02 国际非暴力日 International Day of Non-Violence

The International Day of Non-Violence is on the 2nd of October. It is not surprising that this is also the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. The day started in 2007 after the United Nations General Assembly voted for it. The U.N. resolution asked all its members to observe the holiday in "an appropriate manner” and to spread “the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness." The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi played a big part in starting this day. At the World Social Forum in Bombay in 2004, she suggested such a day should be created. India’s Sonia Gandhi and South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu also called upon the United Nations to adopt the idea.

Non-violence means rejecting the use of physical violence to achieve social or political change. It is sometimes described as "the politics of ordinary people". Mahatma Gandhi famously helped lead India to independence from Britain using non-violence. He has since been the inspiration for civil rights movements throughout the world. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was motivated by Gandhi as he fought for racial equality in the USA in the 1950s and 60s. One of Gandhi’s most famous quotes summarizes the spirit of non-violence. He said: “There are many causes that I am prepared to die for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.” He also said: "Non-violence is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction.”