October 2, 2017: International Day of Nonviolence

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“To become aware of, learn and produce concrete actions based on the Methodology of Nonviolence is the only way to banish violence from the World”

In 2007, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) established the 2nd of October, the day of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth, as the “International Day of Nonviolence”. So, this year we celebrate its tenth anniversary.

Violence strikes the world and spreads over the planet in the form of conventional wars, occupied territories, nuclear threats (that could lead to a future nuclear catastrophe), famines, massive migrations, economic exploitation, crises of millions of refugees, terrorist attacks, violence at schools, in the cities, in the homes, and violence also within people, expressing itself as internal suffering. Violence, in all its forms (physical, economic, racial, religious, moral and psychological) is a fundamental part of an individualistic and dehumanizing system whose methodology of action always generates more violence.

The solution to the problem of different forms of violence exists, and lies in applying a precise methodology: the “Methodology of Active Nonviolence”.

Nonviolence is a methodology of action that promotes a profound individual and social transformation.

Nonviolence is a force capable of changing the violent and inhuman direction of current events.

Nonviolence promotes a new internal and external attitude towards life, having as main tools:

Personal change, strengthening and internal development, and simultaneous social transformation
Rejecting and creating a void in front of different forms of discrimination and violence.
Non-collaboration with violent practices.
The denunciation of all the facts of discrimination and violence.
Civil disobedience to institutionalized violence.
Organization and social mobilization, voluntarily and with solidarity.
The development of personal virtues and the best and deepest human aspirations.

The Methodology of nonviolence has been expressed in history with clear actions and developments in its attempt to transform the world. Contributions such as those made by Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mandela, and more recently by the Guide to Nonviolence and founder of the current of thought known as New Humanism, Silo.

The Nonviolence Methodology is also expressed in the thousands and thousands of common actions that millions of people do daily around the planet. Organizations, groups of volunteers and individuals who, with a spirit of solidarity, try to transform the situations of violence that exist around them.

They are the signs of nonviolence, the signs of a new spirituality and a new solidarity. Signs of a new personal and social horizon, that we need to build. They are the signs of a nonviolent evolution of which each one of us can be a part.

It is the right time for expressing the calm and powerful message of Nonviolence. A moment of great need, in which we must express our best qualities to build a nonviolent future.

On the 2nd of October we will radiate a message to the world with Force that says:
“The Methodology of Nonviolence is the only way out”

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October 2, 2016 - International Day of Non-Violence

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Next 2nd of October we will radiate with force the message that says:

"Nonviolence is the only way out"

In 2007 the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) Organization, established October 2 as the "International Day of Non-Violence".

This coming October 2nd of October of 2016, finds our world immersed in a process of crisis, increasing violence and disintegration.

No region, no country, no group or person escapes this situation.

The escalation of violence and suffering is expressed in different ways, from the most abhorrent and cruel to the most hidden and subtle.

Regional famines, wars and conflicts, millions of refugees abandoned by the countries, permanent nuclear threat, cultural and ethnic wars, financial crisis, economic exploitation, growing unemployment and threats of all kinds seem to multiply in every corner of the planet.

At the same time, violence and suffering also invade rapidly the interiority of human being, submerging him/her into despair and life’s nonsense, and generating an increasing of mental illnesses, personal violence, madness, isolation, lack of communication and suicide.

It is false and illusory to imagine that these serious problems will be solved only by the action of governments or the sectors of the current world power that generated the crisis. It is required the reflection and decisive action of organizations and ordinary people who want to live in a better world.

Day after day, expressions of those who struggle to transform a violent and inhuman system multiplies: solidarity mobilizations of aid to refugees, war demonstrations against war in Europe, America and Asia, mobilizations of the "outraged" that oppose in all cases to the inhuman economic system that governs them; massive non-violent demonstrations of new generations to demand better education and social justice; all this added to dozens of activities that develop humanists around the globe, in their neighborhoods , universities and workplaces.

Nonviolent sensitivity is felt in the proposals of many organizations and individuals. From the community we welcome and encourage these enablers expressions of a non-violent future.
Today, more than ever, as we recall the 2nd of October as the International Day of Non-Violence, members of The Community around the world want to repeat the most important proclamation of this moment, which tells us:

"Nonviolence is the only way out"

"Non-violence" is physical nonviolence, economic nonviolence, religious nonviolence, racial nonviolence and psychological nonviolence.

We invite all friends and solidarity organizations to multiply our voices next 2 October. Let’s spread the message of non-violence with strenght in every corner of the planet.

Let the "shout" of good people, who aspire to live in a supportive and non- violent world, be heard. So the force of this shout will be multiplied to transform violence and suffering into peace, solidarity and joy. Like Silo, spiritual leader of nonviolence, said:

"... All I ask is that these tremendous forces that history triggers, generate a planetary and truly human civilization in which inequality and intolerance are forever abolished. Then, as an old book says: "the weapons will be turned into farming tools".

The Community (for Human Development)
Word Coordination Team
September 2016

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October 2nd celebration, International Day of Non-Violence

The Community for human development, social and cultural organism of the Humanist Movement, have been working for 40 years to raise awareness of the need for a culture of non-violence in humans. We appreciate and support to the UN General Assembly to declare October 2nd as the World Day of Non Violence, in memory of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, and call on organizations and individuals to boost its worldwide celebration.

The current escalation of violence and global suffering, both physical and economic, results in the movement of people between countries, that’s why we consider more important than ever to work for a new culture where the human being is the most important, promoting nonviolence as method of action.

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The Community for Human Development. October 2. World Day of Non-Violence 2014.

The Community for Human Development. October 2. World Day of Non-Violence 2014.

Seven years ago, the General Assembly of the UN declared 2nd of October the World Day of Non-violence, in memory of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi and called to celebrate it. The Community for Human Development included it in his world calendar boosting its performance.

The Community, social and cultural grouping of the Humanist Movement, with its thousands of volunteers, has been working 50 years with the aim of installing a Culture of Peace and Non-violence in the world. A culture and a new consciousness that rejects violence, places the human being as the central value and use nonviolence as a method of action.

We know that the current situation is very critical. Poverty in many regions, clashes between cultures, violence and discrimination contaminate the lives of the population. Armed conflicts in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, the Islamic State, USA, Europe... with a deep global financial crisis and a nuclear threat is the biggest urgency of the moment. This is a very complex situation. Irresponsible nuclear powers, the madness of violent groups and the risk of accident can trigger a devastating conflict. We live the failure of a system whose central value is money and whose method of action is violence.

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