International Day of Conscience 2024

Palais des Nations, Geneva,

5, April 2024, 10:00 am – 4:30 pm

CONSCIENCE & LOVE FOR PEACE

WALK THE TALK!

What is the International Day of Conscience?

According to the A/73/L.102 resolution adopted by the July 19^th, 2019, United Nations General Assembly, the International Day of Conscience is dedicated to "the promotion of a culture of peace with conscience and love".

In adopting this resolution, the General Assembly emphasized the key importance and urgent necessity of a change of consciousness if we want to get out of today’s poly-crisis and give substance to the framework of norms enshrined in the United Nations’ core texts governing the life of nations and protecting our human, cultural and socio-economic rights.

The April 5, 2024, celebration of the International Day of Conscience at the UN Headquarters in Geneva

At a time when wars and global crises are on the rise, the 2024 celebration of the International Day of Conscience calls us to rethink and rearchitect the way we can build a lasting peace based on conscience and love. The 20^th century system of deterrence and the balance of terror that prevailed during the Cold War have failed to bring us a lasting peace. We need a new mindset to invent and establish a new era of peace on Earth.

On April 5, 2024, we’ll be calling for a global shift of paradigm, and address our lack of awareness of our interactive and interconnected reality, as the present world crisis is a relationship crisis. There will be no positive way out, as long as the violence born from separateness and division prevail over mutual understanding and harmonious living together. The 3 great values of the International Day of Conscience underscore the inner dimension of social change with Conscience and Love for Peace. At this point in the long evolution of life on Earth, if humanity wants to survive in dignity, the new cognitive leap is to move from individualism and competition to altruism and solidarity. This change of mindset is needed to implement the underlying principles of the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights issued after World War II that caused between 70 million and 85 million casualties. It is the bedrock of all economic, social and cultural rights and of the Agenda 2030.

To shift our mindsets that condition our vision and therefore our action in the world, on April 5, 2024, in the presence of Mr. Alfonso Gomes, Mayor of the city of Geneva, of UN and UNESCO officials, we are bringing together physicists, biologists, ancestral traditions leaders, experts in sustainability, the IDGs and the 17 SDGs, peace activists, artists, writers and meditators, with the participation of young global actors of change that will give the event a transgenerational dynamics.

Walk the talk!

"Be the change you want to see in the world," the Mahatma Gandhi asserted in the last century. At the dawn of the new millennium, we answer him with Sofia Stril-Rever, "Be the love you want to see in the world." Love is not just a feeling, experienced individually. It is also a collective force for social change, world peace, and human evolution. History proves that leaders of conscience and love, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Wangari Maathai, Nelson Mandela or Malala can shape a future of peace, solidarity, and justice.

As we witness the escalation of wars and settle into the normality of deadly conflicts between peoples, the trivialization of large-scale massacres of civilian populations and a losing war against nature, we want to reassert that war is not a fatality. Nonkilling societies are possible, as demonstrated by the WHO’s World Violence and Health report. It depends on us to make peace a reality, under the roadmap of the Agenda 2030, the IDGs framework and the UN Security Council resolution 1325 on Women and Peace, reaffirming the key role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, and post-conflict reconstruction.

The celebration of the International Day of Conscience on April 5, 2024, is therefore a call to realize the power of our interconnectedness and take urgent action to open new pathways of conscience and love for fairer, happier, and peaceful societies.

Host: Initiatives of Change

Global Convenors: Ignacio Packer, Sarah Noble & Sofia Stril-Rever

An initiative of Be the Love www.bethelove.org 

Partners: UNESCO, The People Foundation, Jindal Global University, Naturasounds, The International Space Federation, Tchendukua