A/79/182 I. Introduction 1. The urgency of peace is being felt deeply and painfully around the world. Millions the world over are only too aware that their enjoyment of human rights is heavily contingent on peace, that violence and war lead to a retreat of gains in rights, and that human rights facilitate peace. The world is getting far more violent. Data suggest that there has been a 40 per cent increase in conflict compared with 2020, and that one in six people is living in an area of active conflict. 1 As ever higher numbers of people around the world suffer, it is timely to focus on peace and its relationship to freedom of religion or belief. 2. Human rights and peace are conjoined in the Charter of the United Nations. The very purpose of the United Nations, as set out in article 1 of the Charter, includes maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, harmonizing the actions of nations, achieving international cooperation in solving international problems and “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction”. 2 From the very foundation of the United Nations itself, therefore, peace and human rights, including freedom of thought, conscience and religion (freedom of religion or belief), were recognized as foundational to the Organization. 3. The purpose of the present report is to draw attention to the correlation between the rights to peace and to freedom of religion or belief. One of the distinct observations made in the report is that freedom of religion or belief creates the conditions, motivations, rationales and movements for peace to emerge, strengthening conflict prevention, peacemaking and peacebuilding. The recognition of this relationship is especially important given the frequency with which religion is invoked or implicated in conflict. II. Normative background to the right to peace 4. The right to “peace” (discussed in the present report through a contrast with violence, conflict and war) and a culture of peace has been on the agenda of the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council for some 40 years. 5. In 1984, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, in which it recognized that the maintenance of a peaceful life for peoples is the sacred duty of each State and solemnly proclaimed that the peoples of the planet have a “sacred” right to peace. 3 6. Fifteen years later, in its resolution 53/243 on the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, the General Assembly recognized a relationship between peace, freedom of religion or belief, and non-discrimination on the basis of religion or belief. It noted the need to eliminate all forms of discrimination and intolerance, 4 for full respect for, and promotion of, all human rights and freedoms, 5 and to advance understanding and tolerance among peoples and cultures, including __________________ 1 2 3 4 5 24-13239 Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, Conflict Index, updated January 2024. Available at https://acleddata.com/conflict-index. See also 18 June 2024 statement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the fifty-sixth session of the Human Rights Council. Available at www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/06/we-must-urgentlyfind-our-way-back-peace-says-high-commissioner. Charter of the United Nations, art. 1. General Assembly resolution 39/11, annex, sixth preambular para. and operative para. 1. General Assembly resolution 53/243, seventh preambular para. Ibid., arts. 1 (c) and 3 (c). 3/22