Posted On: 2024-04-05 10:27:32
April 5th is annually celebrated as International Day of Conscience by the United Nations. First celebrated in 2020, the day is observed to commemorate the importance of human conscience and its role in building empathy and a sustainable future.
The theme for the year 2024 is ‘Promoting a Culture of Peace with Love and Conscience’. The theme calls for building and creating everlasting peace that transcends all boundaries of race, religion, gender, sexuality, class and caste.
Peace has always been a thin sheet of ice, one minor misstep is all it takes to break and destroy years of effort and trust that have been built. There are a lot of things to be blamed for, from the socio-cultural conditioning of human beings to fear-mongering create d over baseless claims. Adolf Hitler used fear-mongering tactics like identifying Jews as lice capable of triggering various diseases to create panic among citizens.
So what can we do to create a culture of peace and tolerance? In this article, we will be listing down five ways to build a peaceful coexistence among human beings.
Most of the conflict between communities arises when women are not seen as logical human beings capable of making their own decisions. There is a sense of commodifying and owning them which creates a culture of distrust and hate. When a woman gets seen interacting with a person of another race, religion, sexuality or caste, the protectors of culture feel that they must save these ‘stupid, naive and gullible’ women from being seduced by other groups. This mindset has the potential to cause large-scale chaos. We need to trust women to make rational decisions and not try to save them when they don’t need saving.
History tells us that whenever a group rises up for their rights, misinformation starts spreading throughout other groups. The culture of promoting diversity and inclusivity in the United States has been met with reactions accusing the movement of promoting hatred of the white population. Similarly, many feminist movements have been criticized for being man-hating with baseless accusations. We need to teach people about discriminatory injustices taking place throughout history and the social hierarchy that has been built because of them. This would create an understanding among people and would make them immune towards hateful rhetoric and false news.
One of the best ways to promote peace and harmony is through promoting intersectionality. Intersectionality means ‘the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression and we must consider everything and anything that can marginalise people – gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc. ‘ There are various means to promote intersectionality which include inter-group marriages and inter-group dining.
Most people who commit crimes or join gangs do so out of economic necessity. Finding it difficult to provide for their families, many people turn to crime. While the rich get richer, the poor get poorer which creates power dynamics that the poor find hard to get out of. Everlasting peace is not possible as long as poverty and the conditions creating poverty exist.
We don’t know the history of a person and it is important to be kind towards everyone. Being kind can heal a person and create a possibility of peaceful cohesion.
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AUTHOR: Adil Sayyad
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