International Day of Peace 2025: Turning Pledges into Action

Written By Taban Shoresh

Last week in London, our Founder & CEO Taban Shoresh spoke at the Peace is All of Us Summit for the International Day of Peace, reminding global leaders of a simple but urgent truth:

“Peace may look different across our stories, our cultures, and our generations - but it should always be rooted in one truth: peace is lived, not imagined.”

At The Lotus Flower, we are proud to be living this commitment through the opening of our new Women, Peace & Security Centre (WPS), in Kurdistan, Iraq.

The Centre will be marking its official opening this week on Thursday, 2nd October. Born out of our pledge made at the Global Refugee Forum, the pledge was made in partnership with the Action Network on Forced Displacement, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the UN Women’s Peace & Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), New Women Connectors, and the IDP Women Association Consent. 

Together, we pledged to advance displaced women’s participation and leadership in peacebuilding and decision-making. 

Now, that pledge has become reality. Since opening its doors, the WPS Centre has already:

  • Trained 110 Peace Sisters & Brothers (74 women, 36 men) in mediation, conflict resolution, and gender equality

  • Begun youth-focused soft skills programmes in critical thinking, leadership, and communication

  • Hosted the first of eight stakeholder workshops to raise awareness of UNSCR1325 with NGOs and government representatives

  • Established new partnerships with the University of Duhok’s Peace & Conflict Resolution Centre, with joint research now underway on women’s leadership in the Kurdistan Region’s security sector



Crucially, the Peace Centre is a safe space run by women, for women - a place for grassroots leadership, cross-cultural dialogue, and peacebuilding initiatives that bring together displaced communities, host societies, and young people.

In a world where conflict and displacement is rising, we need peace now more than ever before. As Taban reminded us in her speech at the Peace Summit: 

“We cannot build peace on foundations of occupation, displacement, militarisation, and inequality. Transforming peace requires courage to confront injustice, even when it is uncomfortable. Women have the transformative power of leadership in peacemaking, so we must include them at every stage.”

This month, as we celebrate the official opening of the WPS Centre, we recommit to the mission: to ensure that peace is not imagined, but lived.


#InternationalPeaceDay #GRF #RefugeeVoices #WomensLeadership #PeaceCentre #TheLotusFlower #PeaceBuilding

Taban Shoresh
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