The U.N. should do more to reinforce peace around the world, including I think the peacekeepers army should be bigger and more present in many countries to defend human rights of the population. The policymakers in Brazil should read about what cause the persistent high rate of homicides in Brazil. The right to life must be respected and killers must have a harsh punishment. This post is a summary of the book with the title of, "Pathways for Peace" published in 2018 at https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/2b4001d9-eaf2-56c9-957f-ea16b21fbd2a/content
In 2015, the U.N. set ambitious goals for the world with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which offers a unique framework to come together around a renewed effort at preventing human suffering. The agenda, which is universal, not only aims to end poverty and hunger, to ensure healthy lives and quality education, but also to reduce inequalities and promote peaceful, just and inclusive societies. Violent conflict is recognized as one of the big obstacle to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. Its dramatic resurgence over the last few years has caused immense human suffering and has global impact. It is projected that more than half of the people living in poverty will be found in countries affected by high levels of violence by 2030. As the human, social and financial costs and complexity of violent conflict and its global impact grow, we must ask ourselves: how can the global community prevent violent conflict? This upsurge in violence occurs in a volatile global context where the balance of geopolitical power is in flux, and transnational factors like advances in information technology create risks and opportunities to be managed at multiple levels. Because violent conflict tends to persist once it takes root, its impacts accumulate. Infrastructure and institutions are quickly destroyed. Exposure to violence can have devastating lifelong impacts on psychological well-being. Drops in investment, together with the cost of responding to violence, put intense strain on state capacity. This surge in violence afflicts both low- and middle-income countries with relatively strong institutions and calls into question the long-standing assumption that peace will accompany income growth and the expectations of steady social, economic, and political advancement that defined the end of the 20th century. The best way to prevent societies from descending into crisis, including but not limited to conflict, is to ensure that they are resilient through investment in inclusive and sustainable development. For all countries, addressing inequalities and exclusion, making institutions more inclusive are central to preventing the fraying of the social fabric that could erupt into crisis. The primary responsibility for preventive action rests with states, both through their national policy and their governance of the multilateral system. Exclusion from access to power, opportunity, services, and security creates fertile ground for mobilizing group grievances to violence, especially in areas with weak state capacity in the context of human rights abuses. This study points to specific ways in which states can seek to avert violence, including through more inclusive policies. A comprehensive shift toward preventing violence and sustaining peace offers life-saving rewards. This book presents an agenda for action to ensure that attention, efforts, and resources are focused on prevention. Today, the consequences of failing to act together are alarming evident, and the call for urgent action has perhaps never been clearer. The time to act is now. While the rate of homicides seems to be declining around the world, it remains very high in Latin America and the Caribbean. A 2017 World Bank study calls the problem "staggering and persistent" in "the world's most violent region", which houses 42 of the 50 most violent cities. Homicides in Brazil can be attributed to the prevalence of the drug trade and the activity of violent gangs in certain neighborhoods, exacerbated by corruption and poor training among police forces and ineffectiveness in the court system. Violence in Venezuela is on the rise, with the capital Caracas ranked the most murderous city in the world. In Mexico, violence driven by drug cartels remains very high. On the other hand, homicides rates in Colombia have declined significantly in the last decade. Many countries have used the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the universal treaties that derive from it as a shared foundation for normative and legal change. International tools like fact-finding missions, routine reporting, investigative commissions and special rapporteurs have often focused on maintaining dialogue with governments on violations on rights, discrimination, and abuses as part of efforts to reduce the risks of conflicts. This study highlights and elaborates how synergies between peace and development can be effectively pursued. Where the SDGs call for inclusivity and for the imperative of leaving no one behind. While there is no single formula for effectively preventing violence, this study demonstrates that prevention works, saves lives and is cost-effective. It estimates that "savings" generated from prevention range from US$5 billion to US$69 billion a year. Preventing violence is a continuous process requiring long-term domestic efforts to promote inclusive institutions. Targeted engagement, through different entry points, is critical. It is time to address distorted incentives and to do the utmost to prevent human suffering and avoid the exorbitant costs of conflict. The time to act is now. The agenda for humanity is a five point plan that outlines the changes needed to alleviate suffering, reduce risk, and lessen vulnerability on global scale. In the 2030 Agenda, humanity: people's safety, dignity and right to thrive is placed at the heart of global decision making around five core responsibilities, including the prevention and ending of conflicts.
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