study, as well as some ideas for combining peace with education in the everyday routine of teaching and research work, regardless of discipline.

Introduction

Peace is a global concept that is more relevant than ever in today’s society. It is not simply a concern for countries and governments; it is also a concern for individuals in their relationships with others and with the planet. According to Capistrano (2020) , peace is linked to the harmonious coexistence of individuals in their environment, which depends on principles such as social justice, sustainability, democracy and tolerance. A culture of peace can be fostered and promoted via education not only in large projects but also in everyday life. As stated by Cuéllar (2009) , ordinary life is a key object of philosophical reflection from which “a humanism up to the mark of our time” can be derived, and everyday life is “where we begin to forge ourselves as people, where we can completely fulfill ourselves, in terms of work, production and rest, in married and family life, in the experience of love, freedom and recognition of the other.”

This article highlights the importance of promoting peace education and a culture of peace through inter- and transdisciplinarity. The paper also provides examples of initiatives aimed at fostering a culture of peace from diverse areas of knowledge. Additionally, various concepts for integrating peace with education in everyday life are given, regardless of discipline.

An Imperfect and Everyday Peace

When asked “what is peace?” we tend to define it in terms of the absence of war, warlike conflicts, or discord. Known as a negative conception of peace, this perspective has persisted since ancient times. Conversely, positive peace emphasizes the promotion of values, respect, justice, equity, communication, collaboration, empathy, collaboration, and non-violence. Positive peace desires peace and wellbeing and avoids conflict at all costs. However, this concept appears perfect, utopian, or unattainable. As a result, a new approach termed “imperfect peace” has been developed ( Comins-Mingol, 2002 ). The reason it is imperfect is that we are perpetually reconstructing it; it is a dynamic, continuous, and multifaceted concept. Imperfect peace admits that peace and conflicts coexist. Acosta Oidor et al. (2021) explain that peace and violence are both present in every aspect of daily life and not only in a single field such as politics. Furthermore, they quote that peace is a road and not a state. Imperfect peace alludes to the imperfect nature of every human. The concept of imperfect peace is a productive field on which we can produce from our regular work routine.

Culture of Peace

Culture of peace refers to “lifestyles, belief patterns, values, behaviors, (…) wellbeing, equality, equitable administration of resources, security for individuals and families, (…) non-violence, and harmony” ( Cabello et al., 2016 ). Culture of peace is inclusive and complex because it incorporates knowledge, values, and communication. It also integrates physical, biological, and social aspects. Culture of peace is all-encompassing. Page (2008) defines peace education as “the process of acquiring values, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors to live in harmony with oneself, others, and the natural environment.” Peace education encompasses personal, social, and planetary dimensions. Thus, can we integrate peace into every facet of our lives? Is it possible to improve coexistence between people to foster a culture of peace? Personally, I believe we may achieve both goals through our daily life activities.

Rationale for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity

Should we continue to foster a culture of peace by focusing on a single discipline or collaborating on several? According to Edgar Morin’s complex thinking ( Morin, 1994 ), our contemporary reality, phenomena, and problems are complex by nature. Complexity entails more than just difficulty; it also signifies that the problems are interconnected in a framework spanning several knowledge domains. Accordingly, to address problems and better comprehend our reality, they must be regarded as interconnected and inseparable in a feedback loop, that is, from a holistic and collaborative perspective of multiple disciplines. For this reason, reductionist perspectives are no longer enough for a pertinent understanding of our reality. In this context, two key elements emerge, namely the integration of diverse specialties and collaborative work, which facilitate inter and transdisciplinary work.

According to the literature, the concept of inter- and transdisciplinarity derives from an advanced and mature level of collaboration between multiple disciplines ( Escobar, 2010 ). First, disciplinarity occurs from specialization in a single area of knowledge. Then, multidisciplinarity emerges when several fields study the same object without interacting with one another. Pluridisciplinarity is the result of uncoordinated collaboration between different areas of knowledge. Finally, inter- and transdisciplinarity are achieved when some methodologies are transferred between disciplines (the former) and when a comprehensive and holistic perspective supports collaborations between disciplines, through them, and beyond them (the latter) ( Klein, 2010 ). In transdisciplinarity, cognitive schemes intersect disciplines. As a result of this advanced level of collaboration, disciplines often face problems, difficulties, or challenges. Transdisciplinarity itself is not an exception; the different approaches to its conceptualization have led to contradictory points of view. For Rigolot (2020) , these contradictions can be surpassed, by considering transdisciplinarity both as a discipline by itself and as a way of being. As a way of being, transdisciplinarity is fully incorporated into the human life and cannot be reduced to professional activities. This vision is compatible with that of Edgar Morin, who fully integrated transdisciplinary work with his personal life experiences ( Rigolot, 2020 ).

Inter- and Transdisciplinary Peace Education

Considering the aforementioned perspectives, effective peace education should be inter- and transdisciplinary. But how can we develop peace education through these approaches? First, embracing a complex conception of reality. In other words, reality should be viewed and understood from a broad perspective to avoid self-serving simplifications that prevent us from collaborating across disciplines. Second, our education should connect key issues such as life, humanity, culture, the planet, complexity, literature, art, philosophy, sustainability, and values regardless of field of knowledge. Third, teaching-learning processes should be adaptable, allowing teachers and students to see each subject as part of a complex whole interconnected through various mediations.

Accordingly, Lappin (2009) explains that it has been well acknowledged that peacebuilding is complex; however, there is a long-standing tendency to address peacebuilding from the point of view of a single discipline. Nicolescu (2012) adds that there is a direct and inexorable link between peace and transdisciplinarity and that any fragmented way of thinking is incompatible with peace research. Hence, education and the university must evolve to welcome a new humanism and adopt transdisciplinarity in their organization and conceptions. Along the same vein, Galtung (2010) asserts that true transdisciplinarity must be present in all aspects of the human condition, as multiple restricted or skewed perspectives will not provide a clear overview or an encompassing understanding of the whole.

Cabello et al. (2016) advocate that peace should be built on “education for justice and freedom; for reconciliation and brotherhood; for critical conscience and solidarity; for integral development and democracy; for the common good and participation; for human rights, and all the values that support and enable a culture of peace.” Acevedo Suárez and Báez Pimiento (2018) explain that educating for peace is inviting to act in the school microcosm and at the macro level of social structures. They conclude that peace education is a necessity that every educational institution must assume. París Albert (2019) exposes that peace education is also a primary tool to achieve the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda; this tool consists of creativity to imagine careful alternatives to face daily situations, as well as situations of injustice, social inequalities, environmental crises, and sustainable development.

Now comes the question of how we can educate for peace in our daily teaching and research work. Some guidelines ( Zurbano Díaz de Cerio, 1999 ) include cultivating values, learning to live with others, facilitating positive experiences, educating in conflict resolution, developing critical thinking, combating violence, educating in tolerance to diversity of dialogue, and rational argumentation. Furthermore, as educators, we must remember that our example is a powerful ally in all educational processes. We can deliver beautiful and eloquent speeches, but it is our everyday example that sows the most seeds of peace in others. We are also educating for peace via our own actions. We, as teachers, may encourage active listening, empathy, depersonalization of conflicts, and respect for limitations and opinions. In this approach, we may take small steps toward strengthening our coexistence and promoting a culture of peace.

Peace education must also be established at all levels, for all ages, and for all people. However, peace education has a significant impact on youth. Peace education is crucial during childhood and youth because the seeds we sow in them when they are young will flourish henceforth and bear fruit in the future for the benefit of our society. For this reason, youth represents both present and future peace and play a key role in peace education.

Currently, several discourses, initiatives, and indicators from different disciplines describe peace education. Many of them, though, remain limited to inert speeches. Peace, on the contrary, requires action ( Jordan et al., 2021 ). We can make peace education a reality in our teaching activities through inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. Teachers can have influence in everyday life by building meaningful relationships between education and research, as well as by consistently implementing curricular and extracurricular activities that foster a culture of peace through formal and non-formal training.

Examples of Peace-Building Initiatives From Institutions, Research, Teaching and Personal Experience

Initiatives aimed at fostering a culture of peace are commonly promoted by institutions, researchers or teachers. For example, the study by Jordan et al. (2021) highlights an institutional peacebuilding initiative at the University of New Mexico School of Engineering and Health Sciences Center, where summit of the World Engineering Education Forum and Global Engineering Deans Council were hosted. The theme was “Peace Engineering” with the focal point of science and engineering-based solutions to the world’s transcendent challenges. The event responded to the urgent need for engineers to reflect, understand, measure, and anticipate the intended and unforeseen implications of their work in a global context. The results of these events comprised establishing academic programs, starting new areas of education, research, and innovation relating to climate change, water, healthcare, food security, ethics, transparency, resilience, sustainability, social equity and diversity, as well as face-to-face and virtual academic events addressing peace, and engineering concerns.

In the research context, the project by Del Río Fernández et al. (2019) attempts to promote peace via the use of plastic and visual languages. The researchers gained this interdisciplinary experience with early childhood education student teachers through photographic exhibitions and mural workshops. They focused on developing respect for the ideas and beliefs of others, improving peaceful community life, and fostering pacific conflict resolution. This project is a clear illustration of how peace can be promoted from a variety of perspectives, such as the plastic arts.

In the teaching field, Miralay (2020) found that according to teachers’ perceptions, the awareness of the culture of peace by students through arts education would promote individual and social peace. They also found that families, school administrators and governmental institutions have an essential role in promoting peace. Also, it was evident that there are deficiencies in the institutions while performing this process. On the other hand, the work of Domínguez and Ordinas (2019) describes the application of a novel methodology to promote socially equitable education in university teaching in courses involving the past and present of relations between human societies and cultures on a global scale. The aim of their work is to use ludic methods instead of traditional methods of study. Their students were encouraged to have a critical, pluralistic, cooperative outlook on the meaning of peace. This pedagogical approach has enriched the way of teaching and generating historical knowledge by using cooperative games in the classroom.

I can present my personal experience with teaching software development. In the classroom I have incorporated agile approaches which recognize that software development has a strong human dimension. Thus, people take precedence over tools ( Beck et al., 2021 ). When these approaches are used in the classroom, students not only learn to program but also to collaborate while also learning to be tolerant. The principles of Egoless Programming ( Waychal and Capretz, 2018 ) are also addressed during the practical lessons to help students understand the importance of good interpersonal relationships when collaborating. These approaches have been incredibly helpful in software development teaching because they strengthen understanding, respect, empathy, tolerance, and collaboration among students. In addition, I have found through quantitative and mixed research approaches that collaborative programming can produce software with better attributes than those of individually developed programs. For example, pair programming has produced elevated levels of acceptance and well-structured programs in our sessions.

