A blog post by Forest Whitaker on International Day of Living Together in Peace
At the very core of my humanitarian work through the United Nations and WPDI is the idea that living together in peace is probably the most common aspiration to human beings.
And yet, achieving peace is not easy. It is dependent on so many factors, including economic resources, geography, governance, demographics, and questions of status and identity. Sadly enough, all these factors often intertwine in ways that are complex and that can become so complicated to understand that we will only focus on our short-term interest and take or keep what we can for ourselves, with no concern for the perspective of others. This is one of the main sources of conflict between individuals and communities: conflict over resources – land, commodities, governance – to control access to land and resources – and status – to determine who can gain access to governance. When conflict is unmitigated, it will lead to fiercer and fiercer competition, resulting in covert as well as overt forms of confrontation, and, eventually, sometimes, open warfare. This is a sequence that we have seen unfold many times in history and even in the present period.
When I hear of a war breaking out between countries or within a country, I am always struck by the fact that most actors and observers will describe such sequences as if they were purely mechanical and inescapably unavoidable, as if the people involved were puppets of a god of war. I do not believe so. I believe, to the contrary, that we can always opt for peace – if we strive to genuinely ask ourselves how we can reach mutual understanding or reconciliation.
I am convinced indeed that peace cannot be achieved without peaceful coexistence both globally, through multilateral collaboration among governments, and locally, through robust activism at the grassroots level. It is also important to work at bridging the global and the local, as WPDI aims to do. There are, in this respect, many great initiatives around the world that have mobilized local communities in the name of peace, many supported by the United Nations, UNESCO, national governments and private actors.
WPDI is lucky to be supported by so many of these organizations, who share our belief in the power of individuals to disseminate a culture of change in communities affected by violence and conflict. Such empowerment is achieved by WPDI through educational programs designed to provide our trainees with the right skillset to foster communal stability. In practice, our work boils down to helping our beneficiaries become our partners to foster peaceful coexistence in their communities.
International Day of Living Together in Peace is a perfect moment to remind us all that reconciliatory measures to promote sustainable peace can be pursued effectively if we put our minds to it. This is where it matters to remember that all human beings aspire to peace. This truth is at the core of For the Sake of Peace, a documentary film that I recently co-produced, working with directors Christophe Castagne and Thomas Sametin. The film focuses on the efforts of two WPDI Youth Peacemakers to make peace happen in contexts of conflict and confrontation. Scene after scene, we witness how these two peacemakers, Gatjang and Nandege, reveal the intrinsic power individuals have to make a real difference around them. They have a message for us: even in a country where over 350,000 people have died during conflicts since 2011, the dream of peace is attainable because, in the end, people want nothing more than living together in peace.