by Theresa Cobb

Created on: September 10, 2009

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. - Jimi Hendrix

On November 30th, 1981, while inviting all member states, organizations of the United Nations system, regional, non-governmental organizations and individuals to actively participate, the United Nations Assembly passed a resolution 36/67, making its opening session, the third Sunday in September, beginning with the opening session of September 1982, International Peace Day.

In 2001, due mainly to the hard work of Jeremy Gilley and the Peace One Day Organization, the United Nations Assembly again passed a resolution 55/282, this time making September 21st the official International Day of Peace stating, "the International Day of Peace shall henceforth be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day". Since then, regardless of which day of the week it lands on, the International Day of Peace has been celebrated worldwide on the 21st of September complete with a minute of silence at twelve o'clock noon, local time.

In 2003, while celebrating International Peace Day, even the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan seemed to wonder out loud if peace was possible when he declared, "The troubling events of the last year - the conflicts, violence and hatred, the bomb attack on the United Nations itself in Baghdad, the deep divisions among states - have raised fundamental questions about the efforts of the international community to promote peace and well-being for all the world's people."

Since 1954, every United Nations Assembly opening session has begun with the ringing of the Peace Bell, a precious Japanese gift to the United Nations Organization, cast of coins collected from sixty different countries. While the opening session of the United Nations Assembly is not necessarily held on September 21st, the opening session of 2004 marked the 50th anniversary for the ringing of the Peace Bell, a symbol for International Peace Day.

September 21st 2006, marked the last time United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan would ring the Peace Bell at the opening session. There is no limit to how many five year terms a Secretary General may serve, to date, but not a single Secretary General has served more than two terms, or ten years.

June 13th, 2009, the United Nations issued a proclamation announcing June 13th would begin the 100 day countdown to world disarmament of all nuclear weapons. From June 13th until September 21st, the United Nations using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace email, text messages and radio, the Assembly would issue 100 reasons, one for each day, for all nations to disarm.

For more information regarding International Peace Day, please contact the Department of Public Information at (212) 963-1742.

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