Peace and peace research are pertinent needs in our society. As teachers, we must promote peace education and a culture of peace from various angles. However, this is not an exclusive duty of teachers, but also requires the enthusiastic collaboration of institutions, students, parents, families, and communities. In this process, it is important to reflect on the contributions to peace that we can make in our everyday practice. Then, let us promote collaboration, dialogue, respect, active listening, and inclusion, using a cultural vision and living example of our behavior, thereby creating a culture of peace based on values and love in our daily lives as teachers or researchers.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Author Contributions

RR-H: conception, research, writing, editing, revising, and final draft.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

We thank everyone who contributed to my encounter with the ideas presented in this manuscript. We thank Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas for the support provided to carry out this work.

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Keywords : culture of peace, peace, peace education, higher education, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary education

Citation: Roque-Hernández RV (2022) Building a Culture of Peace in Everyday Life With Inter- and Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Front. Educ. 7:847968. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.847968

Received: 03 January 2022; Accepted: 06 June 2022; Published: 23 June 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Roque-Hernández. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Ramón Ventura Roque-Hernández, [email protected]

This article is part of the Research Topic

Education and Society: New Approaches for New Challenges

Here's How to make peace and justice your full-time job

A look at the career and education opportunities in the field.

• 01 Peace and Justice: What We Mean and Why it Matters
• 02 Is Peace and Justice the Right Fit for You?
• 03 What You Need to Turn Your Passion for Peace Into a Full-Time Job
• 04 Employment Breakdown: Key Sectors, Job Titles, Salaries, and Growth Opportunities
• 05 The Impact of One Former Peace and Justice Student
• 06 How USD's Kroc School Amplifies Your Intention to Bring About Peace
• 07 Make a Positive Impact With the Kroc School's Master's in Peace and Justice

Table of Contents

Peace and justice: what we mean and why it matters.

If all you saw were the headlines, you might get the impression that the world is not a peaceful place. Yet, arguably, recent research indicates that we are living through one of the most peaceful times in human history. And this is not by chance – it’s the result of challenging, but fulfilling work from individuals who have dedicated their lives and careers to shaping more peaceful and just societies. If you share this desire to create a better world, you may enjoy a career in the field of peace and justice.

What is Peace? Building and maintaining peace

Peace may seem like a simple, black-and-white issue; either it exists or it doesn’t. However, the reality is that peace is multifaceted and layered, and what it means depends heavily on the perspectives and lived experiences of individuals or groups. In short, peace is neither easily summarized nor sustained.

Historically, the term “peacebuilding”, or the work it takes to bring about and maintain peace, was first introduced in 1975 by Johan Galtung . John Paul Lederach later broadened the term to mean, “a comprehensive concept that encompasses, generates, and sustains the full array of processes, approaches, and stages needed to transform conflict toward more sustainable, peaceful relationships.” Peacebuilding both precedes and follows formal peace accords, yet, it’s not a phase or condition, but a dynamic continuum of socially constructed transformations.

Laying the groundwork for peacebuilding means that, “We are not merely interested in ‘ending’ something that is not desired. We are oriented towards building relationships that, in their totality, form new patterns, processes, and structures.”

Positive peace vs. negative peace, and other elements of peace studies theory

First formulated by Galtung, the definitions of positive and negative peace by the Institute for Economics & Peace and their focus on positive peace are consistent with Lederach’s broad approach.

Negative peace: the absence of violence or fear of violence.

Positive peace: the presence of attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies.

Before we dive deeper into negative and positive peace, we must first understand violence. “Violence may seem like a straightforward concept: you know it when you see it, right? It often manifests itself physically when someone attacks someone else or when we experience or hear loud voices or noises. However, violence can show itself in a variety of ways that are not always explicit.” Violence is often grouped into three main categories: direct, structural, and cultural violence.

• Direct violence: the violence we physically perceive: war, rape, murder, assault, and verbal attacks - manifests out of conditions of structural and cultural violence.
• Structural violence: social structures or social institutions that harm people by preventing them from meeting their human needs. Disabilities, disparities, and even deaths result when policies and institutions meet some people’s needs at the expense of others.
• Cultural violence: violence in the symbolic sphere of our existence: rhetoric symbols, flags, hymns, and the history we tell. Johan Galtung defines “ cultural violence ” as “any aspect of a culture that can be used to legitimize violence in its direct or structural form.”

We can only address violence effectively if we are aware of all the ways people experience it and the social structures and cultural narratives that support it.

Getting back to negative and positive peace, the negative peace meaning is used to refer to the cessation of violent acts. This approach was inspired by the twin definitions of health. Negative health is curative whereas positive health is preventative. In the same way, relative to violence, negative peace is curative whereas positive peace is preventative.

Positive peace, however, is peace that is just and sustainable. Positive peace is the ultimate goal of peace work, as it aims to ensure that societies have the conditions in which all people can thrive. Developing social cohesion, relationships across groups, and trust in institutions are all required for positive peace. After violence has ended, positive peace can only be achieved through rebuilding and social cooperation between sides previously in conflict.

The eight pillars of positive peace

Positive peace is an ongoing work-in-progress. It is based on a number of underlying social conditions, each of which contributes to a greater whole than the sum of its parts. Working for peace therefore requires understanding these components and using a multidisciplinary, holistic approach. For example, the Institute for Economics & Peace defines positive peace according to eight constituent factors.

1. Well-functioning Government – A well-functioning government delivers high-quality public and civil services, engenders trust and participation, demonstrates political stability, and upholds the rule of law.

2. Sound Business Environment – The strength of economic conditions as well as the formal institutions that support the operation of the private sector. Business competitiveness and economic productivity are both associated with the most peaceful countries.

3. Equitable Distribution of Resources – Peaceful countries tend to ensure equity in access to resources such as education, health, and to a lesser extent, equity in income distribution.

4. Acceptance of the Rights of Others – Peaceful countries often have formal laws that guarantee basic human rights and freedoms, and the informal social and cultural norms that relate to the behaviors of citizens.

5. Good Relations with Neighbors – Peaceful relations with other countries are as important as good relations between groups within a country. Countries with positive external relations are more peaceful and tend to be more politically stable, have better functioning governments, are regionally integrated, and have lower levels of organized internal conflict.

6. Free Flow of Information – Free and independent media disseminates information in a way that leads to greater knowledge and helps individuals, businesses and civil society make better decisions. This leads to better outcomes and more rational responses in times of crisis.

7. High Levels of Human Capital – A skilled human capital base reflects the extent to which societies educate citizens and promote the development of knowledge, thereby improving economic productivity, care for the young, political participation, and social capital.

8. Low Levels of Corruption – In societies with high levels of corruption, resources are inefficiently allocated, often leading to a lack of funding for essential services and civil unrest. Low corruption can enhance confidence and trust in institutions.

Peace work, which we’ll dive into next, relies on a comprehensive understanding of both positive and negative peace.

What is peace work? A deeper dive 

One way to think about peace work is to consider what it looks like in practice. John Paul Lederach and Katie Mansfield designed a model known as the Strategic Peacebuilding Pathways that is helpful in identifying specific career paths one can pursue. The model is divided into major areas of strategic peacebuilding (the inner circle), which together seek to achieve positive peace.

Primarily, peacebuilding works to:

• Prevent, respond to, and transform violent conflict
• Ensure justice and healing
• Facilitate structural and institutional change.

The outer circle of the model highlights sub-areas of practice and career focus within those three areas. In all cases, the areas represent work in the U.S. and internationally. For each of these sub-areas, a variety of individual career pathways emerge but keep in mind this list is not exhaustive.

The United States Institute of Peace’s (USIP) definition of peacebuilding includes most of what we see in the Lederach/Mansfield model, adds human rights and refugee resettlement, and firmly establishes the need to address root causes in order to build positive peace.

Both the Lederach/Mansfield model and USIP’s definition are just two representations of peacebuilding among many. There are numerous other fields that are direct expressions of peacebuilding or intersectional fields of peace work, such as racial and gender justice, genocide prevention, environmental activism, the arts, and more.

Peacebuilding as a lens for work in conflict contexts 

All organizations working in conflict contexts, including private companies, are becoming more attentive to how their activities affect local populations and the conflicts between them. An increasing number of them are adopting the lens proposed by the members of Alliance for Peacebuilding:

"Peacebuilding is also defined as a broader lens through which practitioners in many fields approach their work in conflict zones...Every action within a fragile, chaotic environment can serve to either reduce or augment violence, often in ways that are very difficult to ascertain in advance. Decisions about where to place water wells, what textbooks to use in schools, where to house health clinics, how to introduce microfinance to women, all have the potential to either fan the flames of violence or help quell potential conflict. Even organizations that do not consider themselves peacebuilders are increasingly recognizing the relevance of this conflict lens, central to the principle of 'do no harm,' [Anderson, 1999] and are attempting to carry out their work in ways that will, at a minimum, not aggravate tensions and, at best, lead to increased capacity for peace."

Nearly all organizations need experts who can apply a conflict lens and ensure the work of their organization has a high positive impact.

Is peace and justice the right fit for you?

It takes a certain kind of person to help resolve conflicts and work for peace with justice. Accordingly, there are a handful of common traits among people who typically achieve success in this field.

1) Grounded and Human-Centered — At the core, peacebuilders work to improve human quality of life. This work requires the traits to respond to individuals and groups with dignity. Some of these core traits include empathy, humility, sincerity, sound judgment, integrity, and compassion. Additionally, these individuals will have a social justice-oriented personality and profound respect for the lived experiences of other people.

2) Transformation Driven — Peacebuilders must also be innovative problem-solvers, committed to transforming the society in which we live. Conflicts and social justice challenges are often complex and entrenched. In these cases, success can hinge on forging new and innovative paths to solve deep-rooted problems. These individuals are driven to reject the status quo, challenge systems with innovative thinking, and are fundamentally oriented towards transformative structural change.

3) Persistent — To cultivate peace in the world, one must be persistent and committed — not easily deterred by slow-moving progress, resistance, and setbacks. Many peacebuilding efforts require sustained engagements, and this normative commitment to peace is the driving force behind lasting progress.

4) Thirsty for Knowledge — Peace work involves a lifelong process of learning and unlearning. Individuals who wish to make a sustained impact in their field must have a genuine curiosity and willingness to learn. Without sufficient knowledge, there is the potential to do real harm. Peacebuilding also involves unlearning and divesting of destructive beliefs, processes, and systems that do not promote peace.

5) Team Oriented — Peacebuilding can only occur through collective effort. Those who want to do peace work must thrive in team environments and have the disposition and skills to perform in situations where progress is dependent on the work of multiple participants. These individuals are excellent listeners and communicators, collaborative thinkers, open-minded, and results-driven.

