Today is observed the International Day of Peace, established by a UN General Assembly unanimous vote in 1981.
21st September has been a day devoted to a renewed call for a 24-hour global ceasefire and to educational events on the theme of peace since then.
The significant theme for the 2020 International Peace Day is "Shaping Peace Together" to emphasize the need for a culture of compassion and cooperation between peoples and nations in the face of the global threat of the pandemic.
Building, indeed shaping peace together, corresponds to a profound vocation of the Community of Sant'Egidio and its working method in international relations which has been consolidated over many years of engagement on conflict resolution.
Peace is actually a universal responsibility and everyone must contribute with his or her ideas and work: because - as John Paul II stated on the World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi on 27 October 1986 - " Peace is a workshop, open to all and not just to specialists, savants and strategists”.
Celebrating this day, Sant'Egidio renews its daily commitment to build a culture of living together, an effective antidote to the enemy’s culture, to invest in children and youth education through the Schools of Peace and the Youth for Peace movement, to foster dialogue between nations and religions and to engage for the integration of refugees and migrants, the only solution to the epochal challenge of migration which is a bitter consequence of wars, climate change and unequal distribution of the planet's resources.
