News & Insights
Cymru Can be a nation of peace
July 9, 2025
Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi am y croeso cynnes. Thank you so much for the warm welcome.
It’s a real privilege to be with you today at this Llangollen Eisteddfod – a festival that has become one of the world’s great celebrations of peace, culture, and international friendship. I’m especially pleased to join you on such a joyful and energetic day in the heart of the Eisteddfod.
Today and for the whole week we will enjoy some wonderful performances by young people, those voices and creativity are a powerful reminder of what this festival is about: hope, connection, and peace. And what a perfect way to begin a conversation about Wales as a Nation of Peace, with future generations in mind.
There’s something deeply symbolic about this. Because peace isn’t just something adults talk about at conferences. It’s something we live and that we pass on. And what we’ve seen and heard today—from children, communities, and choirs—is a big part of what peace looks like in action.
This is a festival that was born in the shadow of war.
Back in 1947, just two years after World War II ended, Llangollen made a radical choice. Instead of turning inward, it opened its doors to the world. It said: Let’s bring people together—not through politics or power, but through song and dance. Let’s let music do the talking.
Since then, this stage has welcomed people from around two hundred different cultures. And from the very beginning, the Eisteddfod has celebrated what unites us—not just what makes us different.
I think that’s what makes this place so special. And it’s why I believe this festival has something important to say to the world right now.
Because in a world that feels more divided, more uncertain, and more unequal than ever, Wales has powerful stories to tell—stories of peace, compassion, and care for future generations.
I believe therefore that Cymru, our country, has some strong foundations on which to build Wales as a nation of peace.
And one of the cornerstones of those foundations is the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, which created my role.
Some of you may be wondering what is that role, what on earth is the job of a Future Generations Commissioner?
Well, it wouldn’t be surprising if you were asking that question as there is no one in the world with a job quite like mine.
I’m fortunate to hold the responsibility of being the guardian of the interests of people who haven’t yet been born – the generations who will live in Wales after us.
When I’m speaking with public bodies across Wales – the organisations that run our hospitals, our councils, and our other public services – one of the ways I explain my role is to ask people to think of the youngest person they know.
And I invite you all to do that now.
It might be your daughter or grandson or the young person living next door. (For some o the youngsters in the hall, that person might not be much younger than you are now.)
I think of my youngest niece Erin. Erin is 11, soon to be 12, living in Cwmbran. She hates most vegetables and loves playing football. And she’s a talented player too.
I want Erin to have a good education and food on the table and a roof over her head tonight. Of course I do. But in 50 years’ time I also want her to have the chance of healthy and happy life, with clean air and rivers, a health system that is sustainable and access to arts and culture. We all want that for our children and grandchildren.
This is what the Well-being of Future Generations Act is here to do. It is here to guide our public bodies to improve the lives of people today and to improve the lives of generations to come.
And the people of Wales get that. Wherever I go in Wales, people support the need to avoid sticking plaster solutions, to act for the long term for the sake of their children and grandchildren. They want their leaders to be acting today for a better tomorrow.
We often think of peace as silence. As stillness. As the end of, or absence of, fighting.
But peace is also found in laughter. In fairness. In community. In protecting nature. In the confidence a child feels when they’re safe, healthy, and free to dream.
This is what we might call positive peace.
This idea is set out clearly in the excellent publication from Academi Heddwch Cymru called Wales as a Nation of Peace, published in August last year.
A positive peace is about creating the right conditions for people to thrive. It is about well-being.
And that’s exactly what Wales set out to do when we passed the Well-being of Future Generations Act ten years ago.
It’s one of the most ambitious laws in the world.
It puts down in law the collective, long-term vision we have for this country, as developed by the people of Wales through the Wales We Want national conversation and as set out in our seven national well-being goals.
Among them:
It says that public bodies must think, not just about short-term results, but about long-term impact.
They must consider how their actions affect children, families, communities, and the natural world—not just today, but for years to come.
