House of Peace – Vision and Objectives
In Vilnius, the House of Peace is a civic home where dialogue, art and care replace fear and war—making peace visible and replicable.
International Centre for Civil Initiatives “Our House”
Vilnius, Lithuania
Concept
The House of Peace in Vilnius forms part of the emerging Peace Infrastructure of Eastern Europe — a civil, cultural, and ecological response to the devastation caused by war, exile, and polarization. It continues Our House’s long-standing mission of protecting conscience, dignity, and nonviolence, now extended into a living space where dialogue, art, and care replace ideology, silence, and fear.
It is designed as a civic home — not an institution but a breathing ecosystem of peace — where individuals, communities, and grassroots initiatives can meet, reflect, and rebuild subjectivity. Its core idea is to make peace visible, livable, and replicable.
1. Formation of a Culture of Peace
The House of Peace exists to form and sustain a Culture of Peace — one that moves societies from the logic of control and fear toward mutual dignity and responsibility.
It serves as a laboratory for peaceful narratives and practices that resist propaganda, dehumanization, and militarized thinking.
- From a Culture of the Enemy to a Culture of Dignity — rejecting demonization and restoring the intrinsic worth of every human being.
- From a Cancel Culture to a Culture of Dialogue — defending the right to speak, question, and disagree without social annihilation.
- From a Culture of Revenge to a Culture of Reconciliation — replacing punishment with restorative processes and moral repair.
At the center of these shifts stands human dignity — not as a slogan, but as the ethical measure of every social and political decision.
2. Formation of a Culture of Inclusion
The House of Peace protects the right to be heard for all those excluded or silenced by violence, exile, or ideology — refugees, conscientious objectors, dissidents, women, LGBTQ+ people, migrants, and displaced families.
It rejects any form of censorship, taboo, or discrimination. It supports grassroots autonomy and the right of self-organization for civic groups acting outside state or donor hierarchies.
Inclusion is treated as a structural principle, not a decorative one: every voice must be able to exist within the peace narrative.
3. Focus on Children and Intergenerational Peace
Children are the most affected group in the current cycle of wars, repression, and forced migration. They made no decisions — yet suffer all the consequences.
The House of Peace recognizes children not as passive victims but as moral subjects of peacebuilding.
It develops:
- Children’s Peace Labs — creative workshops using drawing, theatre, and storytelling to transform trauma into imagination.
- Intergenerational Peace Dialogues — spaces where children and adults exchange experiences of fear, exile, and belonging.
- Peace Literacy Modules — teaching empathy, nonviolent communication, and responsibility.
A peaceful society begins when its children are safe, heard, and free to imagine a future.
4. Art as the Language of the Unspeakable
The House of Peace acknowledges art as one of the most powerful instruments for speaking about what cannot otherwise be spoken — pain, loss, shame, despair, and resilience.
Art provides a language that is at once gentle, ecological, and transformative, allowing individuals and communities to process horror without reproducing it.
Therefore, the support and rehabilitation of artists, actors, and cultural practitioners affected by repression, displacement, or trauma are strategic priorities.
They are the carriers of new forms of speech — the ones who develop a humane vocabulary for collective memory and healing.
Art here is not decoration but a mechanism of truth and recovery — a peaceful form of resistance.
5. Ecology, Nonviolence, and Climate Justice
The House of Peace recognizes that there can be no peace without ecological balance, and no climate justice without peace.
It commits to a nonviolent relationship with nature — rejecting the militarization of land, the destruction of ecosystems for political aims, and the exploitation of animals or resources in the name of “security.”
Environmental ethics, respect for animals, and sustainable practices form a foundational part of the House’s operations and educational work.
Peace includes the Earth itself — the right of all living beings to coexist without domination.
6. Humanitarian Work and Dignity
Humanitarian work is understood as a peace practice — the concrete expression of solidarity, care, and mutual respect.
Through daily support for displaced families, refugees, and vulnerable groups, the House of Peace translates abstract principles into lived dignity.
Human dignity is one of our central ethical criteria: the condition that defines whether peace is genuine or false.
All actions — artistic, educational, ecological, or civic — are evaluated through this measure: do they restore or diminish human dignity?
7. Long-Term Aim
To establish a replicable model of civilian peace infrastructure in Eastern Europe — combining dialogue, art, ecology, and humanitarian practice — and to reintroduce peace as an active form of culture, not a post-war luxury.
The House of Peace stands for a simple but radical formula:
There is no peace without climate justice — and no climate justice without peace.
About The Author
