Every year the International Day of Peace is observed on 21st September across the world. The U.N. established the International Day of Peace in 1981 by a unanimous resolution, and it has been celebrated every year since. This year the theme is “The Right to Peace.” The year is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is where the “Right to Peace” theme comes from.

The document is a milestone achievement of the history of human rights where pioneers from around the world reaching out in a single point to secure the inherent humanity and dignity of every human being for protecting from future atrocities. It proclaims a simple powerful idea: all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The declaration made clear that rights are not conferred by governments; they are the birth rights of all people. It doesn’t matter what country we live in, who our leaders are, or even who we are. Because human rights are birth right and every government around the world is bound to protect this right.

Over the past few years there have been some major changes in world society. Especially in the spreading of information technology, people have become widely connected in virtual life. Besides, the flow of information has reached people across the globe. In spite of all this symbol of development, groups are campaigning to spread false rumours and partial truths using the social media. This trend is not only in Bangladesh, but across the globe, information technology is being misused, resulting in serious wounds to the society. Bangladesh is one of the most prominent partners of various successes across the world, although the global predicament has also affected our country.

Violence against children is a genuine infringement of human rights with noteworthy negative impact on children’s wellbeing and social advancement. The convention on the rights of the children states that all children have the right to be protected against all forms of violence including sexual abuse and exploitation.  At present violence against children is a global phenomenon. In spite of the presence of solid universal, territorial and national legal framework, children in Bangladesh continue to be abused and subjected to different forms of violence.  Bangladesh continues to have one of the highest child marriage rates worldwide and the highest rate of marriage involving girls under 15.  By the age of 18 years, 52 per cent of children are victimised by child marriage, and by the age of 15 years, 18 per cent children face child marriage.  Unequal distribution of power between men and women and structural gender discrimination is the root cause of gender based violence.

The lack of human attribute call for moral decay in society, child sexual exploitation is one of them. Different study report indicated that the violence against children and gender based violence particularly child killing, rape, torture, sexual exploitation increased alarmingly compared to before. Our society is still not alert of child security. It is necessary to eliminate the indifference for ensuring better childhood.

Despite having peaceful coexistence among people from different communities, religions, parties and beliefs in the past, now people are increasingly showing aggression and radical behavior which is destroying peace and harmony across the country. Progressive people are being more concerned about extremism like Holey Artisan.

Not only that, minority communities are becoming more vulnerable across the world, often people from minority and indigenous groups are object of violence and exclusion on political, social and religious issues. Furthermore, communal violence driven by political rivalries – long a problem for religious minorities – continues to take place, with perpetrators enjoying apparent impunity. As a result the minority communities are constantly being forced into different forms of migration.

Moreover, different governments across the world have been showing autocratic behavior. The biggest example of that is the Rohingya crisis, which is an apparent action of ethnic cleansing according to OHCHR. Also, governments are creating autocratic barriers in the freedom of expression of their citizens. It is a clear violation of human rights which is the birth right of every human being and not conferred by governments.

It is an alarming time for all of us including governments for taking action to ensure the rights of the individual. Governments should think how they can protect the inherent humanity and dignity of every single life while ensuring security of women, girls, marginalised and indigenous people for sustainable development. Besides it is time for the leaders of the government to think how they can show more liberal attitude during their operational time.

Each of us will have to come forward to increase tolerance and build bridges among the different actors. We should identify those reasons which destroy peace, harmony and discipline as well as create partition and need to resolve these locally to maintain peaceful coexistence. Every school authority should be bound to ensure the safety of children during the operation time. Besides they will also have the opportunity to play a significant role in creating cosmopolitan humanitarian individuals. Our policy makers will have to think how the school can be transformed into a center of human development which creates liberal individuals universally. For this it is required to identify the deformities and take steps for solution.

The future of the world depends on the young. It is urgently required to ensure the participation of youth in governance process as well as need to create a broader landscape for empowering them around the country. I strongly believe that our youth have the power to create a nondiscriminatory world where individuals will enjoy the full measures of liberty. Finally all of our concerted efforts may create a peaceful world free from violence and discrimination.

Published 23 September 2018, Daily Sun.