The first-ever study ranking countries according to their level of peacefulness, the Global Peace Index, was recently published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Yet it fails to include the most prevalent form of global violence: violence against women and children, often in their own families.
Intimate and international violence are inextricably interconnected. But we can only see this once we include in studies of violence the majority: women and children. If we are serious about peace – not just about measuring it but about creating more of it – we have to look at the whole picture. We must pay particular attention to those formative experiences when young people first learn either to respect human rights or to accept human rights violations as just the way things are.
Only as we leave behind traditions of domination and violence in the human family will we have solid foundations on which to build global peace.
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