The Volunteering Festival of Lucca adopts the Appeal ‘Every man has the right to live in peace! Every man should have the opportunity to commit to peace!’

The fifth Volunteering Festival of Lucca, the national event of reference for those promoting solidarity in Italy, took place from 16 to 19 April 2015, at the Real Collegio of Lucca (Royal College), In this context the Italian NGOs Federation FOCSIV- Volunteers in the World has promoted the seminar ‘Volunteering and peace. The role of volunteers in conflict situations’.

The seminar saw the contribution of, among others, Prof. Antonio Papisca, UNESCO Chair in Human Rights, Democracy and Peace of the University of Padua, Joachim Ouedraogo Bishop of Koudougou in Burkina Faso, H.E. Edo Patriarca, H.E. Giulio Marcon, Raogo Antoine Sawadogo, President of the National Commission for Decentralisation in Burkina Faso. On this occasion, the participants presented and adopted the Appeal  ‘Every man has the right to live in peace! Every man should to have the opportunity to commit to peace!’ addressed to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Italian government and the European Union.

In particular, the signatories of the Appeal request:

The United Nations Human Rights Council and especially its intergovernmental working group on the right to peace:

• to prepare the text of a Declaration which legally recognises peace as a fundamental right of persons and peoples,
• to transpose in the final text the article 1 of the draft Declaration prepared by the Advisory Committee on Human Rights,
• to state the principle according to which war in itself is a crime against humanity,
• to indicate precise legal obligations for countries, with particular reference to disarmament, control of weapons' production and trade, cooperation to human development, protection of natural environment, enforcement of article 43 of the Charter in order to set up the collective security system provided for by the same Charter, 

The Italian government:

• to support, both at EU level and in all the relevant international institutions, the recognition of the right to peace
• to adopt such a right,
• to value and strengthen the commitment of many volunteers who, both in Italy and all around the world, work for peace, as peace promoters,
• to value and structure the bound‐to‐born Civil Peace Corps, in relation with international cooperation, 

The European Union:

• to recognise the right to peace
• to include among the aims and purposes of the activities of the European Volunteer Corps for Humanitarian Aid, the actions of peace‐building.

After the meeting, the Appeal promoted by FOCSIV in collaboration with the National Centre for Volunteering, Third Sector Forum, the Italian Peace Network, the Human Rights Centre of University of Padua, AOI, LINK 2007, Non-violent Movement for Human Rights, Platform M.O., Italian Network for Disarmament, was sent to the Members of the intergovernmental working group of the Human Rights Council on the right to peace.

Last update

29/4/2015