Each of these goals echoes the core principles of positive peace.
Together, they form a guide—not just for sustainable development, but for how a small nation like ours can lead with values and vision.
This law is about what matters to people.
When doing this job, people don’t talk to me about abstract terms like economic growth. They talk to me about wanting:
These are the conditions for well-being.
Our well-being law is creating the conditions for that positive peace.
Wales has a history of promoting peace.
My strategy for my 7 years in this role is called Cymru Can, Wales Can. It is deliberately positive – recognising what Wales has already achieved, whilst urging us all to do more.
In relation to the subject of peace, I believe Cymru Can be a nation of peace.
We’re not starting from scratch. We can look back with pride at what previous generations achieved.
Last year Dr Rowan Williams talked about this history when he delivered this same lecture.
He spoke about ‘Yr Apel’ – the women’s peace petition of 1923 – and how this petition of 400,000 women helped shaped the debate and build support for America to join and lead the new League of Nations.
Let me read a small part of the women’s peace petition. I confess, I had not read it before drafting this speech. It gave me goose bumps because of its foresight and application to my work and the world today.
The petition says:
“The future is big with hope if we as the women of this generation do our part. To us has come an opportunity, as real as the responsibility is grave. We would therefore appeal to you, women of the United States of America, with malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us, to see the right to aid in the effort to hand down to the generations which come after us the proud heritage of a warless world”
That was a century ago. But it feels relevant, doesn’t it?
It clearly shows the strong desire to bring about lasting peace.
But it also shows a motivation to act in the interests of future generations in the way we do today through the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
Those women were saying the same thing we’re saying today: we want a world that’s safe, fair, and full of opportunity for our children and their children.
Welsh connections to the institutions of peace are more than the remarkable women’s peace petition and its link to the League of Nations.
There are also significant connections between Wales and the successor of the League of Nations, the United Nations.
There are many more links. Wales and Welsh people have a history of helping to build the conditions for peace.
And I am pleased to say those connections to the UN continue today.
Our Well-being of Future Generations Act influenced last year’s UN Pact for the Future – which has a chapter on international peace and security – and, in particular, our experience influenced the Declaration on Future Generations, in which nations agreed to create a job just like mine, a special envoy for future generations, but for the world not just for Wales.
I continue to work with the UN team to promote action for future generations around the world.
When I started this role, I was knocked down by the level of global interest in our future generations law. My office regularly receives enquiries from politicians, civil servants, academics, NGOs and interested citizens from around the world who want to hear about our innovative approach.
Which tells me Cymru is a pioneer, but not an outlier.
The Well-being of Future Generations Act is a soft superpower for our country, helping Wales to punch above its weight.
But, whilst this interest is flattering, we must continue to be humble as we still have a long way to go in terms of implementation. We still have some way to go before we are truly a nation of peace.
The absence of peace has felt much closer to home for me in the last couple of years. Since January 2023, my partner and I have been hosting a Ukranian refugee.
When watching the bombing of Kyiv on televison, we are watching a city where she had made her home and had to flee. She does not know her future and worries constantly for the safety of her friends and family.
War no longer seems distant to me.
This same week I am also remembering my university friend, Miriam Hyman, who died in the 7/7 London bombings twenty years ago. Miriam was kind and generous. She was talented and had a very bright future ahead of her. A callous terrorist attack took that away from her.
Many of us here today will have similar tragic stories. The absence of peace affects us all.
Peace is something we all have to work on every day; in the day-to-day decisions we make. Peace isn’t just a policy. It’s a practice.
That’s why the Well-being Act talks about behaviors not just goals. We call these the ways of working: thinking long-term, working together, listening to people, and preventing problems before they happen.
We are aiming to make these behaviours part of the culture of how we do things in Wales. And if we can succeed, we have the opportunity of embedding a strong sense of well-being for all of our citizens and of establishing the conditions for a nation of peace, of positive peace.
