International Peace Day only on paper
Sunday - September 23, 2018 10:27 am ,
Category : WTN SPECIAL
WTN- The UN’s International Peace Day was celebrated through various programmes on September 21. First celebrated in 1982 after being mooted by the UK and Cost Rica in 1981, the theme of the day for this year was: "The Right to Peace - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70".
This year, United Nations is celebrating the 70th year of the declaration of human rights adopted by the General Assembly. The declaration was adopted in Paris on 10 December 1948. The Universal Declaration, which is translated in 135 languages, states in Article 3. "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." These elements build the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
This day holds immense significance in the present context, given the amount of toxicity between countries and people that has vitiated the air. Peace has been a clarion call from the end of the World War II but peace is as elusive as ever even 73 years after the horrific events of the 1940s. The world is more on the brink of a war than ever before in history and given the stockpiles of deadly weapons countries are sitting on, if a WW III breaks out, it will be catastrophic enough to wipe out all humanity. Only a spark is needed to ignite the volatile passions.
The articles and statutes of the UN and the purpose for which it was constituted have almost failed today. Powerful countries in their mad rush for heft and domination fuelled by economic interests have time and again ignored UN stipulations against war and violence and have held countries to ransom on one pretext or the other to push their own agendas. Leaders are rash and egoistic for whom immediate economic and political gains matter more than humanity and human values. When countries go to war, it is the soldiers and the common man who suffer, not the leaders.
Those who are supposed to broker and promote peace don’t bother for peace. They bother more for their personal aggrandisement. And it is not just external war that is a worrisome trend; even internal strives between different factions and believers and upholders of different faiths are growing in indigenous societies that is destabilsing countries’ internal peace and progress. People are today more impatient, more aggressive and violent.
They are more insecure, more suspicious of each other and more daring than before. Social dichotomies are rising and so is the difference between man and man. Such a fractured and compartmentalised society is bound to be inimical to lasting peace or unity. Everyone talks of peace and harmony but practically everyone is itching to get worked up and hysteric at every real or perceived onslaught on their fragile emotions.
Unless the world learns to be broader in outlook and more embracing of diverse thoughts and inclinations, there will always be petty squabbles, murders and pervert manifestations of our inherent savagery. If the rapid spread of science, education and knowledge doesn’t engender enlightenment, and if they only end up isolating humans from each other spawning greed, selfishness and arrogance in the process, our education and the whole foundation of our civilisation is then false and need to be changed.
-Window To News
This year, United Nations is celebrating the 70th year of the declaration of human rights adopted by the General Assembly. The declaration was adopted in Paris on 10 December 1948. The Universal Declaration, which is translated in 135 languages, states in Article 3. "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." These elements build the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
This day holds immense significance in the present context, given the amount of toxicity between countries and people that has vitiated the air. Peace has been a clarion call from the end of the World War II but peace is as elusive as ever even 73 years after the horrific events of the 1940s. The world is more on the brink of a war than ever before in history and given the stockpiles of deadly weapons countries are sitting on, if a WW III breaks out, it will be catastrophic enough to wipe out all humanity. Only a spark is needed to ignite the volatile passions.
The articles and statutes of the UN and the purpose for which it was constituted have almost failed today. Powerful countries in their mad rush for heft and domination fuelled by economic interests have time and again ignored UN stipulations against war and violence and have held countries to ransom on one pretext or the other to push their own agendas. Leaders are rash and egoistic for whom immediate economic and political gains matter more than humanity and human values. When countries go to war, it is the soldiers and the common man who suffer, not the leaders.
Those who are supposed to broker and promote peace don’t bother for peace. They bother more for their personal aggrandisement. And it is not just external war that is a worrisome trend; even internal strives between different factions and believers and upholders of different faiths are growing in indigenous societies that is destabilsing countries’ internal peace and progress. People are today more impatient, more aggressive and violent.
They are more insecure, more suspicious of each other and more daring than before. Social dichotomies are rising and so is the difference between man and man. Such a fractured and compartmentalised society is bound to be inimical to lasting peace or unity. Everyone talks of peace and harmony but practically everyone is itching to get worked up and hysteric at every real or perceived onslaught on their fragile emotions.
Unless the world learns to be broader in outlook and more embracing of diverse thoughts and inclinations, there will always be petty squabbles, murders and pervert manifestations of our inherent savagery. If the rapid spread of science, education and knowledge doesn’t engender enlightenment, and if they only end up isolating humans from each other spawning greed, selfishness and arrogance in the process, our education and the whole foundation of our civilisation is then false and need to be changed.
-Window To News
