As global leaders prepare to meet in The Hague for the 2025 NATO Summit, civil society organisations, activists, and concerned citizens are gathering across the city to offer a timely and constructive message: security is not enough. We must also stand for just peace.
Launched during the Just Peace Festival, the public statement Stand for Just Peace has already been endorsed by over 80 organisations and individuals. It calls for a balanced and people-centred approach to peace and security: one that recognises justice, inclusion, and human resilience as essential to any lasting peace.
“This is not a protest,” says Jill Wilkinson, Managing Director of The Hague Humanity Hub, the organisation behind the statement. “It’s a civic response. We’re not rejecting security or even the need for deterrence and defense in the face of threats – we’re calling attention to what is also needed, namely investment in the social, economic, and political foundations of peace and security.”
The statement has been endorsed by a growing network of peacebuilders, legal scholars, youth advocates, international NGOs. Among them are PAX, The Hague Academy for Local Governance, Partos, CyberPeace Institute, MasterPeace, ZOA, HiiL, and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.
“We will only achieve just peace if all people feel safe, free, and protected,” said Rolien Sasse, director of PAX. “We urge Europe and NATO countries to choose this road of peace and justice in defence of the global rights-based order.”
“We believe true peace is achieved when people can solve conflicts through nonviolent means, in a just society based on rule of law,” added Edwin Visser, Chief Programme Officer at ZOA
The call comes at a time when military budgets are rising across Europe, even as funding for conflict prevention, human rights, and civil peacebuilding efforts declines.“Worldwide, thousands of people are working on peacebuilding far from the negotiation tables,” noted Cecile Meijs, director of The Hague Academy for Local Governance. “For sustainable peace, we need to invest in people-centred peacebuilding from the bottom up.”
The statement and the Just Peace Festival position The Hague – long known as the international city of peace and justice – as host to not only a military alliance summit, but also a wider civic dialogue about the future of peace.
The statement campaign and Festival continue through the NATO summit until the 26 of June. A symbolic moment is planned during Hague Talks on Monday evening 23 June, where international speakers, artists, and peacebuilders will reflect on the call for just peace.