Movies which spread awareness for peace

Any war results in thousands or even millions of casualties. It is very unfortunate that we have adversities such as war on our lovely planet. There are phenomenal movies which show us the atrocities and the murky atmosphere of war. Watching such movies makes us realize about the high importance of peacekeeping.
MOVIES:

The Pianist (2002)

The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war drama film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody.[1] It is an adaptation of the memoir titled Death of a City by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman. The film is a co-production between Poland, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Schindler's List:

Schindler's List is a 1993 film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Arkby Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as Schutzstaffel (SS)-officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.
Saving Private Ryan:

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Noted for its graphic and realistic portrayal of war, the film is especially notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944. Afterwards, it follows Tom Hanks as United States Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller and seven other soldiers (Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies) as they search for a paratrooper, Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen.

International Peace Day - 21 September

Towards the ideals of peace

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.
Sustainable Peace...

This year, world leaders, together with civil society, local authorities and the private sector, will be meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to renew political commitment to long term sustainable development.

It is in the context of the Rio+20 Conference that “Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future” is the theme chosen for this year's observance of the International day of Peace.

There can be no sustainable future without a sustainable peace. Sustainable peace must be built on sustainable development.
...From Sustainable Development...
The root causes of many conflicts are directly related to or fuelled by valuable natural resources, such as diamonds, gold, oil, timber or water. Addressing the ownership, control and management of natural resources is crucial to maintaining security and restoring the economy in post-conflict countries.

Good natural resource management can play a central role in building sustainable peace in post-conflict societies.

...For a Sustainable Future

The International Day of Peace offers people globally a shared date to think about how, individually, they can contribute to ensuring that natural resources are managed in a sustainable manner, thus reducing potential for disputes, and paving the road to a sustainable future, the "Future We Want".

Peace at the United Nations

The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the United Nations Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security.

It is for the Security Council to determine when and where a UN Peacekeeping operation should be deployed.


The Security Council in New York plays a crucial role in peacekeeping.

The Security Council responds to crises around the world on a case-by-case basis and it has a range of options at its disposal. It takes many different factors into account when considering the establishment of new peacekeeping operation, including:
Whether there is a ceasefire in place and the parties have committed themselves to a peace process intended to reach a political settlement;
Whether a clear political goal exists and whether it can be reflected in the mandate;
Whether a precise mandate for a UN operation can be formulated;
Whether the safety and security of UN personnel can be reasonably ensured, including in particular whether reasonable guarantees can be obtained from the main parties or factions regarding the safety and security of UN personnel.

The Security Council establishes a peacekeeping operation by adopting a Security Council resolution. The resolution sets out that mission’s mandate and size.

The Security Council monitors the work of UN Peacekeeping operations on an ongoing basis, including through periodic reports from the Secretary-General and by holding dedicated Security Council sessions to discuss the work of specific operations.

The Security Council can vote to extend, amend or end mission mandates as it deems appropriate.

Under Article 25 of the Charter, all UN members agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While other organs of the UN make recommendations to Member States, the Council alone has the power to take decisions which Member States are obligated to implement.

Find out more about Security Council functions and powers, resolutions, statements, reports, rules of procedure and other issues

More information can be found at the following websites:

http://www.un.org/en/peace/
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/

How Important is Peace in Life?

How important is peace in our life?

Peace is the essence of our existence. It is the freedom to pursue our dream. It is our ability to express ourselves. It is the opportunity to relate with others with understanding, good will and cooperation. It is a cornerstone of our survival and triumph as a species.

Ask a child in elementary school or an old person in a convalescence home they will all recite eloquently about the necessity and virtue of peace.

If peace is such an essential of our existence, why is it not the central theme of our dialogs? Why does an adult male, on the average, think about sex once every few minutes, according to some psychologists, but seldom contemplate about peace. Why are there ‘n’ times more porn web sites than web sites dedicated to promoting peace in the internet?

Why is peace not the central theme of all religious sermons? Why is religion used to balkanize communities perpetuate suspicion and incite violence?

Why is peace not a central pillar of our political agenda instead of just a hollow political slogan?

Why do political leaders brush aside peace and herald war at mere perceived danger or gain?

Why are masses of people herded to support destructive wars provoked by dim-wit political leaders?

If peace is so much essential for our collective well being and yet so much marginalized, what is the role of you and me to make peace the focus of our consciousness?

How can we promote peace to alleviate the suffering of millions around the world who are suffering from the lack of it?

Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the establishment of equality, and a working political order that serves the true interests of all. In international relations, peacetime is not only the absence of war or conflict, but also the presence of cultural and economic understanding and unity. There is also a sense of tolerance in international relations for the realization of true peace.

