Opinion | United Nations Day

In an effort to mark a significant day in the year, United Nations Day gives meaning and hope for people to engage in multilateralism and act towards a future world that would benefit all parties.

UN Day is held on the 24th of October annually and it commemorates the formation of the United Nations in 1945 is a day set aside to remind the United Nations of its role of maintaining international peace, security, and cooperation among its members. The slogan for the UN Day 2024 is ‘’Towards a Culture of Peace in a Troubled World”. In the conditions of the new formation of global relations as the processes of split, social and gendered economic injustice and inequality, climate change, and violent conflicts, the given theme focuses on experiencing the priority of peace and conflict studies. Here, it proposes dialogue and attitudes of tolerance and listening to face contemporary issues. Being a member of the initial team of signatories to the United Nations, India also maintains active efforts in advocating for peace both within its borders and abroad. The idea of the 2024 theme is closely connected with the Indian non-violent approach and the country’s potential in contributing to creating a more tolerant environment.

The theme chosen, “Cultivating a Culture of Peace in a Fragmented World” has thus not been more timely given the current global situation. In the last decade, the phenomenon of global politics has increasingly focused on the escalation of interstate and intrastate conflicts, transnational threats, including terrorism, computer crime, and natural disasters leading to the forced displacement of the population. Additionally, the COVID-19 global crisis emerged as introducing new challenges to global governance and reinforcing the socio-economic inequalities, as well as nationalism around the world.

In many countries of the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe, the civil wars, terrorism, or conflicts that have recently persisted continue to impose enormous human cost and undermine stability. Recent conflicts such as the one in Ukraine have reopened the hostility that characterised the cold war and produced new cleavage lines among the world powers, thus posing problems for the international society in developing dialogue and reconciliations. Furthermore, apart from the classical inter-state wars, there is growing intrastate conflict as societies become more and more divided along ethnic, religious and ideological cleavages. Within this regard the achievement and fostering of a culture of peace becomes paramount. Not only the laying-down of arms, but also the fostering of peace, social reconciliation, and justice processes. A harmonious society means that all individuals within that society are accorded courtesy regardless of their colour or nationality. The underlying idea of the theme focuses on peace as the absence of war and as a state of health and togetherness of societies. There is economic inequality, which is also one of the most significant drivers of fragmentation in the ‘global city’. The UN was said to reveal that the ‘Lack of equity and income inequality is seen to be increasing in the past two decades thereby fueling social unrest. Where there is economic inequality, frustrations result and can even lead to people taking up violent action or even adopting extremism. Up to the recent past, we have seen radical movements such as the Arab Spring and the Black Lives Matter movement that show society’s propensity to revolt when it feels that its systems are oppressive. For peace to be realist for quite a long time, the international community needs to work toward real elimination of the roots of inequality. Some aspects of economic life that the 2024 theme addresses include access to job opportunities, decent wage and protected working conditions, and financial resources of nations. Therefore, this process should comprise such elements as sustainable development, job creation, and education to introduce the fairness that so many people and communities surrounded by adversity need.

Likewise global climate change constitutes one of the most important threats to peace in the contemporary world. There is evidence that climate change has resulted in increased migration, lack of food, more so when due to the changing climate patterns, competition over the limited resources. These tensions have already given rise to tensions in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. With regard to environmental degradation, conflicts instigated by climate change will surely rise in the future and there is danger to global peace. The theme of “Cultivating a Culture of Peace” may be best accompanied by an address on Climate Change as one area of requisite global cooperation. Environmental sustainability and resilience is not only important for the preservation of ecosystems but also it is an important technique that should be practised to avoid war in future. In this sense, stability cannot be reimposed without taking into account climate processes as part of the peacebuilding process.

India is one of the leading nations of the world in terms of maintaining peace domestically as well as challenging the nations to maintain world peace. Ever since Gandhi led India to independence through the use of nonviolent civil resistance, the Indian approach to peace has revolved around negotiation, acceptance, and no force. This tradition is still felt in India’s attitudes to the world and its actions in diplomacy and in bodies such as the United Nations.

Probably the most readily measurable of all the ways that have seen India contributing to global peace is by acting as a participant in United Nations peacekeeping missions. Today India is one of the largest troop-contributing countries in the UN for the reason that it has been independent for a long time. India has deployed its peacekeepers in some of the conflict affected regions anywhere in the world, in Africa, Asia, and in the Middle East. India’s military ensures its peacekeeping forces are professional, subordinating the interests of their nation to the cause of protecting civilians in global conflicts. One of the discursive features of India speaking with is its focus on women’s participation in peacekeeping. It was only in 2007 that the Indian female contingents were sent to the Liberian mission, which paved the way for raising more female contingents in the future. This does not only assist women fulfil their roles in the areas of conflict but it assists to also change perception that women also form a vital part of rebuilding broken societies.

In the current world, India’s move towards the promotion of diplomacy and war prevention is not restrained to the conflict avoidances. India is not shy of speaking out on things like climate change, economic disparity, and terrorism which form the core of UN Day 2024. India, therefore, has been leading the climate change fight in the world through its initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA) it started together with France. The envisioned goal of the ISA features moving away from fossil fuel and encouraging the use of solar energy especially in third world countries. The recent renewable energy targets set for India such as 175 GW of renewables by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030 also show the country’s intentions for combating climate change. By directing its development to the future, and supporting clean energy, India is therefore advancing the cause of world peace because environmental stresses are inseparable from conflicts. And it is at this level that climate action is critical in avoiding resource based conflict and in making sure future generations will be able to survive. Another important aspect of peacekeeping in the information age, where India is already playing its part is cybersecurity. As more and more cyber threats have been reported recently India has advocated for rules based order in cyberspace. These reforms together with India’s initiatives to bolster its domestic cyber security apparatus and its urging of a more collective international approach to the issue of cyber threats show that New Delhi has embraced the new global reality.

Regarding the promotion of peace and Unity in civil society at the national level, India has achieved a lot in framing the polity. India is the largest democracy of the world and ethnologically it is a very diverse country of various castes, creeds and speech. This multiculturalism has at times been a source of conflict but the success of India’s democratic government and the complete adherence to secularism has also served a major function.

The Indian Constitution which formulates the concepts of justice, liberty and equality can be used as the basis in making India a more peaceful nation. Education, gender equality, and Empowerment of women all are the focus policies of the Indian Government that plays a crucial role in developing peace culture. The ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign which seeks to raise the status of the girl child; the ‘Digital India’ program that tries to address the existing digital imbalance are some of the ways by which India is trying to fight social injustice that hinders peace at home.

drkshn666@gmail.com