Who Will You Make Peace With? #PeaceDay

Peace One Day is a non-profit organisation whose objective is to institutionalise the International Day of Peace. It was founded in 1999 by British documentary filmmaker and actor Jeremy Gilley.

Founded in 1999 by filmmaker Jeremy Gilley, the non-profit organisation Peace One Day drove the initiative that led to the unanimous adoption by the United Nations member states of an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September – Peace Day.

Not only has Peace Day been proved as a catalyst for broad-ranging civil society action by individuals and groups in every country of the world, but also for life-saving activities: notably, in 2007, Jeremy Gilley and Peace One Day Ambassador Jude Law travelled to Afghanistan to help develop and document preparations for life-saving activities across the country for Peace Day. As a result of this work, since 2007, Peace Day agreements in the region have resulted in the immunisation against polio of 4.5 million children.

With the day well-established, Peace One Day’s objective is to institutionalise Peace Day around the world, making it self-sustaining. A report supported by McKinsey & Company estimated that 1 billion people were exposed to the Peace Day message in 2014 with around 610 million people fully aware and engaged, resulting in 10 million people behaving more peacefully. Peace One Day aims to reach 3 billion people with the Peace Day message by Peace Day 2016

Jeremy Gilley said today: “On Peace Day 21 September, we want to unite, all over the world like never before, taking specific action to reduce violence around the theme: Who Will You Make Peace With? The United Nations, NGOs and other sectors of society are involved and committed to this process. But we are asking individuals around the world to take the lead by gathering in large numbers on Peace Day 2015, providing the leverage needed to inspire governments to follow.

“For Peace Day to work, all sectors of society must be represented. Therefore, we have been asking everyone, regardless of age, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief or political persuasion to join Peace One Day on Saturday 21 September.”

To find out more about Peace One Day, please visit: www.peaceoneday.org and watch the movie here.