INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE AND YOUTH CLIMATE SUMMIT.
September 21st 2019.
The International Day of Peace is observed every year on September 21 and is also called World Peace Day. The United Nations General Assembly declared it a day “devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace”. For world peace, the United Nations has called upon on all nations to put their weapons down and reaffirm their commitment towards global harmony. The theme for International Day of Peace 2019 is “Climate Action for Peace”.
Pakistan 
This World Peace Day and call for climate action for peace was celebrated in St. Elizabeth’s Parish, Hyderabad, Pakistan, run by the Franciscan priests where our Columban Sisters are living and ministering. Each celebration of the Eucharist throughout Sunday highlighted the issues of the call of these past days: Peace, Climate Change and that we are to be the change and the peace that the world needs and that it starts in our own hearts and homes. Columban Sisters participated in these walks and demonstrations which were held throughout the world and some previously had the privilege to have heard Greta Thunberg speak and she was truly inspirational.
In its message for International Day of Peace, the United Nations said this year’s theme on climate action has been chosen as “the global climate emergency is a threat to security and stability.”
The United Nations has also organized a Climate Action Summit on September 23 to bolster up this year’s theme and take concrete climate action but on International Day of Peace the UN Youth Climate Summit gathered on a platform for young leaders who are driving climate action to showcase their solutions at the United Nations, and to meaningfully engage with decision-makers on the defining issue of our time.
This historic event took take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, as part of a weekend of events leading up to the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit on Monday, September 23rd 2019.
Biggest Ever Climate Protest. Greta Thunberg and the World’s Youth demand action.
The global demonstrations followed the sun, began in the Pacific and Asia and culminated in a massive demonstration in New York, with the young Swedish activist and candidate for the Nobel Prize Greta Thunberg at the helm, on the eve of the U.N. Climate Summit to start next week at the organization’s Manhattan headquarters, intended to inject urgency into governments’ actions to restrict the rise in global temperatures. Greta started the “Fridays For Future” movement whereby she motivated the youth of the world against extinction of our planet on her “Extinction Rebellion” platform.
Pope Francis said in Laudato Si: “Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded”.
Millions of people, mostly young students, from across 185 countries took to the streets of towns and cities around the world Friday, united across time zones and cultures to participate in the largest climate protest in history to demand urgent action from governments and every sector of society to save our planet.
Accompanying the young protesters were adults supporting their pressing call: trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people, employees of all kinds including from firms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook, doctors, nurses and public workers marching alongside the students.
“No one is too small to make a difference”. Greta Thunberg.
