The 2016 UN General Assembly Declaration on the Right to Peace: A Step towards Sustainable Positive Peace within Societies?

Abstract

In 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Right to Peace. This article examines whether the implementation of the Declaration can likely lead to the realization of the right to peace in a way that elicits sustainable peace within societies. Thus, diverging from earlier studies, it provides conceptual and practical critiques of the Declaration to evaluate the viability of the right. First, following an in-depth analysis of the Declaration, this article draws on peace and conflict studies to explain what sustainable intra-state peace entails. Second, it establishes that the liberal and positive elements of peace and the frameworks prescribed in the Declaration are inadequate to address horizontal inequalities across all relevant identity groups qua groups, which is required to elicit sustainable peace. Third, it proposes guiding principles to direct implementing institutions, particularly UN bodies and frameworks, towards diagnosing and tackling inequalities across collectivities, thereby complementing the prevailing individualistic human rights approach.