Motivations and goals of peace workers

People who work for peace and justice come from diverse backgrounds and are motivated to leave the world a better place than they found it. Many work in the field because they have the natural disposition to promote peace and help others. In addition, many peacebuilders are motivated by personal experiences with violence, conflict, or injustice, and a deep desire to change the systems that produced these harms.

For example, living in a community impacted by contaminated water may drive someone to become an advocate for clean water and sanitation. Another person who experienced housing insecurity may focus on developing affordable housing policies. A person who knew someone who was trafficked may want to stop human trafficking. Encountering or witnessing loved ones experience nearly any act of injustice or violence can often result in the desire to work for justice reform.

Additionally, many peacebuilders decide to work in different countries or to support international systems, but others also work domestically and locally to make change within their own communities.

What you need to turn your passion for peace into a full-time job

Having the desire and attributes required to change the world are admirable, but to make an impact for good, proper training and knowledge are required. Serving as a professional in the peace and justice field requires a deep understanding of the systemic drivers of injustice, the individuals or groups in conflict as well as the origins and evolutions of the conflict. Furthermore, here are five primary skills you will need to turn your passion for peace into a full-time job.

1) Communication Skills — Excellent communication skills are essential to conflict transformation and can be used in a variety of situations including mediation, negotiation, facilitation, and advocacy. Successful professionals will be able to listen actively and empathetically to understand the speaker’s intent while observing and evaluating non-verbal communication. They will also be highly skilled at explaining messages to others through a variety of communication styles, both written and oral.

To do this work, peacebuilders must be assertive and persuasive while remaining diplomatic. This skill is especially important in circumstances where at least one conflict party does not want to engage. In other cases, one party may not be able to adequately articulate the real source of distrust or pain. In these situations, effective communicators draw out the information needed for peacebuilding with kindness and sincerity to effectively bring fighting factions together.

With regard to advocacy specifically, it’s not just about peaceful protesting to advance a cause or idea, but also about influencing policies and the decision-makers who shape them. Often, this work entails litigation, lobbying, and public education as well as building coalitions, forming networks, and developing leaders.

2) Human & Leadership Skills — Central to a peacebuilder’s work are leadership skills like relationship building, community organizing, team building, visioning, and the ability to maintain a calm and low-stress demeanor without becoming passive. While specific peace and justice issues that one focuses on may change over time, these skills are required in any peacebuilding and human rights context, be it environmental justice, human trafficking prevention, or racial justice.

3) Analytical Skills — All peacebuilders must have sound analytical skills, including but not limited to conflict analysis, conflict mapping, policy analysis, and strategic planning. To redress grievances and promote peace, professionals also need an in-depth understanding of the root causes of violence, oppression, and injustice so they can apply impactful peacebuilding strategies to address them. Practitioners must be able to analyze the proximate and latent causes of the problem and present a strategic solution. For example, if the problem is access to information, promoting peace may require building new channels of communication and implementing structures that prevent future misunderstanding.

Those who work with government agencies or political leaders would benefit particularly from policy analysis skills. Promoting peace and justice often means being able to translate laudable goals into cohesive public policy. For example, if your goal is to promote the safety and security of women in a community, how would you identify the relevant laws, policies, and programs and then recommend reforms to achieve your objective? With a thorough understanding of the policies related to a given issue, peacebuilders stand a better chance of bringing about the changes they seek to make at scale. In all domains, the best analysis tends to reflect a high level of critical thinking, resulting in recommendations for effective changes to laws, policies, and practices.

4) Program Design & Management Skills — Peace and justice workers must have the skills to design, monitor, and evaluate peacebuilding programs. Doing research and partnering with experts with firsthand experience of the issues are key steps in understanding the right problems and ideating viable, human-centered solutions to address them. With a firm grasp of the problem and a potential solution in mind, peacebuilders may then move on to design, test, implement, monitor, and evaluate the new policy, social service or program. After the pilot phase, the innovators must critically evaluate the impact and make further modifications to improve outcomes in the long run.

5) Fundraising Skills — Those working for peace and justice in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits will often need to fundraise to bring their visions to life. In the hands of a competent fundraiser, an organization can take a promising idea and transform it into an effective and impactful program. Without an understanding of fundraising, professionals with innovative and ingenious solutions may not be able to implement their ideas.

Fortunately, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies (Kroc School) offers a dedicated graduate program that provides these specific skills and more, as well as the handson experiences needed to succeed in peace and justice work. The MA in Peace and Justice is tailored to the individual’s career aspirations. Candidates leave the program with the confidence and expertise to make a substantial contribution to peace.

Employment breakdown: key sectors, job titles, salaries, and growth opportunities.

Now that we’ve covered the skills you need, what kind of career could you have in peace and justice? Peace and justice professionals are needed in a variety of sectors and at institutions across the world. Below is a sampling of titles of those involved in peacebuilding work, along with a high-level overview of what those roles entail and average salary information. You will find that the salaries and growth opportunities depend on the scale of the organization, the job market where the organization is located, and its funding sources, among other factors. There may also be differences between salaries in international organizations and national and local nonprofits. However, there are also many pathways for moving between sectors, from the local to the international or from the governmental to the NGO sector.

Note that professional opportunities tend to be divided into the three major areas of the Strategic Peacebuilding Paths described in the previous section, “What Is Peace Work? A Deeper Dive.” There are myriad paths, and while this career section is representative of the field, there are more opportunities beyond these to pursue

Careers in violence prevention, conflict response, and transformation

#1 conflict mediator.

These professionals help individuals, groups, and organizations resolve disputes and deal with conflict by equipping them with communication tools, conflict resolution mechanisms, and other peacebuilding tools. Conflict mediators are an integral part of a healthy community as they help to de-escalate problems and facilitate interactions, conversations, and behaviors that lead to lasting peace. Conflict mediators, such as those who work for the National Conflict Resolution Center, make an average of $63,930 per year.

#2 UN Civil Service Officer

According to the UN, “Civil affairs officers are a key civilian component that helps facilitate interactions between peacekeeping missions, partners and local communities to prevent conflict. Civil affairs work depends on a mission’s mandate and the evolving situation on the ground. Three constant key activities that civil affairs officers undertake are engaging local stakeholders, participating in local conflict management and supporting the extension of state authority. In 2020, 565 Civil Affairs officers in eight UN Field Missions played a key role in early warning and situational awareness of conflict dynamics on the ground.”12 The salary range for a mid-career field service officer is $44K - $68K before additional compensation based on the position post . Entry-level professionals earn between $21K-$54K and senior-level professionals earn between $56K-$90K

#3 Program Officers

Program Officers are responsible for the implementation of specific programs in an organization. For example, international NGOs such as World Vision or Red Cross may have a program officer that leads initiatives focused on mitigating violence against women in disaster zones, or who implement programs for child protection. Other program officers serve as headquarters-based liaisons for field staff in different countries. Depending on the type of organization, program officers are usually mid-tier professional positions making between $64K and $70K each year.

Careers in justice and healing

#1 restorative practitioner.

Restorative justice emphasizes repairing the harm caused by violent behavior through cooperative processes that allow all willing stakeholders to meet and agree upon a restoration plan. Restorative justice professionals focus on trauma healing, conflict mediation, facilitating restorative justice dialogues, and much more. Salaries for these positions can vary greatly. For example, a restorative justice coordinator working at a school makes, on average, $41,844 , while a mid-career practitioner makes more.

#2 Human Rights Defender

Individuals in these positions investigate complaints of human rights violations and protect at-risk populations. They may also be involved in community conversations to address injustices or serve as mediators. On the front lines, a human rights defender with an organization like Human Rights Watch c an make between $51K and $95K per year.

#3 Case Manager

Case managers for nonprofits oversee an array of projects and clients as they help them access the resources they need. These professionals will also make client service plans and engage in community mapping and community outreach as they identify potential clients and connect them with the appropriate services. At nonprofit organizations such as the International Rescue Committee, case managers can expect to earn a salary of $32K to $56K.

careers in structural and institutional change

Staff attorney.

Those who want to work in legal advocacy positions can have careers fighting for the underserved, underprivileged, and wrongfully accused. Organizations like the Innocence Project provide legal services, at no cost, for those who have been wrongfully accused and need legal representation. These individuals also work to improve justice systems. A staff attorney for an organization like the Innocence Project makes $64K on average, per year.

Program Manager

Many program managers work in community outreach and education positions, such as the Mizel Institute and Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab. They dedicate their careers to designing, coordinating, and facilitating programs that promote peace and justice through conscientious citizenship and community empowerment. The average salary for a program manager in a nonprofit organization is $58,800.

Development Manager

In many organizations, such as 350.org, development managers are responsible for marketing and public relations activities directed at raising funds. They may be the sole contributor leading fundraising activities or they could lead a team. These professionals may also be responsible for creating and managing special events or publications designed to maximize donor engagement. In the United States, development manager salaries can range from $60,993 to $79,510.

Foreign Service Officer

Foreign service officers are separated into five career areas, each with generally different responsibilities. Consular Officers work with U.S. citizens interacting with or visiting other countries. Economic Officers coordinate on economic and foreign policy issues with foreign governments. Management Officers handle management affairs for U.S. embassies. Political Officers interact with foreign governments on matters of policy. Finally, Public Diplomacy Officers serve a public relations function within embassies. Within the U.S. government, a foreign service officer with a master’s degree and some qualifying experience can earn between $49K and $60K per year.

Again, these positions do not represent the complete list of possibilities — there are many other types of positions that exist in the areas of 1) preventing, responding to, and transforming violent conflict; 2) ensuring justice and healing; and 3) facilitating structural and institutional change. Jobs in these areas exist across the spectrum from $40K a year to well into six figures as one climbs the career ladder.

Looking ahead at the sector's growth.

Current issues will continue to drive the missions of organizations dedicated to peace and justice. For example, job opportunities related to climate change, public health, and changing systemic injustices in the United States are already expanding in response to recent events. In addition to the direct impacts of fire and floods, climate change is affecting immigration and food security patterns. COVID-19 is impacting health care, urban concentrations, and violence patterns. As long as there is conflict, there will be a need for effective peacebuilders.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors of the economy, 2020 research shows nonprofits held their position as the third largest employer in the U.S. economy. Between 2007 and 2017, U.S. nonprofit jobs grew by 18.6%, three times faster than for-profit sectors in the same period. Between 2011 and 2030, the number of people donating money to NGOs around the world is expected to double to 2.5 billion. That will likely lead to similar growth in NGO job opportunities.

These numbers bode well for people who want a career in the nonprofit world. For those already working in the governmental, private or nonprofit sector, this growth also can translate into greater opportunities for promotions or higher positions within other organizations.

