Choir groups sang of hope, youth leaders spoke on the importance of non-violence, and boys and girls from several schools in and around New York and New Jersey filled every seat of a conference room at the UN headquarters in recognition of the 11th UN Observance of the Season for Nonviolence from Jan. 30 to April 4.

"Education is the key to develop peace, and I am a product of those efforts," John Ng’Ongolo, a diplomat from Tanzania told the students.

The Season for Non-violence is a national 64–day educational grassroots campaign committed to encouraging non-violence and inspired by the 50th and 30th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez.

Six other organizations sponsored the UN event, including The M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and the Association for Global New Thought, a group that promotes spiritually motivated activism.

The season has been observed at the UN since 1988. Its promotion has led to activities in 467 cities in 40 states and 18 countries over the past eight years.

Michael Beckwith, co-founder of the Association for Global New Thought which organizes A Season of Non-violence, said the group had gathered to remind themselves that civilization and violence are antithetical.

"You are the spiritual trustees of a civilization seeking to be born," he told the hundreds of young people in the audience.

Stella Schuhmacher, who works in the child protection program at UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, introduced a three–year UN study released in 2006 which exposed the scale and impact of violence against children globally.

"Violence is never justifiable and always preventable," she said. (AP)