Note to Correspondents

International Day of Peace Commemoration to Focus on Anniversary Of Declaration

On The RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO PEACE, Human Rights Up Front Initiative

The International Day of Peace will be marked around the world on Sunday, 21 September.  In his message for the day, the Secretary-General asks combatants to put down their arms, “so all can breathe the air of peace” and calls on people around the world to observe a minute of silence at noon.

To mark the thirtieth anniversary of the General Assembly Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, the theme of this year’s observance is the “Right of Peoples to Peace”.  As throughout the coming year, the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations will also be commemorated, which is a time to reaffirm the Organization’s commitment to the purposes and principles upon which it was founded, as well as the central message of the Declaration, namely that humanity’s sustainable progress and the realization of fundamental rights and freedoms depend on peace and security.

This year also highlights the Human Rights up Front approach, which emphasizes the need for early response to human rights violations, and the importance of preventive efforts in the protection of civilians.

At United Nations Headquarters, activities for the International Day will take place on Friday, 19 September, beginning at 9 a.m. with the traditional Peace Bell ceremony in the Rose Garden of the Secretariat Building.  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the President of the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa of Uganda, will ring the Japanese Peace Bell in the company of United Nations Messengers of Peace Jane Goodall, Midori and Yo-Yo Ma and United Nations “Girl Up” Champion Monique Coleman, as well as the diplomatic community.  Students will be holding flags of the United Nations and all 193  Member States.

The ceremony will be followed by the annual student observance:  some 500 high school and university pupils from Canada, Mexico and the United States, as well as the celebrity advocates, will exchange views on this year’s theme via video conference with youth from Bukavu, Goma and Kinshasa at the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

The results of “The Little Prince” essay and drawing competition will also be presented.  The competition was one of the activities of the cultural diplomacy initiative for which the United Nations Department of Public Information partnered with International Organization of la Francophonie, and the Estate of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.  Also present in the student observance will be Verma Mukoro, from Kenya, winner of the “My MasterPeace Moment”story-telling competition.

Music will be an essential part of this year’s commemoration around the world.  While both Midori and Yo-Yo Ma will perform during the student observance on Friday, a number of concerts will take place worldwide on the day itself, Sunday, 21 September.  The Peace One Day Celebration 2014 in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, headlined by Akon, is supported by MONUSCO.  MasterPeace is organizing some 60 concerts in 40 countries, including seven flagship concerts.  The concert for peace, organized by United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) as part of its community violence reduction campaign “Ann Chwazi Lapè” — “Let’s choose peace”, in Creole — will take place on 27 September.  The Department of Public Information will also release an interview of Yoko Ono, which explores her role as a peace activist and why she chose to collaborate with the United Nations this year by contributing John Lennon's classic song “Imagine” to be heard worldwide, as part of the observance.

The Peace Bell ceremony will be available on United Nations Webcast archives following the ceremony, while the student observance will be broadcast live via United Nations Webcast at:  http://webtv.un.org.

Additional information, including the full text of the Secretary-General’s message, is available on the International Day of Peace website in all six United Nations languages at:  http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday.

For further information, please contact Laurence Gérard, Education Outreach Section, Department of Public Information, at e-mail:  gerardl@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record