NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading international peace educators, advocates, diplomats, and artists will gather online Tuesday, September 20 to petition the United Nations to make Global Peace Education Day an annual United Nations event. The yearly Global Peace Education Day spotlights the success of peace education in transforming lives in the face of war, pandemic and climate change.  GlobalPeaceEducation.com/Petition

Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Human and Social Sciences chairs the event. "The search for peace may be as old as humanity itself," she says. "Peace must be nurtured everyday through the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes needed to understand, appreciate and cooperate.  If a simple virus can learn how to spread across the planet, surely we human beings can learn to spread peace."

GlobalPeaceEducation.com/Conference

"If we prepared for peace the way we prepare for war, we wouldn't be in this mess," says actor Michael Nouri, who serves a conference host.  Eight global peace leaders will petition the United Nations to declare an Global Peace Education Day.

"As human beings, we must empower ourselves to bring inner as well as outer peace." says Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, former UN Undersecretary General and former UN Security Council President.

"A global network of peace educators is very important because it allows us to establish a culture of peace," says Ouided Bouchamaoui, who won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in stabilizing Tunisian democracy.

 "We need educators who can educate in a culture of peace and non-violence," says former UNESCO Director General Dr. Francisco Mayor Zaragoza.  "A United Nations Global Peace Education Day will provide a transition from a culture of war to a culture of peace."

Other distinguished petitioners include Germany's Reiner Braun, Executive Director, International Peace Bureau;  Dr. Doudou Diene of Senegal, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on racism;  Francisco Rojas, Rector of the UN University of Peace in Costa Rica; Ambassador Al Alim Alsoswa: Yemen's first woman Minister of Human Rights; Ambassador to the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark; and Garry Jacobs: President and CEO, World Academy of Art & Science.

The 2022 theme for Global Peace Education Day is Empowering Educators for Peace.  Following the petition, the conference will host presentations by prominent peace educators including America's Prem Rawat, creator of the Peace Education Program operating in 70 countries in over 30 languages, Australia's Steve Killelea, developer of the Global Peace Index;  and Canada's Kehkashan Basu, UN Human Rights Champion, who launched the Green Hope Foundation when she was 12 years old.  Dr. Stephane Monney-Moundjo, director general of CAFRAD, the Pan-African development organization, charts the progress of his group, and Professor Dr. Karim Errouaki, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Foreign Affairs and International Development, the State of the African Diaspora (SOAD) cites the importance of peace education in Africa.  GlobalPeaceEducation.com/Speakers

Chicago physician and pastor, Bishop Horace Smith, MD, speaks about the need for global justice in a global culture of peace. France's Guila Clara Kessous, UNESCO Artist of Peace, leads a global roundtable on restoring human dignity with arts. 

Last year, more than 1,500 people attended from 86 countries.  Registration for the online event is free at GlobalPeaceEducation.com/Registration.

Free Registration at GlobalPeaceEducation.com/Registration

#GlobalPeaceEducationDay #peace #peaceeducation #teachers #peaceeducationprogram #education #peacebuilding