On September 2, 2026, Melissa Wild, Founder and Executive Director of UPEACE NY, delivered the University for Peace remarks at the United Nations High-Level Forum on the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace. Her remarks reflected on what it means to move from commitments toward the daily practice of peace, highlighting women’s leadership, inclusion, critical self-reflection, interdependence, and the importance of building relationships across divides. Read the Full Remarks Below, you can...

Melissa Wild Having spent my career in cross-cultural and cross-sectoral spaces, building and facilitating peace programs - be it intergroup dialogue, youth engagement or educational programs -, and having worked as a community mediator for the last five years as well, I have witnessed the enormous amount of creativity and innovation both required to build peace programs as well as to resolve and transform conflicts. Sometimes, such creativity and innovation can get lost when brought to scale...