UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE, SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

This year on the International Day of Peace, Monday, September 21, 2020, World BEYOND War is organizing an online screening of the film “We Are Many.” Get your tickets here.

You’re also invited to these events:

September 20, 2-3 p.m. ET (UTC-4) Act for Peace! A Blue Scarf Peace Day Online Rally: Register. Get scarves here.

September 20, 6 p.m. ET (UTC-4) Discussion on Zoom: Obstacles to Nuclear Abolition: Telling the Truth About the Relationship between the United States and Russia: A conversation with Alice Slater and David Swanson. Register.

September 21, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. PT (UTC-8) Defund War. Climate Justice Now! An International Peace Day Webinar with Aliénor Rougeot, the Toronto coordinator of Fridays for Future, a worldwide youth movement bringing over 13 million students together in massive coordinated strikes to demand bold climate action, and John Foster, energy economist with more than 40 years’ experience in issues of petroleum and global conflict. Register.

September 21, 6-7 p.m. ET (UTC-4) Poetry Reading with Doug Rawlings and Richard Sadok. Register.

September 21-24, Digital Summit: Sustainable Development Impact Summit. Register.

The International Day of Peace was first celebrated in 1982, and is recognized by many nations and organizations with events all over the world every September 21st, including day-long pauses in wars that reveal how easy it would be to have year-long or forever-long pauses in wars. Here is information on this year’s day of peace from the UN.

We are also working with chapters, affiliates, and allies to organize events of all sorts, many of them virtual and open to people anywhere.

Find more events or add events here.

Find resources for creating events here.

Contact us for help here.

Also check out the Global Peace Film Festival September 21 – October 4 here.

At all of these events, including online events, we hope to see everyone wearing sky blue scarves symbolizing our life beneath one blue sky and our vision of a world beyond war. Get scarves here.

You can also wear peace shirts, hold a bell ringing ceremony (everyone everywhere at 10 a.m.), or erect a peace pole.

The Peace Almanac says of September 21: This is the International Day of Peace. Also on this day in 1943, the U.S. Senate passed by a vote of 73 to 1 the Fulbright Resolution expressing commitment to a post-war international organization. The resulting United Nations, along with other international institutions created at the end of World War II, has of course had a very mixed record in terms of advancing peace. Also on this day in 1963 the War Resisters League organized the first U.S. demonstration against the war on Vietnam. The movement that grew from there eventually played a major role in ending that war and in turning the U.S. public against war to such an extent that war mongers in Washington began to refer to public resistance to war as a disease, the Vietnam Syndrome. The International Day of Peace was first celebrated in 1982, and is recognized by many nations and organizations with events all over the world every September 21st, including day-long pauses in wars that reveal how easy it would be to have year-long or forever-long pauses in wars. On this day, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters in New York City. This is a good day on which to work for permanent peace and to remember the victims of war.

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley

World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, activists, and allied organizations advocating for the abolition of the very institution of war. Our success is driven by a people-powered movement – support our work for a culture of peace.