This year is the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, a milestone that highlights the importance of proactive conflict resolution, mutual understanding, and cooperation rooted in nonviolence and solidarity.

We align ourselves with the United Nations' theme of "Cultivating a Culture of Peace" and invite you to join us in uplifting the International Day of Peace on September 21st, as part of Campaign Nonviolence Action Days. Together, we aim to make peace and active nonviolence the norm. Imagine diverse individuals, advocates against gun violence, champions for nuclear disarmament, educators in conflict resolution, environmental defenders, and equity fighters, coming together to create a tapestry of peace. The International Day of Peace showcases our shared strength.

Some action ideas for Int’l Peace Day include, but are not limited to: 

• Join the UN’s Peace Day Theme of “Cultivating a Culture of Peace”: Join people around the world in studying, sharing, and cultivating the concepts of a culture of peace. Learn more here and watch a short video on the history of the ‘culture of peace’ and its origins in African peace movements. 

• Call For Ceasefires: Around the world, ongoing wars are causing harm to millions of people. In Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, and in other places, countless people are being killed, wounded, and displaced due to these conflicts. Hold a ceasefire action that calls for a robust peace process in each case to address underlying causes and grievances.

• Peace & Planet Solidarity: Find more action ideas in this section on Peace & Planet Solidarity, or in our Peace & Planet Toolkit section on Climate and Militarism, or the section on Celebrate Peace & Planet With Children.

• Honor The Peacemakers: Ask your community to publicly honor the peacemakers by getting city councils to make statements in support of them, holding a peacemakers march or rally, public art displays of peace art or portraits of peace activists, library displays on peace and historic peacemakers, discounts at stores for peace activists (akin to military discounts).

• Establish A Local Zone of Peace: Gather in a spot and set up a violence-free zone for the day. This could be your house, neighborhood, classroom, a section of a park, or a piece of sidewalk marked off with sidewalk chalk.

• Protest Militarism: Speak out against militarism in your community, including recruiters at schools, weapons makers, war movies in the theaters, jet fly-overs at parades or sporting events, etc.

• Coordinate an “Outbreak of Peace”: Ask people to work as local instigators for an “outbreak of peace” in which every business, neighborhood, school, faith group does something for peace on Int’l Day of Peace. Examples include: putting up a poster for peace, sidewalk chalking peace quotes in front of your church, peace book library displays, discounts for peace activists etc. This action idea is inspired by efforts like Peace Day Philly, Peace Week Arkansas, and Greater Lansing Peace Quest.

• Put Up A Peace Display At a Local Library: Ask your librarians to put up peace books and posters to celebrate the International Day of Peace. Use this handy toolkit with a book list, posters, and resource doc compiled by people working on this effort in Maine.

We also welcome your ideas and creativity! If you plan to participate on a small or large scale to uplift the global call for peace & active nonviolence please let us know here.  

Feel free to read more about our 2024 calls to action, check out what others are planning, and share this message.

We look forward to having you as a piece of this global peace puzzle! A special shout-out to those who have already signed up for Action Days – we can’t wait to see your plans come to life! 

Check out our new posters! Designed to be “grab 'n go,” they're versatile and can go with you to any number of protests or events. Created by Rosie Davila.