Blogs
This page features blog posts and updates from Peace SOS.
Topics include peacebuilding efforts, humanitarian concerns, and reflections on current events.
Peace for a world where every child can play
Peace is not an idea — it is a right. A child’s right to laugh without fear, to play without learning the sound of bombs, to run after a ball, not toward a shelter. We believe the world becomes more human when it is safe enough for all children to simply play. Peace...
A Story from a Rohingya living in the Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh
I am a Rohingya and I live in the world's largest Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. Cox's Bazar is the district of Bangladesh where 32 Rohingya refugee camps are located and is known as the world's largest Rohingya refugee camp. Cox's Bazar is a hilly and crowded...
Allow aid organisations into Gaza and the West Bank
On Tuesday 30 December, the NOS website reported that Israel is barring dozens of aid organisations from operating in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank from 1 January. The NOS went on to report that the list, shared by the AP news agency, included the Dutch...
Child Labor in Pakistan: Situation and Solutions (Part 1)
Governments must protect children from economic exploitation and from work that is dangerous or might harm their health, development, or education. Governments must set a minimum age for children to work and ensure that work conditions are safe and appropriate....
All our lives we have been waiting for peace in Gaza
On Thursday 20 September, I was concerned for the safety of Salama and his family in Gaza. Yesterday, NOS news reported that on Wednesday 19 November, Israeli bombings on Gaza killed 25 people, according to the Palestinian authorities. Fortunately, I soon received a...
Summary of the report of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine submitted the present report to the 80th session of the UN General Assembly on 27th October 2025. Below you find the summary of this report. The Commission’s latest investigations have established that in...
Stop killing children and civilians in Gaza and around the world
On 29th October, Salama sent me another urgent message. Salama coordinates Peace SOS Gaza. “Unfortunately, there are sounds of explosions and aircraft…” Then I see a photo of a huge cloud of smoke next to their tent. “The bombings affected all areas of the Gaza Strip,...
Allow humanitarian aid into Gaza
Since the ceasefire came into effect, Salama has returned to his home to film what remains of it. His family's house was completely destroyed at the beginning of the war. He and his family also lived in his father's house, but that too was destroyed during the last...
Salama’s family in Gaza happy with ceasefire
The first words Salama sent me this morning, 9 October, were: Good morning and happiness my friend May. Since yesterday I have been trying to congratulate you that the war will stop but the internet connection was very difficult. The ceasefire is expected to take...
We hope that the killing machine in Gaza will be stopped
The Salama family in Gaza, with whom we are in contact, has fled from Gaza City to another part of Gaza. On Sunday, 28 September, Salama wrote to me: Bombing and destruction are widespread in Gaza. More than 90 people lost their lives in 24 hours. Entire families were...
Yesterday felt like doomsday in Gaza
The Salama family, with whom we are in contact in Gaza – and who until recently distributed drinking and shower water to refugees in Gaza – are having a very tough time. They now have to flee to the south of Gaza. To a so-called “humanitarian zone” in Gaza, but as...
The principle of nonviolence remains key even after this Russian attack
On Thursday morning, I read on the Dutch news website NOS that 15 people had been killed in a major air strike on Kyiv, including four children. An EU building had also been hit. My thoughts went out to Yurii Sheliazhenko, my pacifist Ukrainian peace activist friend...