We recognise and commemorate the Mexican Nobel Peace Laureate, Ambassador Alfonso Garcia Robles, for his role in the adoption of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, and in the initiation of the concept of nuclear weapons-free zones.
We also wish to congratulate the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates on its 20th anniversary. We thank it for organising this XVIIth Summit and acknowledge its contribution over the past two decades in providing a global platform for Nobel Peace Laureates to express their views on continuing threats to peace and in sharing their experiences in peace-making with the coming generation.
We have been immensely enriched by the presence of more than 1 000 young people at the Summit and by our interaction with them on the issues that will mould the world that they will inherit. Ultimately, their lives will be deeply affected by our common success or failure in addressing the climate crisis; in controlling nuclear weapons and in building a world based on a culture of peace, human rights and social justice.
At the conclusion of our meeting – and after in-depth consideration of the threats to peace, social progress and our environment – we have adopted the following Declaration:
THE MÉRIDA DELARATION
We need a renewed understanding of the concept of peace. After the devastation of two World Wars and a series of ideological, religious and civil wars, the relative absence of war has been mistaken as the achievement of peace. For as long as basic freedoms are violated and gross corruption, violence, extreme poverty, inequality, racism, modern-day slavery and trafficking of persons, discrimination, and discrimination phobias exist, there can be no true peace. We proclaim that true peace is inseparable from the achievement of true justice.
We are deeply concerned about current threats to peace, social justice and global sustainability for the world and for future generations. Every human being should understand how we are all interconnected – not only with one another, but with all life on our beautiful planet. Any threat to the wellbeing of any of us – or to our environment – affects us all.
We accordingly call on every single person to leave their mark for peace in the world that we all share.
We call on all citizens to participate in building a more just, a more peaceful and a more sustainable world by working for the Goals in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Summit is deeply concerned about the threat posed to humanity by the climate and environmental crisis. We have heard the worldwide call of young people on 20 September for concerted action by governments to take real and overdue action to combat global warming and to reduce carbon emissions.
Issued by the WSNPL, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico
22 September 2019