Every year, on October 2, the International Day of Non-Violence is celebrated. How to define non-violence and what are the past and current movements? Interview with Chloé Maurel, doctor of history, UN specialist and author of The Great Speeches at the UN (2024).
RFI: The International Day of Non-Violence is celebrated on October 2, the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. Why did the UN want to create this day through a resolution dating from 2007?
Chloe Maurel : In 2007, the world was in a period of serious conflict, with the war led by the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The American president, who was then the Republican George W. Bush, is very belligerent and Manichean, with his “axis of evil” rhetoric, designating enemy countries. It is in this context that the UN, a universal international organization aiming to work for peace and democracy in the world, launched the “International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Non-Violence and Peace in the World”. benefit of the children of the world” (2001-2010), following the appeal of all living Nobel Peace Prize winners to this effect on November 10, 1998. Thus, in 2007, during this “Decade of Non -violence”, the UN created this “International Day of Non-Violence”, to promote peaceful ways of thinking, and the resolution of conflicts through negotiation and not through force and war.
How can we define non-violence?
The term was created in 1919 by Gandhi, to translate into English the Hindu concept, in Sanskrit language, of ahimsawhich means “non-violence”, “respect for life” and “kindness”. Non-violence can be defined as a way of thinking and acting which avoids all violence and which resolves conflicts through speech, through negotiation, in a benevolent, humane and peaceful manner. Gandhi defines non-violence as “non-participation in anything believed to be evil”.
But already, long before Gandhi, several thinkers, in the East as well as in the West, had developed reflections on non-violence, as had Socrates in Greece in the 5th century BC, Lao-Tseu around the same time in China. , then in the 16th century the French philosopher La Boétie, and in the 19th century the American poet and naturalist Henry D. Thoreau.
Thus, we observe that non-violence is a form of thought which is located at the crossroads of history, philosophy, political science, geopolitics, psychology (Freud maintained a correspondence with Einstein on the theme “Why war”), and science (Einstein and Russell published their manifesto in 1955 warning against the destructive power of nuclear weapons).
Mahatma Gandhi inspired nonviolent movements fighting for civil rights and social change around the world. What are the different types of nonviolent action?
There are several modalities of non-violent action and they have been experimented on several occasions throughout history. Conscientious objection, that is to say the refusal of certain young men to carry out their military service, is one. Pacifism is another, notably through petitions, as the Peace Movement and the World Peace Council did with the Stockholm Appeal in 1950 against atomic and nuclear armament. Boycott, sit-ins (widely used by American students in the 1960s against the Vietnam War), passive resistance, are others. The struggle of American slaves and abolitionists to escape runaway slaves from the South to the North of the country in the 19th century, nicknamed the “Underground Railroad” (“Underground Railroad”). Underground Railroad ) is another example.
In the 20th century, in the United States, Pastor Martin Luther King is an example of non-violent struggle for the cause of civil rights, against segregation. In India, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, who lives in exile there, uses non-violence to try to resolve the Sino-Tibetan conflict. In the 1980s, in Poland, Lech Walesa and in Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, fought non-violently against the communist governments of their respective countries. In South Africa, activist Steve Biko fought non-violently against apartheid.
Apart from the example of Gandhi in India, during the struggle for independence, what other non-violent struggles can we cite?
Examples can be cited on all continents during the 20th and 21st centuries: the overthrow of the Colombian dictatorship following the women’s initiative in Colombia in 1957; the “People Power” revolution, also called the “rosary revolution” or “yellow revolution”, which led to the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines in 1986; the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; the “Velvet Revolution” in Czechoslovakia the same year; the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine in 2004; the “jasmine revolution” in Tunisia, ousting President Ben Ali (late 2010-early 2011); the “Cedar Revolution” in Lebanon, when the country emancipated itself from Syrian tutelage in 2005. Each time, for the activists in non-violent struggle, it is a question of making the ideals of social progress prevail, of justice, democracy, equality and freedom.
Currently, are there non-violent movements? What about the “umbrella revolution” born in 2014 in Hong Kong?
The “Umbrella Revolution” in Hong Kong is a peaceful pro-democracy protest movement against the brutal ideological takeover of Hong Kong by the government of the People’s Republic of China, following the handover of Hong Kong. in 1997. But it was brutally repressed by central Chinese power, leading to clashes.
Today, there are no longer too many non-violent movements, war and conflicts are everywhere, from Ukraine to Gaza via Sudan and Yemen, and even on American or French campuses, demonstrations and student-led occupations often end in clashes with police. Today we are witnessing, unfortunately, a decline in the values of peace and non-violence, alongside a dizzying increase in military spending in France as in the other great powers, an increase against which the population would have the right to protest.
For a number of years, the UN has been heavily criticized for its lack of action to stop wars and violence around the world. How and by what means can the principles of peace and non-violence be put forward in our current societies?
The ideas of peace and non-violence lack visibility today, all over the world. The International Day of Peace, September 21, had little echo this year. The UN is underfunded and often exploited by big companies or by powers like China. When people see how the leaders of this world confront each other with heavy bombings, from Ukraine to Gaza, this does not provide an example or a model of non-violent conflict resolution. Fortunately, mentalities are changing a lot at the moment on the question of non-violence in the private sphere, with the denunciation of violence against women. On this level at least, society is making real progress.
States should delegate more power and budget to the UN for the peaceful resolution of conflicts, which involves removing the right to veto which often paralyzes this organization. The International Criminal Court’s affirmation of wanting to bring war-mongering heads of state to justice also goes in the right direction and could be a means of resolving these armed conflicts.