Stories from around the globe show how a united world is already in motion. This platform highlights experiences, initiatives, and projects from people and communities working for unity and peace. Explore what’s happening and get inspired.
<p><em>High-Level Thematic Debate on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation, promoted by top members of the United Nations, gained momentum during a panel discussion, moderated by BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan: the role of religions in today’s world</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>What are the religions in today’s world? </strong>Many see them as obstacles to peace, the residue of ages past that today are the cause of violent extremism. What would the world really be more peaceful without the religions? The High-Level Thematic Debate on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation suddenly became animated. The second day of the UN meeting offered some directives.</p>
<p><em>An exemplary measure in a country where acts of sexual violence are unfortunately common</em></p> <p>An ethnic armed group from Manipur, Northeast India, the Kuki National Organization (KNO), affirmed its policy to strictly prohibit and punish any act of sexual violence perpetrated by its members. It made its commitment concrete by signing Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment prohibiting sexual violence and against gender discrimination on 22 March 2015.
<p><em>The speech by the Focolare Movement’s president, Maria Voce at the High-Level Thematic Debate on “Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation”</em></p> <p><strong>To risk your own life so as to relieve the suffering of the poor</strong>. This was Maria Voce’s invitation as she spoke of the last terrible phase of the Second World War, when in 1943 “a group of young women got together in the small city of Trent in northern Italy. While their city was being bombed, those young people, who were guided by a young teacher named Chiara Lubich, and urged on by a new understanding of the radical nature of Gospel love, decided to risk their lives to relieve the suffering of the poor.”</p>
<p><em>Denying the fundamental right of seeking assistance is tantamount to denying democracy and dignity of the person</em></p> <p>“The Mediterranean must become a humanitarian channel”, said to MISNA Monsignor Giancarlo Perego, director of the Migrantes Foundation, after a migrant boat capsized over the weekend leaving hundreds feared dead off of Libya’s coasts. A first focus must be immediately ensuring adequate search and rescue efforts, not only from Italy, but a European coordination. Monsignor Perego stressed that the necessary funds are available and migrants rights to seek help must be guaranteed, at all costs, without “distinction”.</p>
<p><em>A live recount of the tragedy in Garissa, Kenya. Sharing pain, bringing relief to relatives of murdered students. Solidarity born of tragedy.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>”The slaughter in Garissa took place on Good Friday.</strong> I went to the morgue where they were taking the bodies of the students for identification, not far from my home in Nairobi. I took my camera along. It was impossible not to hear the sirens. I found the parents of the murdered students fainting on one side. . . and on ther other my colleagues with news cameras. I could certainly have shot a few interviews, but I just couldn’t do it; I found myself weeping with the families.
<p><em>In Florence (Italy) a “Bed and Breakfast” accommodations project. One of the many initiatives launched by the worldwide New Families of the Focolare, to help those in need.</em></p> <p><strong>Cesar, an 18-year old from Ghana, was saved just when he was about to drown</strong>, after he had drunk water and fuel. On that journey, 72 people were saved while 32 died. <strong>Maria, a Nigerian and seven months pregnant, </strong><strong>had </strong>received a phone call from her father while she was out with her husband and little son. He told them not to return home because the church had been burnt and her mother killed. <strong>They escaped with the little they had, and arrived in Libya</strong>. They had money for the journey to Italy of just one person, and so only she left. Her husband and little son remained on the other side of the Mediterranean, waiting for another embarkment.</p>
<p><em>An appeal to respect the cease-fire seems to be the only way</em></p> <p>Foreign ministers from France, Ukraine, Germany and Russia have met in Berlin to try and preserve a fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.</p> <p>The Minsk peace deal was not only supposed to usher in a truce but it is also expected to provide a framework for a political solution.</p>
<p><em>We are all against terrorism and violence. We are all Bardo. We are all Charlie.</em></p> <p>“Tunisia is free! Terrorism out!”</p> <p>That was the message from tens of thousands in the capital where, amid tight security, citizens joined by world leaders have marched to denounce Islamist militants after the deadly Bardo Museum attack.</p>
<p><em>Abraham, a young Mexican boy, shares his pacific battle for a better country, amid the great inequalities that reign.</em></p> <p>«Hi, my name’s Abraham, and I come from Mexico: a population of noble and deeply religious people, with their arms spread out to the world.» These were his opening words to an audience of 300 young people in a hall of the Italian Parliament, who gathered to pay homage to Chiara Lubich and her prophetic vision of politics. Abraham has brought along his background in a country torn apart by narcotrafficking and the lords of death.
Health, Sport & Ecology
United World Week
Discover Run4Unity 2026, a global race bringing thousands of young people together in the name of peace. From Italy to Uganda, Brazil to Hong Kong, the relay of solidarity and sport forms just one part of United World Week 2026.
Dialogue & Interculture
United World Week
Here’s the key: knowing that we do not know. No one possesses the absolute Truth, and by engaging in dialogue with everyone we can grasp aspects or fragments of truth that help us reassemble a shattered vase that we can restore only if we are “together”.
Economy & Work
Anna Granata, professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca, reminds us that teaching peace is not an abstract utopia. It is something that happens every day in Italian classrooms among children with diverse stories, languages, and backgrounds.
Art & Social Commitment
Celebrated Marvel and DC artist Gabriele Dell’Otto invites us to consider the people who are working to build peace as the real superheroes of our world. A profound discussion on responsibility, citizenship, and the challenge of doing the extraordinary in our everyday lives.
EN