Kroc school graduates advancing their peace and justice careers

Understandably, graduate employment by type of organization matches the growth of opportunities. About half our graduates surveyed report working in nonprofit organizations. Other frequent job placements are with for-profit organizations, government agencies, and schools/universities. Some graduates are employed in consulting agencies, international organizations, religious institutions, and the military, among others.

The largest employment sectors in which alumni respondents work are conflict resolution, human rights, community organization, and education. A significant number of our graduates also work in humanitarian assistance, public policy, public health, environmental justice and international development. This is by no means an exhaustive list of where or how our alumni are making an impact, but rather is a snapshot of the myriad possibilities an individual can take to advance their career with a master’s degree from the Kroc School.

Job Titles of Kroc School Graduates

Our alumni leverage the skills they gained through the MA in Peace and Justice in positions that range from front-line roles in grassroots organizations to executive leadership in corporate social responsibility departments. While some of our alumni are running their own organizations, others are employed with some of the most influential modern peacebuilding organizations.

In all cases, our alumni excel due to their ability to analyze the root causes of violence and injustice and apply impactful peacebuilding strategies to address them.

Employers of Kroc School Graduates:

The impact of one former peace and justice student

When John Patterson received his MA in Peace and Justice from the Kroc School in 2013, he could hardly guess what the future held. He had already established a history of service during seven years in the United States Navy. After leaving the Kroc School, he worked with the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. His focus at the Center was private security governance. He also worked with Edify , a non-governmental organization promoting access to education globally.

For the past eight years, he has worked with USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). He most recently served as the Regional Advisor for Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. In that role, he was responsible for programming in the Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Israel, and the West Bank/ Gaza. Under his leadership, USAID continues to meet critical humanitarian needs in Ukraine experienced as a result of the ongoing conflict. They also provide disaster risk reduction programming through these regions, ensuring that communities are better prepared for any kind of potential disaster.

Prior to that, as Deputy Team Leader for the Venezuela Regional Crisis Response Team, he helped to manage the U.S. aid response to the crisis in Venezuela. According to the U.S. State Department, more than 9 million Venezuelans are at risk of starvation, and more than 11 million were displaced by force. For his leadership in the response to this crisis, he was recently honored with the Author E. Hughes Career Achievement Award by the Kroc School.

This is just one story. We have more than 350 changemakers working in nearly 100 countries around the world.

How USD's Kroc School amplified your intention to bring about peace

If you want a career in peacebuilding, the Kroc School is an excellent choice to help you advance on your journey. The University of San Diego established the Kroc School in 2007 as the first stand-alone school of peace studies in the United States. Our MA in Peace and Justice is the Kroc School’s flagship program, and will prepare you for a wide variety of careers where you can pursue your passion to confront humanity’s urgent challenges.

It all starts with the diverse individuals we attract to this top-ranked program. Recognizing that a rich combination of experiences and viewpoints is invaluable for fostering an innovative, inclusive mindset, the Kroc School strives to cultivate a global perspective by bringing students, professors, and peacebuilders to our school from all over the world.

Our engaging courses combine theory and practice — we prioritize hands-on experience because we recognize that some insights and skills can only be acquired through action. And, as practitioners of peace themselves, our faculty members draw from firsthand experience when they speak to the most effective approaches for shaping more peaceful and just societies.

Furthermore, our Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ) is a partnership between the Kroc School and changemakers around the globe. It serves as a bridge between classroom learning and active practice. The Kroc IPJ co-creates learning with peacemakers – learning that is deeply grounded in their lived experience. The learning process is made rigorous by the institute’s place within a university ecosystem and has immediate, practical applications for those working to end cycles of violence. The Kroc IPJ’s global partners, fellows, and scholars-in-residence permeate Kroc School students’ learning experience, opening doors to education and collaboration with those carrying out peacebuilding and social innovation at the highest levels. Additionally, fellowships with the Kroc IPJ invite students to co-create knowledge and practice peacebuilding alongside program officers and peacemakers around the world.

Our global alumni network frequently reports that the innovative approach in our curriculum is enabling them to lead successful and fulfilling careers in peace and justice

Experiential learning

There’s much more to our approach to experiential learning than what occurs within the walls of our state-of-the-art classrooms. Specifically, the Kroc School offers fieldbased courses designed for students to directly apply classroom knowledge in locations such as Mexico, Colombia, and Rwanda. The courses include opportunities to learn through immersion in post-conflict areas, dive into refugee and forced displacement issues, interact with local peace practitioners, and understand on a deeper level the mechanisms that are leading to peaceful progress.

In addition, every MA in Peace and Justice student participates in a 250-hour internship. An internship preparation seminar prepares students to identify potential opportunities and secure their own placements in line with their career goals. In addition to the field study and internships, students create their own professional portfolio, which enables graduates to showcase their real-world experience and tangible evidence of their peacebuilding knowledge and accomplishments.

Students who have an idea in mind for how to address a specific social issue can receive mentorship, access to resources, and guidance to turn that idea into a sustainable business solution through the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge . Through this experience, students have the opportunity to pitch their social venture to a group of experts, and can also earn up to $24,000 in seed funding to bring their idea to life.

For students who are invited to become more professionally engaged in the peacebuilding community, The Kroc School offers a limited number of student opportunity grants to help when associated costs have become a barrier to participation. Examples of such opportunities might include presenting a paper at an academic or professional conference or traveling to work with one of the school’s institutes on a special field project.

Finally, we offer a number of fellowships and assistantships that provide work experience through helping faculty and staff with research and projects. More information on these opportunities can be found in the “Fellowships, Assistantships and Financial Aid” section on the following pages or on our website .

What you will learn

The MA in Peace and Justice is offered as a full-time 21-month or part-time program. In addition to core topics such as conflict resolution, human rights, and international systems, the curriculum incorporates field-based courses and an internship placement for practice-based learning.

For students looking to deepen their knowledge of law and policy while gaining a unique understanding of the historical, institutional and cultural factors that drive modern conflict, injustice, oppression, and poverty, the Kroc School partners with the University of San Diego’s School of Law to offer a JD/MA Dual Degree in Law and Peace and Justice program.

This concurrent degree option is an excellent fit for students who:

• Are interested in issues of immigration, human rights, or mediation
• Plan to advise a global clientele
• Wish to take a lawyer’s route to influence policy
• Seek to tackle broader questions of social justice using both law and policy frameworks

For all three MAPJ options – full-time, part-time, and Dual Degree – the basics of peace and justice studies are conveyed through three units of Foundations of Peace, Justice and Social Change plus a minimum of six units in both core courses and skills and methods courses. Students can also follow their personal interests in 20 units of electives. Finally, in addition to the experiential learning which permeates the entire program, students acquire practical experience through three units of field-based coursework and a 250-hour internship.

The Core courses include Peace and Conflict Analysis, International Justice and Human Rights, and Environmental Peace and Justice. All three of these courses build upon the Foundations of Peace, Justice and Social Change course, which introduces students to a series of big ideas for making the world more peaceful and just. For example, Peace and Conflict Analysis goes beyond the foundational theories, inviting students to examine the origins and processes of social conflict and violence. Whereas the Foundations course covers a spectrum of ideas and practices, and how they fit together, this course goes into greater depth, specifically discussing the roles of culture, identity, power, relational dynamics, and social structures.

The Skills and Methods courses include courses such as Human Rights Advocacy; Program Design, Monitoring & Evaluation; Leadership & Organizations; Mediation; and Negotiations. These courses develop skills that are useful across different peace and justice career paths. For example, in Human Rights Advocacy, students examine the actors and organizations conducting modern-day human rights advocacy and the techniques central to their work, including fact-finding, monitoring, report writing, and media work. The course provides a balance of practical skill development (e.g., interviewing, press release writing) and critical-reflective examination of the ethical and strategic dilemmas faced by human rights advocates today.

The Program Design, Monitoring & Evaluation course starts by giving students a solid understanding of the evolution of thinking and practice among key development and peacebuilding actors. From there, students not only develop an understanding of best practices in project design and management but also learn the skills and tools necessary to effectively monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of their projects.

The electives provide opportunities for MA in Peace and Justice students to take courses in areas of interest within the larger Kroc School, and in other schools at the University of San Diego. There are electives designed around timely topics, such as courses that focus on protest movements, or media and nationalism, as well as courses in which vital skills such as fundraising and grant writing can be developed. Beyond these, MA in Peace and Justice students can take courses aligned with the MA in Social Innovation program, which focuses on preparing students to launch and grow their own social ventures or lead social impact initiatives within organizations. MA in Peace and Justice students can also take courses aligned with the MS in Conflict Management and Resolution program, which prepares students to foster creative and effective approaches to navigate intrasocietal conflicts at the individual, workplace, community, national and international levels.

Internships

Our students have completed internships in a wide variety of organizations around the world. For example, students interested in law have sought out opportunities with legal groups like the California Innocence Project and the Casa Cornelia Law Center. Future research professionals have found rewarding internships with groups like the Center for American Progress, and those interested in domestic refugee services or international relief and development have gained experience with groups like the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

While we have a network of peace and justice organizations where students have completed internships in the past, students can also pursue an opportunity with any peace and justice-related organization that interests them. With guidance from their advisor, students decide what kind of experience will best help them to prepare for a rewarding career in peacebuilding.

Fellowships, assistantships, and financial aid

We offer a number of ways to help students meet the financial requirements of graduate school. Incoming graduate students can apply for Kroc Practice Fellowships, which embed a student as a team member with the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, supporting initiatives related to cross-border peacebuilding; reducing urban violence; and women, peace, and security. Kroc Practice Fellowships are paid positions that come with their own merit scholarship applied to tuition.

Graduate assistantships provide tuition support and valuable experience working with faculty. Students work for 40 hours each semester and provide support related to research and pedagogical innovations.

The Kroc School also offers a number of scholarships and tuition discounts. Members of the clergy receive a 50% tuition discount. Returning Peace Corps Volunteers can receive a Coverdell Fellowship, which entitles them to a 50% tuition discount, waived application fee, and waives 6 units of coursework.

Furthermore, full-time Americorps Alumni and staff, administrators, and students from any of the designated Ashoka U Changemaker Campuses are eligible for a 25% tuition discount to all Kroc School graduate programs. Part-time Americorps Alumni are eligible for a discount that matches their Segal Award.

Additionally, all students are considered for merit-based scholarships. Finally, all incoming students are eligible to complete a universal application for a number of private scholarships.

In addition to aid specific to the Kroc School, students may also apply for the USD Graduate Grant award from the University of San Diego. The grant is a need-based scholarship awarded after a student is admitted.

More than 80% of our students receive some form of scholarship, discount or aid.

Make a positive impact with the kroc school's master's in peace and justice

Program cost and admissions requirements.

