For more than four decades, the United Nations has designated 21 September as the International Day of Peace. On this occasion, the head of Iran's public diplomacy wrote that, despite all global efforts, international institutions have today, through a system of double standards, become a “club of the powers victorious in World War II.”

According to the Public Relations Department of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, the United Nations has declared 21 September the “International Day of Peace” for more than forty years. This initiative has gained even greater significance and attention under current circumstances, amid wars taking place across three continents.

On this occasion, Hojjat al-Islam Mohammad Mehdi Imanipour, Head of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, wrote an article that he provided to Tasnim News Agency.

The article states:

The late Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, during his lifetime, articulated important and valuable concepts for both domestic and international audiences of the Islamic Revolution. One of these concepts is “just peace.”

Revisiting this fundamental idea on a day designated on the international calendar as “World Peace Day” is particularly significant.

He presented two propositions within the conceptual framework of peace.

First:

“A peace whose meaning is that no one has the right to demand their rights is not a peace acceptable to Islam.” (1)

Second:

“For a nation, imposed and unjust peace is worse than war.” (2)

These two propositions transform “peace” from a formal and ornamental concept into a realistic and substantive issue.

In religious thought, peace is not the goal; rather, it is the environment or foundation. The principal objective is the establishment of justice, and peace has value only when it guarantees the preservation of justice.

In this regard, several points deserve consideration:

First: The concept of peace promoted by powers of domination

The peace sought and promoted by hegemonic powers and modern colonialists is, in reality, “colonial peace” or “submission to domination.”

Within this framework, peace does not mean the end of war; rather, it means “abandoning resistance.”

The world's public opinion and awakened human conscience do not accept this type of peace because, under it, the roots of crises—such as occupation, exploitation, racism, and structural injustice—are not resolved. Instead, they are consolidated.

When an aggressive actor such as the United States imposes its own “order” upon the world, peace, in its view, means “unconditional surrender.”

Awakened humanity has understood that the peace promoted by hegemonic powers is, in reality, a “tool” for rebuilding the power of the aggressor and suppressing movements seeking justice and their legitimate rights.

True peace cannot be achieved by numbing the will of nations. Rather, it is achieved by putting an end to deeply rooted injustice.

Therefore, any peace that deprives the oppressed of their “right to demand justice” is an unstable peace that inherently contains a “hidden war.”

Second: The foundations of just peace

The second point concerns the elements involved in establishing just peace in the world.

Just peace rests on four important pillars:

1. Acceptance of the right to self-determination

Every nation has the right to choose its own system of governance and way of life without foreign interference.

Peace without national sovereignty is not peace; it is colonialism.

2. Equality of human dignity

Under just peace, the security and rights of all people must be given equal weight according to the standards of moral judgment.

3. Collective security

Peace should not mean “security for the powerful and insecurity for others.”

Just peace means security for everyone, so that hegemonic actors cannot regard their own security as dependent upon the insecurity of independent countries.

4. Rationality and conformity with justice

Any peace agreement must be based on collective wisdom and must safeguard the rights of nations, rather than being negotiated behind closed doors or dictated by military and security think tanks.

Third: Resistance as a means of achieving just peace

Today, when enemies of peace have launched hybrid, economic, and proxy wars against independent governments and free nations, “just peace” cannot be achieved merely through slogans.

At this juncture, resistance is the only path to peace.

Achieving just peace in the present era requires a “balance of power.”

As long as the deterrent capabilities of independent nations do not reach a level at which the cost of aggression becomes unbearable for hegemonic powers, they will never come to the negotiating table for a genuinely just agreement.

In addition to hard power, steadfastness in the “war of wills” is vital.

Free nations must, alongside defensive struggle, use “the struggle to clarify and explain the truth” to expose the false peace promoted by hegemonic powers.

We must demonstrate that defending one's homeland is not an act of warmongering, but rather a peaceful action intended to prevent the outbreak of larger wars.

In fact, in a world where wolves in sheep's clothing seek to impose peace, the only way to achieve “sustainable peace” is to “become stronger.”

Fourth: Double standards in international institutions

Unfortunately, international institutions today suffer from a “contradiction and double standards.”

Under their current structure, they have effectively become a “club of the powers victorious in World War II.”

To overcome the shortcomings in achieving just peace, these institutions require deep structural reforms, rather than merely superficial changes.

International legal institutions must move out from under the influence of the policymaking and bargaining of hegemonic actors, particularly the United States.

Selective justice is the killer of peace.

If an international organization remains silent in the face of genocide in one region while, elsewhere, it unjustly uses legal instruments to wage a campaign against an independent country, it effectively loses its legitimacy.

International organizations should become platforms for “the pursuit of justice,” rather than instruments for legitimizing the aggressive policies of those described as enemies of humanity.

Independent countries should, through coalition-building, increase their political weight within international organizations in favor of justice.

Without a doubt, peace must not become a commodity that is begged for from the hands of hegemonic countries.

Just peace is a legacy that can only be achieved through “the pursuit of rights” and “steadfastness.”

Peace is genuine only when justice is woven into it.

Otherwise, peace without justice is nothing more than the cemetery of nations' aspirations, where the right to demand justice is treated as the greatest crime.

The world today does not need the “imposed peace” of hegemonic powers; it needs the “sustainable peace” sought by those who demand justice.

Footnotes

1. Statement attributed to the late Imam Khamenei during a meeting with the people of Izeh, 1 December 1999.

2. Statement attributed to the late Imam Khamenei during a meeting with government officials on the occasion of Eid al-Mab'ath, 21 October 2001.