The General Assembly Adopts Declaration on the Right to Peace

On November 18th, the General Assembly established the Declaration on the Right to Peace. Many States and civil society groups have been fighting for the recognition of this right for twenty years.  This lengthy process was due to the great lack of consensus as to the meaning of the concept of peace as a right and because it would increase the  obligations of States, for example, to actively and transparently control the arms trade and to suppress the illegal sale of these. The first attempt to adopt peace as a right was carried out by UNESCO in 1997. In 2012 i n its 20th session, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 20/15 , which established the Working Group (WG) on the Right to Peace .  Spearheading this WG was Chairperson-Rapporteur Mr. Christian Guillermet, Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica. The WG met for three sessions in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland. A few days ago the WG was able to see the success of the adoption of  Resolution A/HRC/32/28, acknowledging the Declaration on the Right to Peace. This Declaration is expected to achieve ratification in December 2016 by the Plenary of the General Assembly.  This is the first peace Declaration to be adopted by the General Assembly in the new millennium.