Tuition for all Kroc School degrees is $1,200 per unit. Students complete a MA in Peace and Justice with a minimum of 39 units. The estimated cost of tuition and fees for the entire program, before discounts or scholarships are applied, is roughly $48,000. Full-time students typically carry 9-10 units per semester — a combination of required and elective courses covering skills and methods classes and field-based experience. Part-time students will carry 3-6 units. The MA can be finished in as little as two years.

The admissions deadline is mid-January each year. The application package includes an official undergraduate transcript, resume, two letters of recommendation, and four short essays. All students from countries with non-English instruction must take an English language proficiency test.

The minimum grade point average is 3.00 on a 4.00 scale for undergraduate coursework. There are no coursework or experience requirements and no standardized admission test is needed. For firsttime graduate students, our blog offers advice on completing your application to graduate school.

Become a force for positive change with a master's in peace and justice

Building peaceful and inclusive societies does not happen overnight. It takes the commitment of dedicated peace and justice advocates to ensure equal access to justice and significantly reduce the incident and impact of violent conflict. From rural issues in developing countries to addressing urban conflicts, at the Kroc School you can learn the tools and gain the experience to help you effect lasting, positive change.

If you would like to learn more about the Peace and Justice program, you have a few options:

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Justice and peace go hand in hand – you can't have one without the other

Tensions between peacemakers and champions of justice are inevitable in societies riven by conflict, but resolving these differences benefits all

I f ending a conflict means offering aggressors positions in the resulting political settlement and impunity for their crimes, is the compromise acceptable? Or should full accountability and criminal procedures for aggressors be non-negotiable – even if it means that the violence and killing are prolonged? Such questions have served to create tensions between peacemakers and justice practitioners .

One thing is clear: separating peacebuilding from the promotion of justice undermines both. As Louise Arbour, former president and CEO of International Crisis Group, has pointed out , peace and justice are interdependent. The real challenge is how to reconcile the inevitable tensions between them.

The 16th sustainable development goal refers to “peaceful and inclusive societies”, “access to justice for all” and “effective, accountable and inclusive institutions”. This is welcome, but innovation will be needed to advance peace and justice as complementary objectives.

The scale and complexity of the challenges facing societies affected by conflict means narrow approaches that prioritise one over the other will miss the mark . We need to find creative ways of integrating efforts to prevent conflict withthe promotion of human rights, justice and the rule of law.

Too often, justice is taken to mean improving and implementing laws. As a result, actions tend to focus on increasing the capacity of law institutions, such as the police and courts, to improve access to justice.

Access to a system that helps to manage disputes between people is important – but it is only part of what’s needed for peace. “Access” is no guarantee of the quality or fairness of a justice system, while equal access to the law is very different from equality before it.

But while the fairness of justice systems, formal or informal, should remain a common preoccupation, we also need to tackle the much larger question of how to build more just societies. Justice is not something that is merely dispensed through courts and the police. Instead, it is experienced either positively or negatively through the quality of opportunities, relationships, transactions and behaviours right across society.

To improve people’s experiences of justice, a much wider selection of actors – not just those within the criminal justice chain – must be involved. We know that poverty, insecurity and injustice are man-made consequences of unfair policies and practices. We know that states can fail because, among other things, their policies exclude people from decision-making and access to resources – and this often fuels insecurity and violence.

We also know that poorly conceived economic investment can contribute to patterns of horizontal inequality , environmental degradation and bad governance – all of which make conflict more likely. So this reality needs to be changed. The fundamental question centres on power, and ensuring it is “not used cynically or to dominate, but responsibly, knowing that generosity and beneficence builds trust,” as the economist Jeffrey Sachs has written.

In some contexts, justice institutions actively uphold laws, power structures and norms that entrench inequality and threaten peace. We need to think of justice as the outcome of a contest over resources and power. These contests occur everywhere – within and beyond the justice sector – and their outcomes can be fair and conducive to peace, or they can just as easily be the opposite.

Contests around unequal access to services, jobs, land and resources, or around tax evasion or environmental degradation, can be critical justice issues, the outcomes of which have a significant bearing on peace and development . It is the task of both peacebuilders and justice experts to facilitate contests that are peaceful, without diminishing the fairness of the outcomes.

To highlight these issues, Saferworld , in partnership with the Knowledge Platform on Security & Rule of Law , is launching a series of articles to discuss the role of diverse actors in crafting complementary approaches to advancing peace and justice. How can we maximise the potential that the rule of law has to offer? How can fairer environmental, social, economic, or housing policies address injustices and contribute to peace and development? How can architecture and the use of space promote or reduce violent behaviours? How do gender roles reinforce injustices that contribute to violence? And why is injustice such a powerful motivator of violent behaviour?

Inadequately addressing people’s everyday experiences of injustice is morally wrong as well as a driver of underdevelopment and violence. People do not live single-issue lives where justice is confined to the legal field. By pooling creative ideas on how to work more broadly on justice, we aim to catalyse action and learning on how to advance the collective interest and make progress towards a more just peace.

• Will Bennett and Thomas Wheeler are conflict and security advisers at Saferworld
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Promotion of justice, peace and integrity of creation: Theological-Ecclesiological perspective

Why should we work for justice, peace and integrity of creation? Is this really an integral dimension of our being Christian and being religious?

Why should we work for justice, peace and integrity of creation? Is this really an integral dimension of our being Christian and being religious? What follows is a preliminary attempt to respond to this question from a theological and ecclesiological perspective. We will also look at this from the perspective of religious life.

Biblico-Theological Perspective

According to the book of Genesis, God is the source and creator of everything. Human beings – men and women – are created in the image and likeness of God. From this flows the equal dignity of all and their inalienable rights.

This is also the basis of the social and relational nature of human beings. All creation – especially human beings –reflects God’s Trinitarian nature as communion. We are all interconnected. Unity in diversity. We are called to live in friendship and loving communion with God, with our fellow human beings and with creation. We have the obligation to care for others. In Laudato Si, Pope Francis affirms the Trinitarian basis for universal communion:

“The human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationship, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with all creatures. In this way, they make their own that Trinitarian dynamism which God imprinted in them when they were created. Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity” (LS 240)

Since God is the creator of all things, then God is the owner of everything. This is the basis for the universal destination of all goods. This means that no one can claim absolute ownership of anything. Everything that God created (the natural resources, the bounty of nature, the earth, the seas, the rivers, the forest, the air, etc.) is meant for the good of all and for all generations to come.

Human beings – endowed with intelligence and free will – share in God’s creative nature. We are called to be co-creators in our own way. As stewards of God’s creation, we are also called to care for the earth – our common home – to nurture and develop it as well as preserve its integrity. We are called to live in harmony with nature and with all living creatures. Thus, this is God’s will for all: universal communion. Pope Francis in Laudato Si affirms this and shows the consequences when this is not followed:

“Human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor and with the earth itself… These three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. This in turn distorted the mandate to “have dominion” over the earth. As a result, the originally harmonious relationship between human beings and nature became conflictual (cf. Gen 3:17-19)… Sin is manifest in all its destructive power in wars, the various forms of violence and abuse, the abandonment of the most vulnerable and attacks of nature. (LS 66)”

Thus, sin is the rupture of communion. It is the curvature of the self upon self instead of living in love with God, others and creation. This results in alienation from God, from others and from creation. Instead of being in communion with God there is turning away from God and the worship of idols – the idolatry of wealth and power, and even making oneself or another human being as god. Instead of loving communion with others there is separation, division and enmity. The other becomes a stranger, an enemy, an object of exploitation and destruction. One becomes blind and deaf to the suffering and cry of others. Instead of recognizing God as creator and owner of all things and acting as stewards there is the claim of absolute ownership, the drive to monopolize the wealth and resources of the earth, depriving others of their share of these resources. Thus, what results is inequality, injustice and violence. This also leads to the disregard for nature and destruction of our common home. Injustice, violence and the ecological destruction is therefore the manifestation of sin which is the rupture of communion and the failure to love.

The commandments given to Moses were meant to express love for God and for one another. The violation of these commandments are linked to idolatry, violence, immorality, injustice and oppression. This what the prophets in the Old Testament denounced. These are manifestations of sin and evil which is present within each one and in society. The prophets called for conversion. They also announced the coming of the reign of God, a new world liberated from the reign of sin and evil, where justice and peace prevail, where all will live in harmony and communion with God, with one another and with creation. This was the messianic mission that Christ came to fulfill through his incarnation, death and resurrection. The reign of God, the total victory over sin and evil, the fullness of universal communion will find its completion in the end time – the Parousia. This is what salvation is all about. Meanwhile, this mission is continued by Christ’s community of disciples, the Church, that waits in hope for Christ’s coming in glory.

Ecclesiological Perspective

The Church, according to Vatican II, is Communion and People of God that participate in Christ’s messianic mission. This is emphasized in Lumen Gentium – the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. All those who comprise the Church are called in live in communion with God and with one another – at the local and the universal level. This communion is also to be experienced in the family and among families. As community of faith, hope and love there is equality in dignity and unity in diversity in the Church. The clergy are at not above the lay-faithful but are at their service and have equal dignity with them although they may have different roles.

Ecclesial communion reflects Trinitarian communion. The Church is the people made one by the unity of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The Church is the sacrament of universal communion – the union between God and humanity – and this communion is ultimate goal of the Church’s mission.

By virtue of their baptism, all are called to actively participate in the three-fold mission: the priestly, prophetic and kingly/servant mission.

• The priestly mission includes active participation in the liturgy and a life of holiness and self-sacrifice.
• The prophetic mission involves proclaiming the Good News and witnessing. It is a mission of evangelization. It includes denouncing all manifestation of sin and evil – selfishness, idolatry, injustice, violence, oppression, inequality, violation of human rights, environmental destruction, etc. It also means announcing the message of salvation and liberation, of justice and peace. This includes the call to conversion and social transformation.
• The kingly/servant mission involves the struggle against sin and evil within oneself and in society. The mission of service includes action for justice, peace and integrity of creation. This means working social transformation and the realization of the reign of God in our midst.

The Mission of the Church as prophet and as Servant provide the basis for the Church’s involvement in the temporal affairs – social, economic, political, cultural. This is highlighted on in Gaudium et Spes. The social teachings of the Church are the concrete manifestation of the Church’s prophetic and servant mission. The Church’s role cannot be relegated in the private sphere. The Church has an active role in the building of a better world. She cannot remain in the sidelines.

The Church is called to be the Church of the Poor and the Church for the Poor. It is the Church that embraces evangelical poverty, whose members follow the example of Christ by making an option for the poor and living a simple lifestyle. It is the Church that hears the cry of the poor, where the poor are welcomed and given priority, where the poor are not just beneficiaries but active participants in the work for justice, peace, liberation and integral development.

