During the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, today, 17 June 2026, we delivered a joint statement together with our co-signing partners, the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO), the International Office of Catholic Education (OIEC), Caritas Internationalis, Vides Internazionale, IIMA Human Rights Office, Associazione Papa Giovanni XXIII and Edmund Rice International.

The statement was presented by Pax Christi International through Jonathan Frerichs, our main representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, during the panel discussion on human rights and a culture of peace.

In our intervention, we expressed deep concern over the growing fragmentation of the international system, the rise of militarism, and the weakening commitment to multilateral and collective solutions. We reaffirmed that international solidarity is not only a founding principle of the United Nations, but also a moral imperative grounded in human dignity.

Today, millions of people continue to suffer the consequences of violence, inequality, the climate crisis, and the exploitation of natural resources, with particularly severe impacts on the most vulnerable communities. We stressed the urgent need to build a new framework for international cooperation based on Active Nonviolence and on the meaningful participation of civil society at all levels of peacebuilding.