And that is why events like this are so important. We need to spread these values and ways of working. Because peace isn’t only made in government buildings. It’s made in schools, in community halls, in choirs, in classrooms and in cultural festivals like this one.
It’s made right here.
Some people ask, “Can Wales really make a difference? We’re a small country. We don’t control foreign policy. We don’t decide defence spending.”
But I think that’s missing the point.
We can make a difference— we already have, and we must do more.
The Senedd has spoken out on Ukraine and on Gaza.
I have joined those calls for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to secure the safe release of all hostages.
Wales has welcomed refugees through our Nation of Sanctuary programme – my Ukrainian guest Natalia is one of them.
We’ve taken bold steps with our Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan and the LGBTQ+ Action Plan, to be a more equal Wales.
We’re also teaching the next generation how to be citizens of the world—through our new curriculum, our Peace Schools initiative, and international exchange programmes like Taith.
On the international stage, Cymru is setting an example and, as I have said, countries are looking to develop their own similar legislation for future generations.
Our future generations law directs us to do what we can for peace around the world. Let me read you the text. The globally responsible Wales goal requires us to be:
“A nation which, when doing anything to improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales, takes account of whether doing such a thing may make a positive contribution to global well-being.”
To me that is a call for action to promote global peace.
It is important that in Cymru we make the most of the opportunity we have, to lead by example, speaking out on the global stage and making a case for positive peace in these troubled times.
Wales has a role to champion true peace. But to fully embrace the role of a Nation of Peace, however, we must acknowledge and consider the role we still play in Cymru and in the UK, in global conflict.
So, we still have much work to do – both here in Cymru and abroad-, to fully realise the vision of positive peace set out in the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
One of the reasons I am delivering this lecture today, is that, as well as being the 80th year of the UN, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the tenth anniversary of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. It is a decade since Wales made this bold commitment to people not yet born – to the next generation and then next – to that young person who you all thought about back at the start.
Are we building the Cymru that every citizen deserves?
Yes, we are making progress, we’re investing more in healthy travel like cycling, walking, and wheeling and less on road building than we were.
We’re second in the world in recycling.
We’re growing our green energy industry.
But we still have big problems to solve.
That’s why my recent advice to the Welsh Government and our public bodies has recommended:
Because when families are healthy, when communities are strong and nature is thriving, that’s peace in practice.
We also need to listen better. Real peace needs real dialogue. That means giving people- especially young people – more opportunities to shape the decisions that affect their lives.
Again, this was a theme that Dr Rowan Williams spoke about last year. He talked about needing to “build a culture of inclusive democratic optimism.”
I wholeheartedly agree. And it is something that I am paying more attention to in my work as well. The Well-being of Future Generations Act requires our public bodies to involve them in decisions that affect them. And to do this in a meaningful way.
This is not happening to the extent that the law requires, with the result that we are not hearing the concerns of many of our citizens. And we are not sufficiently harnessing their ideas and energy to implement the solutions for tomorrow.
So let me end by saying thank you to the Academi Heddwch as I have learned something important for my work when preparing this talk.
I have learned that Wales’s future generations law, and therefore my role in promoting it, is a law that is significantly about peace.
I’ve come to understand more clearly than ever: peace isn’t just about avoiding conflict. Peace is about how we live. It’s about fairness, kindness, and making sure the decisions we take today don’t harm the world that tomorrow’s children will grow up in.
Here in Llangollen, a town that chose music as its language of peace. In a nation that gave the world a petition for peace written by mothers and daughters. In a country that enshrined the rights of future generations into law.
We have a choice.
In a world that seems to be drifting from peace, Wales can be an example.
We can show what it means to lead with culture, compassion, and courage. We can be a Nation of Sanctuary, of solidarity, of sustainability—and yes, Cymru Can be a Nation of Peace.
Diolch yn fawr.