The Role of Religious

We cannot find explicit statements on the involvement of religious in the promotion of justice, peace and integrity of creation in the Vatican II documents. Unlike the previous chapters in Lumen Gentium (2-5), there is no explicit reference in Chapter 6 (On Religious) to the three-fold priestly, prophetic and kingly/servant mission although there is an affirmation that religious life is meant to be a sign of Christ in the world and that in the life of religious various aspects of Christ’s life is seen or replicated – Christ in prayer and contemplation in the mountain, Christ proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God, Christ healing the sick and feeding the hungry multitude. In a separate document on the adaptation and renewal of religious life – Perfectae Caritatis — there is a section (15) that highlights communion in community but there is no explicit reference to religious participating in Christ’s prophetic, priestly and kingly/servant mission. However, one of the principles of renewal laid down in the decree is “sharing in the life of the Church adopting and implementing the Church’s undertaking – biblical, dogmatic, pastoral, ecumenical, missionary and social.”

Although there are religious orders that have not explicitly adopted the framework of three-fold mission to describe their life and mission, in reality many religious communities strive to live as prophetic communities that carry out Christ’s and the Church’s prophetic mission (evangelization, catechesis, denunciation), praying/ worshipping communities (priestly) and servant communities (kingly) dedicated to works of charity, justice, peace, etc. The charisms of various institutes of consecrated life emphasize one of the three-fold missions but do not exclude others. During the post-conciliar period, religious orders implemented the decree on the renewal of religious life. The revised constitutions of the religious orders reflect the vision and orientation of Vatican II while remaining faithful to their charism. Many adopted the ecclesiological framework promoted by the council and have integrated the promotion of justice, peace and integrity of creation in their post-conciliar documents.

In his apostolic exhortation Redemptionis Donum, St. John Paul II explicitly affirmed the participation of religious in the Church’s three-fold mission:

“Your vocation, dear brothers and sisters, has led you to religious profession, whereby you have been consecrated to God through the ministry of the Church, and have been at the same time incorporated into your religious family. Hence, the Church thinks of you, above all, as persons who are consecrated: consecrated to God in Jesus Christ as His exclusive possession. This consecration determines your place in the vast community of the Church, the People of God. And at the same time this consecration introduces into the universal mission of this people a special source of spiritual and supernatural energy: a particular style of life, witness and apostolate, in fidelity to the mission of your institute and to its identity and spiritual heritage. The universal mission of the People of God is rooted in the messianic mission of Christ Himself-Prophet, Priest and King- a mission in which all share in different ways. The form of sharing proper to “consecrated” persons corresponds to your manner of being rooted in Christ. The depth and power of this being rooted in Christ is decided precisely by religious profession.” (RD 7)

This text affirms that religious institutes and communities are located within the vast community of the Church which is the People of God through their consecration. They also in their own way take part in the universal mission of the People of God that share in Christ’s messianic mission as prophet, king and priest. Thus, they can rightly be called prophetic, priestly and kingly/servant communities. Communion and participation in mission that characterizes religious life therefore should be understood in this way. This can prevent a one-dimensional view of religious life. Religious life is not just a matter of living the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience. It is also a life lived in communion with God, with the universal and local Church and with one another in community. In Vita Consecrata John Paul II affirms that communion that is lived in religious life leads to mission: “The life of communion in fact becomes a sign for all the world and a compelling force that leads people to faith in Christ … In this way communion leads to mission, and itself becomes mission; indeed, communion begets communion: in essence it is a communion that is missionary. (VC 46)”

Thus, religious life is also a sharing in the Church’s three-fold mission according to the institute’s charism. Religious communities are prophetic, evangelizing and witnessing communities. At the same time, they are praying, worshipping, celebrating communities. Their life of contemplation and prayer moves them to loving service in whatever form it may take – acts of charity, works of mercy, action for justice, peace and integrity of creation. All these dimensions must be present in religious life. It is a matter of emphasis and specialization according to an institute’s charism. There is, however, a challenge on how these can be concretely be expressed in changing situations.

Through the centuries, religious have exercised a prophetic role within the Church through not just by being at the forefront of evangelization, Christian education but also by their witness of life and by acting as conscience in the Church and society. St. Francis – the poor man of Assisi – is an exemplar especially at a time when the Church – identified with the hierarchy – was regarded as a powerful and wealthy institution. In the age of colonial expansion, religious missionaries who accompanied the conquistadores acted as conscience as they denounced their abuses and even questioned the right to colonize and subjugate these lands. Foremost among these were Bartolome de Las Casas and Francisco de la Victoria. Colonization was not really a matter of the sword and the cross acting together – in many instances it was also the sword versus the cross. However, there was no explicit mention of the prophetic mission in the ecclesiastical documents or constitutions of the religious orders. Even in the Vatican II documents this is absent.

In the post-conciliar period, the explicit association of the prophetic mission and the religious life appeared. The Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes affirms this in the document “Human Promotion and Religious Life”: Evangelization, for the Church, means bringing the Good News into all strata of humanity and through it transforming humanity itself from within: its criteria of discernment, its determinant values, its sources of inspiration, its designs for living, opening them up to a total vision of humanity. To accomplish this mission, the Church must search out the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel, thus responding to persistent human questions. Religious are called to give singular witness to this prophetic dimension. The continuous religious present to their contemporaries in such a way as to remind everyone that the building of the secular city must be founded on the Lord and have him as its goal.”

This document associates the work of evangelization with the prophetic dimension which religious are to participate by bringing the Good News and become living witnesses of the gospel. This also involves reading and interpreting the signs of the times.

In Vita Consecrata, St. John Paul II affirms the view of community life as well the evangelical counsels in terms of prophetic witness:

“In our world, where it often seems that the signs of God’s presence have been lost from sight, a convincing prophetic witness on the part of consecrated persons is increasingly necessary. In the first place this should entail the affirmation of the primacy of God and of eternal life as evidenced in the following and imitation of the chaste, poor and obedient Christ, who was completely consecrated to the glory of God and to the love of his brethren. The fraternal life is itself prophetic in a society which, sometimes without realizing it, has a profound yearning for a brotherhood which knows no borders. Consecrated persons are being asked to bear witness everywhere with the boldness of a prophet who is unafraid of risking even his life.”

This view is part of St. John Paul II’s broader understanding of the prophetic dimension of religious life which includes the dialectic of annunciation and denunciation:

“In the history of the Church, alongside other Christians, there have been men and women consecrated to God who, through a special gift of the Holy Spirit, have carried out a genuinely prophetic ministry, speaking in the name of God to all, even to the Pastors of the Church. True prophecy is born of God, from friendship with him, from attentive listening to his word in the different circumstances of history. Prophets feel in their hearts a burning desire for the holiness of God and, having heard his word in the dialogue of prayer, they proclaim that word with their lives, with their lips and with their actions, becoming people who speak for God against evil and sin. Prophetic witness requires the constant and passionate search for God’s will, for self-giving, for unfailing communion in the Church, for the practice of spiritual discernment and love of the truth. It is also expressed through the denunciation of all that is contrary to the divine will and through the exploration of new ways to apply the Gospel in history, in expectation of the coming of God’s Kingdom. (VC 84)”

Pope Francis also has a broader understanding of what it means for religious to be prophetic in his Apostolic Letter for the Year of Consecrated Life:

“I am counting on you “to wake up the world”, since the distinctive sign of consecrated life is prophecy. As I told the Superiors General: “Radical evangelical living is not only for religious: it is demanded of everyone. But religious follow the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way.” This is the priority that is needed right now: “to be prophets who witness to how Jesus lived on this earth… a religious must never abandon prophecy”. Prophets receive from God the ability to scrutinize the times in which they live and to interpret events: they are like sentinels who keep watch in the night and sense the coming of the dawn (cf. Is 21:11-12). Prophets know God and they know the men and women who are their brothers and sisters. They are able to discern and denounce the evil of sin and injustice. Because they are free, they are beholden to no one but God, and they have no interest other than God. Prophets tend to be on the side of the poor and the powerless, for they know that God himself is on their side.”

Thus, for religious there are three basic foundation for promoting justice, peace and integrity of creation:

• As human beings created by God we have the obligation to express our loving communion with God, with our fellow human beings and the rest of creation. This requires living in harmony and peace with one another and treating each other justly. This also requires caring for our common home. Aware that injustice, violence and the destruction of the environment are the manifestation of sin and selfishness which results from rupture of communion, we have the task of promoting communion and working for peace and justice as well as addressing the ecological crisis.
• As baptized Christians and members of the Church, we are called to live in communion and participate in the three-fold mission of Christ: the priestly, prophetic and servant mission. This is a mission of promoting communion not only within the Church but outside the boundaries of the Church – with other peoples, denominations and religious traditions as well as with creation. The prophetic mission is a mission of evangelization – proclaiming the Good News of salvation, of justice and of peace and of the integrity of creation. The prophetic mission also includes denouncing all manifestation of sin and evil – the injustices, inequality, violence and the destruction of our common home. The servant mission calls for action on behalf of justice, peace and integrity of creation.
• As part of humanity and the Church, religious have consecrated their whole life to live in communion with God, with others and with the rest of creation. The promotion of justice, peace and integrity of creation is an integral part of their life and mission.

Father Amado Picardal is a Filipino Redemptorist priest who holds a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He has lived a life of solitude as a hermit after an active life as missionary, professor, promoter of Basic Ecclesial Communities, and peace and human rights advocate. He is currently executive co-secretary of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in Rome.

© Copyright LiCAS.news. All rights reserved. Republication of this article without express permission from LiCAS.news is strictly prohibited. For republication rights, please contact us at: [email protected]

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The Promotion of Justice Essay

Justice is a broad concept that basically refers to acts of fairness as a way of creating order of philosophies within a society. “It is basically a concept of moral rightness that is based on ethics, natural law, fairness or equity, religion and rationality along with the provision of punishment for the breach of such said ethics” (Rawls & Kelly, 2001, p. 4).

The perceptions of justice are vast and they explain the changing theological, philosophical and legal reflections and debates over time. The understandings of justice are influenced by factors such as culture which limit the unitary description of justice (Lane, 1993).

This means that what appears just in one society may be perceived as unjust in another. Ideally, different authors and theorists have developed theories that seek to explain the concept of justice. The different variations and theories of justice include: utilitarian justice, retributive justice, distributive justice, restorative and societal justice.

The actual question in justice is whether the consideration to be made is first of all for the overall justice of the society or the individual (Rawls & Kelly, 2001). It is therefore necessary for the government to be involved in the promotion of justice based on the need for objectivity, fairness and clear interpretation and implementation of law.

The Role of the Government in Promoting Justice

The promotion of justice needs to be based on objectivity and fairness (Rawls & Kelly, 2001). The government is elected by the people for their representation. This means that the people expect the government to represent their interests objectively.

