About
Why One Day?
To some it’s just a single day. But to us, 21 September is a 24 hour-long platform for life-saving activities around the world and an opportunity for individuals - particularly young people - to become involved in the peace process. 21 September is the UN International Day of Peace, a day of global ceasefire and non-violence: Peace Day.
By 2007, the UN estimated that over 100 million people from all walks of life actively supported Peace Day around the world. That same year, Peace One Day was instrumental in securing the conditions by which mass polio vaccinations could be carried out in Afghanistan on Peace Day; 1.4 million children were vaccinated in some of the most remote areas of the country. And in 2008, an additional 1.6 million were treated. That’s an estimated 3 million children in Afghanistan alone - on Peace Day.
On Peace Day 2008 in Afghanistan the United Nations Department for Safety and Security, which monitors security related incidents, recorded a 70 per cent reduction in violent incidents on the day itself.
Why one day matters
The short films below are testimonials from leading figures and supporters of Peace One Day on the importance of Peace Day, 21 September, and why people from all four corners of the globe must commit to taking action on the day. Watch them and then use the site to commit to taking action on Peace Day yourself.
>> What will you do to make peace on 21 September?
“My experience of conflict is that those who are involved in it long for even a day of peace. To have a day of cessation of violence, that to me is an idea whose time has come.” Mary Robinson, then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, from a filmed meeting with Jeremy Gilley