Colombia: 4th World March for Peace and Nonviolence with an exchange in Barrancabermeja

On the International Day of Nonviolence, Colombia concluded its participation in the 4th World March for Peace and Nonviolence this Friday, October 2, with the Humanist Forum for Peace and Nonviolence held in Barrancabermeja, where a commitment resonated: “Until now it has been said: the work of justice will be peace. From now on we will say: the work of peace will be justice”.

The event was organized by members of the Kolibrí Study and Reflection Park with the support of the University of Peace and aimed to “promote a participatory and humanist setting that encourages collective reflection on peace, nonviolence, social transformation, the environment and LGTBIQ+ communities through education, culture, health and citizen participation,” the organizers stated.

Attendees were able to exchange with prominent professionals and social leaders such as Richard Alvarez Ahumada, doctors Cecilia Umaña Cruz, José Danerys Vargas, Esther Rincón Alvarado, Elcida Martinez Peinado, Edwin Ortiz and Oscar Porras Atencia, who spoke about the importance of Peace and active Nonviolence.

The Forum made it possible to highlight human action in the world, to “denounce the most dangerous situation ever experienced, with the risk of a third nuclear world war and increased spending on armaments, while in increasingly vast areas of the planet many populations are marginalized by the lack of human rights, food and water,” they stated.

Another objective of the Forum was to “continue raising awareness that it is only through the methodology of ‘nonviolence’ that ‘peace’ can be achieved and the future opened to the entire human species; likewise, to highlight the various positive actions that individuals, groups and peoples are already undertaking to guarantee the effective application of human rights and non-discrimination, and to promote collaboration, peaceful coexistence and non-aggression. All of this receives little coverage in the official media”.

The members of the Humanist Forum for Peace and Nonviolence stated that they will continue with the task of “giving a voice to the new generations who want to take up the baton and leave their mark, establishing the culture of nonviolence in the collective imagination, in education, in politics, in society… The time has come for nonviolent consciousness”.

Redacción Colombia