Choose Peace

This year’s theme of the International Day of Peace, “Invest in Peace: For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day”, is a reminder that peaceful societies make deliberate choices about what to protect, encourage and normalize.

The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina - having benefited from a hard-won peace for the past three decades – know the value of these deliberate choices. 

Across the country, there are everyday architects of peace: survivors pursuing truth and justice; teachers equipping students with critical thinking skills; journalists resisting manipulation; women building trust and societal healing; young people interacting across boundaries they did not draw; and civil society organizations, artists and faith actors creating spaces for difficult conversations.

Investing in peace means investing in them. Their grasp of local realities, and trust among communities, can shape behaviors and narratives across generations, helping to ease tensions and prevent future conflicts.

Investing in peace also means confronting what remains unresolved. 

The recent reactions to the death of Ratko Mladić caused real harm, most immediately to survivors and victims’ families, but also to societal healing. In essence, such events hamper Bosnia and Herzegovina’s protracted transition from post-conflict trauma to sustainable peace. 

Ratko Mladić was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including for genocide in Srebrenica, and that conviction was upheld on appeal. These are judicially established facts. 

But courts cannot determine what a society chooses to do with that record.

That work happens elsewhere: in classrooms and newsrooms, around family tables, in parliaments and municipal halls, on television screens and social media. In a country that chooses peace, established facts are taught responsibly; victims are treated with dignity; and the past helps people understand where they come from.

Dealing with the past is therefore not about living in the past. It is about protecting the future from its misuse.

That work involves all parts of society, but political leaders carry a particular responsibility. Words spoken from positions of authority shape what becomes acceptable. During an electoral period especially, disagreement is inevitable and vigorous political debate is healthy. Dehumanization, hate speech, denial and glorification are not.

A new generation is listening and forming political opinions.

This generation should have access to facts and opportunities to encounter one another. They are citizens now, with ideas about the country’s future.

A majority want accountable institutions, freedom from discrimination, opportunities to work and prosper, and a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them. Young women must have that voice too, not merely a seat in the room, but genuine influence over decisions on peace and security.

This is why investing in peace goes beyond financing projects. The country and its citizens must own its peace, and inclusive institutions must build the social foundations on which peace rests.

The United Nations will continue to support the people, institutions and communities carrying this work forward. On this International Day of Peace, I invite everyone to make the same choice.

Choose dialogue over division. Facts over manipulation. Participation over exclusion. Choose peace.

I commit to hearing these voices and to acting. What about you?