The functions of the government of promoting justice are instituted through various organs and bodies set by the government but through the appointment of independent individuals to run them. These bodies form the judicial system which has the mandate of interpreting the law as well as other systems that deal with matters of equity.

This is so crucial especially due to the diverse theories of justice. The government ensures that these judicial systems are accorded independence to ensure justice while the bodies are set to handle different matters with the ability of appealing to such judgments and to file a suit against the state (Lane, 1993).

The general presumption is that transparency is necessary with checks and balance in place. The justification for the role of the government in the promotion of justice is based on the objectivity and nature of society’s interactions for which law is set up. The fact that justice is about fairness would mean the application of the majority rule.

The government is thus necessary because it is the only institution that can ensure the protection of the minority since it is bound by the law through the protection of the constitutional rights and freedoms of all individuals (Lane, 1993).

The governmental function of governance and implementation of policies is just a part of promotion of justice. The other perspective in this matter is that the government is instituted for the service of all people and this includes the mandate of ensuring that justice is promoted.

The maintenance of justice is very necessary despite the changes in the society. The fact that the government changes with time means that it is the best for the promotion of justice at the time. The other justification for the responsibility of the government in the promotion of justice is that people bestow confidence on the government through elections.

Further, international bodies expect the governments to set goals of development which are necessary for governments to promote justice in the governance and the implementation of policies. The ability of the government to be scrutinized enables it to be objective and make the best decisions. Therefore, justice can be adequately promoted. It is worth noting that the government of any nation has a duty of funding the judicial institutions.

Reference List

Lane, Giles. 1993. Government, Justice and Contempt . New York: University Press of America.

Rawls, John and Kelly, Erin. 2001. Justice as Fairness: a restatement . Harvard: Harvard University Press.

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IvyPanda. (2018, May 14). The Promotion of Justice. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-promotion-of-justice/

"The Promotion of Justice." IvyPanda , 14 May 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-promotion-of-justice/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Promotion of Justice'. 14 May.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Promotion of Justice." May 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-promotion-of-justice/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Promotion of Justice." May 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-promotion-of-justice/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Promotion of Justice." May 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-promotion-of-justice/.

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UNICEF Data : Monitoring the situation of children and women

GOAL 16: PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Goal 16 aims to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Peace, stability, human rights and effective governance, based on the rule of law, are central to the realization of child rights, and a prerequisite for sustainable development. Governments can offer the first line of protection: birth registration systems give children claim to vital social services, equitable justice systems and other forms of child protection.

No child should ever be exposed to violence. Yet, globally, millions of children continue to face violence in their homes, schools, communities and online. Violence takes many forms: emotional, physical and sexual. Witnessing or experiencing violence erodes a child’s health, well-being and potential.

UNICEF’s contribution towards reaching this goal centres on ending the multiple kinds of violence children face around the world by supporting governments to build stronger child protection systems and challenging existing norms related to violence. UNICEF is custodian for global monitoring of two indicators that measure progress towards Goal 16: Indicator 16.2.1 Proportion of children aged 1–17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month; and Indicator 16.2.3 Proportion of young women and men aged 18–29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18. UNICEF is also co-custodian for global monitoring of Indicator 16.9.1 Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority by age.

Child-related SDG indicators

Target 16.1 significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere, number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by sex and age.

• Indicator definition
• Computation method
• Comments & limitations

Violent death is widely seen at the international and national levels as the most extreme form of violent crime and gives insight into the levels of security in a given country. Monitoring intentional homicides is necessary to better assess their causes, drivers and consequences and, in the longer term, to develop effective preventive measures.

In several countries, two separate sets of data on intentional homicide are produced, respectively, from criminal justice and public health/civil registration systems. When they exist, figures from both data sources are reported. When data are not available from either criminal justice or from public health/civil registration, modelled estimates are used.

The indicator is defined as the total count of victims of intentional homicide divided by the total population, expressed per 100,000 population.

As per the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS), intentional homicide is defined as the unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury.

Numerator: Number of victims of intentional homicide in a given year. Denominator: Resident population in the same year.

Producing accurate counts on the number and causes of death among children and adolescents is particularly difficult. Such deaths may not be systematically recorded by criminal justice or vital registration systems, or age disaggregated data may not be available. Data on victims are often compiled in broad age categories that do not allow for the calculation of specific statistics on children. Additionally, determining cause of death, particularly when victims are very young, can be challenging even in countries with advanced and well-functioning health and registration systems. Registration systems that are operating effectively compile vital statistics on the occurrence of births and deaths during a given period. These data are then combined with figures obtained through medical and police records resulting from the certification of causes of individual deaths and the investigation of criminal cases. However, in many countries, administrative data pertaining to intentional injuries and deaths are not systematically collected, may not be accessible or may not be adequately compiled across sources. Calculating reliable figures from these basic counts is often not possible due to weaknesses in data collection systems, such as incomplete coverage or misrepresentation of the events.

Conflict-related deaths per 100,000 population, by sex, age and cause

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development seeks to strengthen universal peace and commits to redouble efforts to resolve or prevent conflict. It recognizes that there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development. Counting deaths occurring in situations of armed conflict is therefore essential to the measurement of the Agenda, including and beyond its Goal 16.

This indicator measures the prevalence of armed conflicts and their impact in terms of loss of life. Together with the indicator 16.1.1 on intentional homicide, they measure violent deaths that occur in all countries of the world (intentional homicides) and in situations of armed conflict (conflict-related deaths).

This indicator is defined as the total count of conflict related deaths divided by the total population, expressed per 100,000 population.

Conflict is defined as armed conflict in reference to a terminology enshrined in international humanitarian law and applied to situations based on the assessment of the UN and other internationally mandated entities. Conflict-related deaths refer to direct and indirect deaths associated with armed conflict. These deaths may have been caused by (i) the use of weapons or (ii) other means and methods. Deaths caused by weapons include but are not limited to those inflicted by firearms, missiles, mines and bladed weapons. It may also include deaths resulting from aerial attacks and bombardments (e.g., of military bases, cities and villages), crossfire, explosive remnants of war, targeted killings or assassinations, and force protection incidents. Deaths caused by other means and methods may include deaths from torture or sexual and gender-based violence, intentional killing using starvation, depriving prisoners of access to health care or denying access to essential goods and services (e.g., an ambulance stopped at a checkpoint).

Indirect deaths are deaths resulting from a loss of access to essential goods and services (e.g., economic slowdown, shortages of medicines or reduced farming capacity that result in lack of access to adequate food, water, sanitation, health care and safe conditions of work) that are caused or aggravated by the situation of armed conflict.

By definition, these deaths should be separated from other violent deaths, which are, in principle, not connected to the situation of armed conflict (e.g., intentional and non-intentional homicides, self-defense, self-inflicted), but are still relevant to the implementation and measurement of SDG target 16.1.

Population refers to total resident population in a given situation of armed conflict included in the indicator, in a given year. Population data are derived from annual estimates produced by the UN Population Division.

Numerator: The total count of conflict- related deaths. Denominator: The total population, expressed per 100,000 population.

Discrepancies might exist between national definitions, international statistical and legal standards, coverage and quality of data, according to the mandate, methods and capacity of data providers.

In situations of armed conflict, a large share of deaths may not be reported. Often, normal registration systems are heavily affected by the presence of armed conflict. Additionally, actors on both sides of an armed conflict may have incentives for misreporting, deflating or inflating casualties. In most instances, the number of cases reported will depend on access to conflict zones, access to information, motivation and perseverance of both international and national actors, such as UN peace missions and other internationally mandated entities, national institutions (e.g., national statistical offices, national human rights institutions) and relevant civil society organizations.

Disaggregating data by characteristics of victims and by causes of death is particularly complex and may result in limited data availability for children.

TARGET 16.2 End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children

Percentage of children (aged 1-14 years) who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers.

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Violent discipline at home is the most common form of violence experienced by children. While teaching children self-control and acceptable behaviour is an integral part of child rearing in all cultures, many caregivers rely on the use of violent methods, both physical and psychological, to punish unwanted behaviours and encourage desired ones.

Regardless of the type, all forms are violations of children’s rights. While children of all ages are at risk, experiencing violent discipline at a young age can be particularly harmful, given the increased potential for physical injuries as well as children’s inability to understand the motivation behind the act or to adopt coping strategies to alleviate their distress.

Proportion of children aged 1 to 14 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression at home in the past month. The rationale for using a proxy indicator for SDG 16.2.1 is because comparable data are currently only available for a subset of children aged 1 to 14 years.

The following definitions come from the MICS programme, the principal source of data for this indicator:

Physical (or corporal) punishment is an action intended to cause physical pain or discomfort, but not injuries. Physical punishment is defined as shaking a child, hitting or slapping him/her on the hand/arm/leg, hitting him/her on the bottom or elsewhere on the body with a hard object, spanking or hitting him/her on the bottom with a bare hand, hitting or slapping him/her on the face, head or ears, and beating him/her over and over as hard as possible.

Psychological aggression refers to the action of shouting, yelling or screaming at a child, as well as calling a child offensive names, such as ‘dumb’ or ‘lazy’.

The term violent discipline encompasses any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression.

‘Past month’ typically refers to the 30 days prior to the interview/data collection (in other words, has the child experienced violent discipline at any point in the 30 days prior to data collection). ‘Caregiver’ refers to any adult household member with caregiving responsibilities for the child (not just the primary caregiver or the respondent to the questionnaire).

Numerator: Number of children aged 1 to 14 years who have experienced any physical punishment and/ or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month.

Denominator: Total number of children aged 1 to 14 years in the population.

In the third and fourth rounds of MICS, the standard indicator referred to the proportion of children aged 2 to 14 years who experienced any form of violent discipline (physical punishment and/or psychological aggression) within the past month. Beginning with the fifth round of MICS, the age group covered was expanded to capture children’s experiences with disciplinary practices between the ages of 1 and 14 years. Therefore, current data availability does not capture the full age range specified in the SDG indicator since data are not collected for adolescents aged 15 to 17 years. Further methodological work is needed to identify additional items on disciplinary practices relevant to older adolescents.

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Proportion of young women and men aged 18-29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18

Sexual violence is one of the most unsettling of children’s rights violations. As such, it is the subject of dedicated international legal instruments aimed at protecting children against its multiple forms. Acts of sexual violence, which often occur together and with other forms of violence, can range from direct physical contact to unwanted exposure to sexual language and images. Although children of every age are susceptible, adolescence is a period of pronounced vulnerability.

Although estimates can be found of the number of children who have experienced sexual violence, one of the biggest challenges in this field is underreporting, which stymies efforts to generate accurate statistics. In fact, most victims do not disclose experiences of childhood sexual abuse until adulthood, while many others (a number impossible to quantify) remain silent for their entire lives.

