Peace One Day
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Peace One Day is a movement formed in 1999 by British director Jeremy Gilley as a film project to publicise and implement an international ceasefire day on September 21 every year, as an adaptation to the already existing International Day of Peace that was established by the United Nations in 1981. This was achieved when the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 55/282, an amendment to the existing Day of Peace that made it a cease-fire day.
The following is based on the documentary made by Gilley of the attempts to realise his dream.
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[edit] Initial Efforts
After having limited success as an actor and film director, Gilley decided that if he tried to achieve a world peace day and filmed it, at least he would have an interesting documentary. To his surprise he found that a world peace day already existed, one that hardly anyone knew about. He started by visiting war zones (including Israel) to see what was needed to achieve cease-fire. He also approached the government of Costa Rica, a country that seemed appropriate because it does not have an army, to put forward the amendment. The British government then decided to support that resolution if it was put forward. And of course support from the Dalai Lama was easy. Alas, later, Costa Rica backed down, which was a major set-back.
During his talks with people he was made aware that a cease-fire would not just stop people getting killed, but it would also enable organisations to get help in, such as food and inoculations for children.
[edit] Encouragement and Discouragement
Terje Rød-Larsen, the UN coordinator for peace in the Middle East, an expert on peacetalks, said that there will always be conflicts because different people have different world-perceptions and because there is a scarcity of resources, such as land, water, oil and food. Gilley realised that a central necessity for peace was intercultural cooperation.
Former under-secretary general of the UN, Robert Muller told Gilley that in his lifetime he was told that the UN would not survive, which it did, that the cold war wouldn't disappear, which it did, and that decolonisation would take 150 years. But it was over in 40 years. So he said he had started to believe in dreams. "Someone somewhere has to come up with the first dream".
Sir Kieran Prendergast, under-secretary general of the UN for political affairs, wondered if Gilley was a visionary or a fool, but decided he was the former and could work as a catalyst.
[edit] The Resolution Passes
Gilley realised that he wasn't just a dreamer but also looked like one, so he cut off his pony tail and put on a suit when he met with Kofi Annan, who also gave his support. This was a breakthrough. Costa Rican support materialised again and the resolution was passed on 7 September 2001. It consisted of two amendments to the original Day of Peace:
- It was to be held on a fixed date every year, 21 September, instead of the third Tuesday of September.
- It would become a global cease-fire day, something more concrete than just declaring it a peace day.
[edit] Implementation Problems
The resolution was to be announced during a ceremony at the UN building in New York, at the last old-style Day of Peace, when Kofi Annan would ring a peace bell. But ironically, just before that was to take place, terrorist attacks struck the US, including the WTC in New York. Because it was feared that the UN building might also be a target the ceremony was postponed.
The next step was to spend the next year getting all fighting parties in the world to agree to stop fighting on 21 September 2002. For this, help of experienced organisations like the UN was essential. His first support came from Amre Moussa, secretary general of the League of Arab States, to promote the idea among the member states. Other leaders in the world also started to support the idea, but, irritatingly, during their speeches no press turned up. Kieran Pendergast also pointed out that democratic governments tend to do what the people want, and without support from the press, other ways to reach the public were needed. So he decided to organise a concert at the Brixton Academy in London.
Amre Moussa kept his word and let Gilley speak to an assembly of 22 Arab states. During this he showed a short film he had successfully used before. But it was ill-received because it showed Shimon Peres and not Yassir Arafat. So he said he would love to get a chance to talk to Arafat so he could put him in the film as well. But he never got word again. Intercultural cooperation turned out not to be so easy.
[edit] Peace One Day Concert
21 September 2002 was a success in that the concert sold out, activities took place in 98 countries, 27 from governments, 33 through the UN system, 176 by NGO's, 180 from religious and spiritual groups, 71 from youth organisations, and from countless individuals around the world. This time the press did give good coverage and an estimated 240 million people were aware of the day. Alas, no cease-fires were negotiated for the day, but the UN launched 33 initiatives, such as in Ethiopia and Eritrea, to strengthen the two year peace-period after 23 years of war.