World Peace Festival

World Peace Partnership e.V. is a non-profit, non-partisan, international acting organization with the aim to systematically initiate and foster processes for worldwide peace building. With support of the United Nations Office for Partnerships and the United Nations Department of Public Information the World Peace Partnership combines its own unique and holistic peace-building strategy with initiatives and the long-standing practical knowledge of renowned peace building experts. The goal of World Peace Partnership is to create global movements that will serve to inspire systemic policy changes for peace and help to prevent and reduce conflicts between people, countries and creeds.

What is Peacekeeping? - UN

Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the most effective tools available to the UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace.

Peacekeeping has unique strengths, including legitimacy, burden sharing, and an ability to deploy and sustain troops and police from around the globe, integrating them with civilian peacekeepers to advance multidimensional mandates.

UN Peacekeepers provide security and the political and peacebuilding support to help countries make the difficult, early transition from conflict to peace.

UN Peacekeeping is guided by three basic principles:
Consent of the parties;
Impartiality;
Non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate.

Peacekeeping is flexible and over the past two decades has been deployed in many configurations. There are currently 17 UN peace operations deployed on four continents.

Today's multidimensional peacekeeping operations are called upon not only to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate the political process, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants; support the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and assist in restoring the rule of law.

Success is never guaranteed, because UN Peacekeeping almost by definition goes to the most physically and politically difficult environments. However, we have built up a demonstrable record of success over our 60 years of existence, including winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

The World Peace Game Foundation

Mission

Founded in 2010, The World Peace Game Foundation is dedicated to sharing the mission of peace, developing self awareness, and the life work of teacher John Hunter.

The Foundation seeks to foster the concept of peace not as a utopian dream but as an attainable goal to strive for, and to stimulate the creative development of tools for this effort. It supports development of collaboration and communication skills for resolving and transforming conflicts, and the development of the skills of compromise, all while accommodating different perspectives and interests.

John stands as a shining example of what a dedicated teacher can accomplish. Focused on equipping his students with the skills they’ll need in order to face the problems and uncertainties of the real world, he has developed a unique learning program he calls The World Peace Game.

Peace One Day

Peace One Day is a non-profit organisation with the objective to raise awareness of the International Day of Peace that occurs on the 21st September each year. The objective of the organisation is to foster Peace Day as "a day for wide-scale community action, and a day for UN agencies and aid organisations to safely carry out life-saving work."

Founded in 1999 by the British documentary filmmaker and actor Jeremy Gilley, Peace One Day led a successful campaign to pass UN Resolution 55/282 recognising Peace Day as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. Unanimously approved by all members States the resolution also invites organisations and individuals to commemorate the International Day of Peace through education and public awareness, and to cooperate with the United Nations in the establishment of the global ceasefire.

Global Truce 2012

At the Peace Day O2 Arena concert in 2011, Peace One Day announced a 365 day countdown to a 'Global Truce' in 2012, to take place on Peace Day. The concert was to promote London 2012's Olympic Truce programme and to mark the International Day of Peace.With successful negotiations for consecutive ceasefires on Peace Day between 2008 to 2010 in Afghanistan and the humanitarian work that was achieved there, demonstrating in one of the most difficult conflicts the day could work. This inspired Jeremy Gilley which lead to the ambitious and unprecedented announcement, a new international campaign called Global Truce 2012. Peace One Day will be monitoring the day's impact with measurable results and hopes this will be world record.

The aims of Global Truce 2012:

The largest reduction in global violence in recorded history, both domestically and internationally.
The largest ever gathering of individuals in the name of peace.

Thoughts on World Peace

World peace is an idea simple in principle but difficult to achieve in practice because, as individual members of our species, we have not found peace within ourselves. Societies cannot be peaceful societies until the members of the society look peacefully toward each other. But, it is impossible to look peacefully toward each other under constant threat for one’s survival.

The quest for peace must be carried out on many fronts, the most important of which is for each of us to contribute our portion toward an environment in which humans can labor and enjoy the fruits of their labor without fear that aggressive neighbors and oppressive governments will confiscate their gain. Commensurate with this freedom from fear is the responsibility to respect the ecological systems of the Earth, which gives us sustenance.

We must be able to seek communion with our God without fear that individual beliefs will be ridiculed or oppressed by others. Finally, the tide of world events, over which individuals seemingly have no control, cannot pose an irredeemable threat to the safety and security of individuals.

While it is true that the world has become so complex and so technologically oriented that individuals no longer believe that they count nor that they can do anything to effect world events, it is precisely the opposite. For only when individuals take total responsibility for their own lives, find within themselves communion with the Creative Force and live in peace with their neighbors and environment, only then will forces be set in motion that will eventually bring about world peace.

No power can create peace when humans have fear, anger and hate in their hearts, however insignificant those individual humans may think they are.