Proportion of young women and men aged 18 to 29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18. This indicator is always reported on separately for women and men.

Sexual violence is often used as an umbrella term to cover all types of sexual victimization.19 According to General Comment No. 13 on the CRC, sexual violence against children “comprises any sexual activities imposed by an adult on a child against which the child is entitled to protection by criminal law”.20 Sexual violence is operationally defined in the indicator as sexual intercourse or any other sexual acts that were forced, physically or in any other way. This indicator captures all experiences of sexual violence that occurred during childhood (i.e., prior to age 18) regardless of the legal age of consent stipulated in relevant national legislation.

Numerator: Number of young women and men aged 18 to 29 years who report having experienced any sexual violence by age 18 Denominator: Total number of young women and men aged 18 to 29 years in the population

The availability of comparable data remains a serious challenge in this area as many data collection efforts have relied on different study methodologies and designs, definitions of sexual violence, samples and questions to elicit information. Data on the experiences of boys are particularly sparse. A further challenge in this field is underreporting, especially when it comes to experiences of sexual violence among boys and men.

TARGET 16.9 By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration

Percentage of children under age 5 whose births are registered.

Birth registration is a first step towards safeguarding individual rights and providing every person with access to justice and social services. Thus, birth registration is not only a fundamental human right, but also key to ensuring the fulfilment of other rights.

Birth registration is an essential part of a functioning civil registration system that produces vital statistics, which are essential for sound government planning and effective use of resources. In this way, target 16.9 is linked to targets 17.18 and 17.19, both of which concern statistical capacity-building support to developing countries.

Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority.

Birth registration is defined as the official recording of the occurrence and characteristics of births in accordance with the legal requirements of a country.

Civil authorities/registrars are the officials authorized to register the occurrence of vital events, including births.

Numerator: Number of children under age 5 whose births are reported as being registered with the relevant national civil authorities.

Denominator: Total number of children under age 5 in the population.

Substantial differences can exist between CRVS coverage and birth registration levels as captured by household surveys. The differences are primarily because data from CRVS typically refer to the proportion of all births that have been registered (often within a specific time frame), whereas household surveys often report on the proportion of children under age 5 whose births are registered. The latter (the level of registration among children under 5) is specified in the SDG indicator.

Data from household surveys like MICS or DHS sometimes refer only to children with a birth certificate. UNICEF methodically notes this difference when publishing country-level estimates for global monitoring.

One of the most common pitfalls with questionnaire design involves respondents’ misunderstanding of the actual registration process. For example, respondents might be unaware of the specific authorities legally tasked with birth registration and might therefore misinterpret the act of notifying a church or village chief of a birth as formal registration. To address this ambiguity, household survey questionnaires are often customized to include reference to the specific national authority responsible for registration. Similarly, respondents might confuse a birth certificate with a health card or other document and thus inaccurately report children as registered. Despite attempts to resolve such issues, confusion about the process of birth registration might still exist and result in erroneous reporting.

To mitigate risks during the pandemic, governments must prioritize maintaining and adapting critical prevention and response services to protect children from violence and ensure their access to justice, as part of their public health response.  UNICEF has three key asks of governments towards Goal 16:

• Peaceful societies – to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse.
• Just societies – to ensure that every child is fully respected, protected and fulfilled.
• Inclusive societies – to engage all children in processes and decisions that affect them and society more broadly.

Learn more about  UNICEF’s key asks for implementing Goal 16

See more Sustainable Development Goals

ZERO HUNGER

GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

QUALITY EDUCATION

GENDER EQUALITY

CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY

DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

REDUCED INEQUALITIES

CLIMATE ACTION

PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

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Ending extreme poverty won’t be possible in a world where people aren’t afforded the same rights or treatment by the legal system because of their identity or socioeconomic background.

COVID-19 has laid bare the inequalities and injustices people face globally , and the collective response to the pandemic must be fair and inclusive of everyone in order to create systemic change. That means gender equality, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, disability rights, and economic justice must all be front and center.

In 2015, the international community pledged to achieve the United Nations’ Global Goals and end extreme poverty by 2030 by leaving no one behind. Without urgent action, it will become an even greater challenge to recover from the pandemic and ensure everyone can live without barriers to health, equity, education, and economic stability. 

Even before COVID-19, the world wasn’t on track to ensure people of all genders, races, sexual orientations, and abilities could reach their full potential. Marginalized communities are the most vulnerable in times of crisis and no group has gone unscathed. The pandemic has taken a tremendous toll on women; Black and Indigenous people and communities of color; LGBTQ+ people; people with disabilities; and people living in poverty.  

It’s still too soon to measure the full impact COVID-19 will have on society, but there is already an opportunity to come together and provide equity and justice for all in spite of the pandemic.

Here’s why world leaders, corporations, philanthropists, activists, and everyday Global Citizens must take action.

How Can We Build a World With Equity and Justice for All? 

The world must prioritize equity and justice in COVID-19 recovery plans to prevent leaving anyone behind in the fight to end extreme poverty. Organizations that advocate for global justice and promote human rights will require extra support, and the private sector — along with business leaders — will also need to commit to justice.

All people, regardless of their race, gender, sexual identity or orientation, and abilities must have access to justice and equal rights, which are key to building a sustainable world. The international community must come together to end all forms of violence and abuse, promote strong institutions, and inclusive leadership. 

3 Things You Should Know About Equity and Justice

• Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 5 billion people worldwide lacked access to justice, and nearly 1.5 billion people had an unresolved justice issue. The COVID-19 global response needs to be people-centered and fair to deliver more equitable and just outcomes for everyone and prevent undoing progress.
• People living in extreme poverty are especially at risk of crime and abuse. Without access to legal protections, they are more vulnerable to losing ownership of their property and land, exploitation (which can often result in violence), and experiencing long-term disadvantages.
• Marginalized groups and vulnerable communities — including women, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and people with disabilities — are disproportionately impacted by issues of equity and justice, largely due to poverty, discrimination, public prejudice, and lack of education and literacy. These barriers prevent them from participating fully in their societies and put them at risk of further marginalization.

How Does Equity and Justice Impact People Around the World?

We can’t create a more sustainable society without making sure that access to justice isn’t determined by someone’s identity or financial situation. 

Marginalized groups require more protection and support but often face persecution at higher rates and come across additional obstacles within the justice system.

Women are more likely to live in poverty and tend to encounter more barriers to justice. Many countries don’t enforce laws against gender-based violence and abuse, and women don’t always feel comfortable reporting incidents due to stigma and how these crimes are usually dealt with. The compounding impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are putting more women in positions where they don’t have the resources to seek the protection or defense that they need. 

Women are being pushed out of the workforce in record numbers due to taking on more caregiving responsibilities, and the virus has disproportionately hurt industries in which women are overrepresented. They’re are also experiencing increased domestic violence in what is being referred to as the “shadow pandemic” — more women are stuck at home with their abusers during lockdowns and domestic violence rates are increasing worldwide. In Mexico, for example, where femicide is on the rise, calls reporting domestic violence increased more than 30% in 2020. What’s more, harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation are expected to worsen. The pandemic put an additional 500,000 girls at risk of child marriage as families turned to the pratice as a way to alleviate financial burdens. 

LGBTQ+ people are also vulnerable to increased criminalization and abuse by law enforcement and are losing support from the organizations and initiatives that help them survive. The pandemic has threatened LGBTQ+ people’s livelihoods and access to health and social services at higher rates, further threatening their well-being and safety. Some countries have used COVID-19 as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people even more. The Hungarian government used the timing of the pandemic to introduce legislation that ends the legal recognition of transgender people in the country in May. Police officers in several countries are further targeting LGBTQ+ people under the guise of enforcing social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Meanwhile, in South Korea, LGBTQ+ people have been accused of spreading COVID-19.

For people living with disabilities, discrimination has long existed in the workplace, health systems, and daily life, but now unequal care and mistreatment is heightened . Of the 1 billion people in the world with a disability, 80% live in developing countries and are more likely to experience high rates of violence, neglect, and abuse. According to the UN, some countries are discriminating against people with disabilities when making decisions about who to treat for COVID-19.

Discrimination and unequal treatment by law enforcement on the basis of religion and race is occurring at disproportionate rates in countries worldwide. People of color , who have a more difficult time accessing health care and are more likely to live in poverty , have been hit harder by COVID-19 globally and are taking longer to recover economically, further exposing unjust systems. 

Overcrowded housing, environmental risks, jobs in fields that are more exposed to COVID-19, and bias in health systems are all putting people of color at a higher risk during the pandemic. In the US, Black Americans are dying at twice the rate of any other ethnic or racial group in the country due to social conditions and structural racism that has led to a lack of access to health care and more pre-existing conditions within the community. COVID-19 is also showing health disparities among racial groups in São Paulo, Brazil, where people of color are 62% more likely to die from the virus. Pakistani and Bangladeshi people are dying at double the rate of white people in the UK.   

Months into the pandemic in 2020, the world once again reckoned with racial inequality. People rallied to hold their institutions, governments, and communities accountable for unfair and brutal attacks on people of color, especially the Black community. There was global support for Black Lives Matter protests in the US calling to end systemic racism in the wake of the filmed murder of Black man George Floyd by a white police officer. The #EndSARS movement to stop police brutality in Nigeria also gained traction around the world. 

Now that the people have applied pressure, the world is waiting on governments and leaders to act on the issue.

How Can We Take Action to Build a World Centered on Equity and Justice?

A COVID-19 recovery plan that prioritizes equity and justice is not only key to ending the pandemic but also ending extreme poverty. 

Global Goal 16 for peace, justice, and strong institutions aims to achieve equity and justice for all by reducing all forms of violence and related deaths; ending abuse, exploitation, and trafficking against children; promoting the rule of law; combating organized crime; reducing corruption; creating transparent institutions; ensuring inclusive decision-making; and strengthening the participation of developing countries’ global governance institutions.

Everyone has a role to play, and that includes governments, corporations, philanthropists, activists, and everyday Global Citizens.

Global Citizen’s Recovery Plan for the World aims to mobilize $250 million to support organizations that are advocating for global justice and promoting human rights through their initiatives. 

The Equity Response Network, made up of partner organizations working to help meet that $250 million goal, is actively pushing to achieve gender equality, racial equity, criminal justice reform, the inclusion of people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ rights.

The Business Leaders for Justice Coalition — a collaboration between Global Citizen and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just, and Inclusive Societies; the National Legal Aid and Defender Association; and the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice — will engage the private sector and business leaders in committing to justice. 

Global Citizens can take action here and call on leaders to make equity and justice for all a reality. 

Global Citizen Explains

Demand Equity

How Can We Build a World With Equity and Justice for All?

Feb. 23, 2021