This year's commemoration of the International Day of Peace is dedicated to Cultivating a Culture of Peace. Today, I congratulate the Colombian people for being a global example for these efforts.

In our almost eight years of work in the country, we have witnessed important advances in building this culture of peace, in which dialogue is prioritised as a way to resolve conflicts in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation.

These advances have been courageously and generously promoted by victims, by communities still affected by violence and by peace signatories, and have been supported by Colombian society and institutions.

In a world beset by increasing armed conflicts and divisions, the Colombian experience reminds us that the search for peace through dialogue and recognition of the other, overcoming exclusion, and the search for social justice is the path to reconciliation and lasting peace.

Today, I would like to call on you to persist on this path.

The road to peace is not always linear, and dialogue efforts can face obstacles and challenges. I encourage all those involved in the dialogues to think about a shared future and to remain committed to addressing differences at the dialogue roundtables.

The United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia will continue to accompany Colombians on the road to building peace.

Happy International Day of Peace. 

CARLOS RUIZ MASSIEU 
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Colombia