Pope Francis called on all warring peoples to recognize fraternity as a “light that stops the night of conflicts.”

“To evoke brothers and sisters is to remind those who are fighting, and all of us, that the feeling of fraternity uniting us is stronger than hatred and violence,” the pope wrote in his message for the World Meeting on Human Fraternity at the Vatican June 10.

In a festive celebration of human fraternity, artists, activists and political leaders from around the globe gathered in St. Peter’s Square to call for worldwide peace and solidarity.

Among them were 29 Nobel Peace Prize recipients, including Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia, and Óscar Arias Sánchez, former president of Costa Rica.

The Nobel laureates met with Vatican officials earlier in the day to draft a Declaration on Human Fraternity which was presented at the event and signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Presenting the document in St. Peter’s Square, Nadia Murad, recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to combat sexual violence in Iraq, called for an end to sexual violence, armed conflicts, nuclear arms, forced migration, ethnic cleansing and the manipulative use of artificial intelligence and other technologies.

The declaration also called for countries to institute Ministries of Peace in their governments to promote peace initiatives.

“Never again war,” Murad said,” it is peace, justice, equality that will guide the fate of humankind.”

Cardinal Parolin said the document is an important step in building “a new world of peace and solidarity,” and encouraged all people to not “delegate realizing this document to others, each one of us must do their part and feel responsible.”

The Vatican’s Fratelli Tutti Foundation, which organized the event, said it will begin a campaign to get 1 billion people to sign the document.

Eight squares in countries around the world were connected to the Vatican via livestream, and far-flung participants shared their ideas on human fraternity from Congo, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Argentina, Israel, Japan, Peru and a migrant rescue boat off the coast of Sicily.