To achieve peace, tolerance and justice must spread – Deputy Secretary-General

Achieving peace requires more than diplomacy and the deployment of blue helmets, said United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, calling for efforts to spread values that embrace tolerance, justice and respect for human rights.

“Peacekeepers and preventive diplomacy remain essential tools in our efforts to silence guns and implement ceasefires, but by themselves they are not enough to counter humanity’s worst instincts,” she told a Culture of Peace New Year celebration in New York on Thursday evening.

“Instead, the search for a durable and enduring peace demands action at a deeper, more profound level,” she stressed. “It requires the spread of values, attitudes and behaviours that reject violence and embrace tolerance, justice and respect for human rights. In short, it requires a culture of peace.”

Ms. Migiro emphasized the importance of addressing the impact of violence on children. “The young suffer enormous harm in countless wars that are never of their making,” she said, calling for a “collective effort and the teaching of tolerance and coexistence at all levels within our respective societies.”