Each year the International Day of Peace is observed on September 21. The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Two decades later, in 2001, the General Assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire. This day is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence and to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.
To inaugurate the day, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters (in New York City). The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents except Africa, and was a gift from the United Nations Association of Japan, as “a reminder of the human cost of war”; the inscription on its side reads, “Long live absolute world peace”. . Women Nobel Peace Prize laureates and the United Nations Messengers of Peace are also invited to participate in the ceremony.
September 21, 1982 was the first occurrence of the International Day of Peace. The theme of the first International Day of Peace was the ‘Right to Peace of People’. The International Peace Day’s theme for 2016 was “The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace.”
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were unanimously adopted by the 193 Member States of the United Nations at an historic summit of the world’s leaders in New York in September 2015. The Sustainable Development Goals are integral to achieving peace in our time, as development and peace are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Every single one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is a building block in the global architecture of peace. It is critical that we mobilize means of implementation, including financial resources, technology development and transfer, and capacity-building, as well as the role of partnerships. Everyone has a stake and everyone has a contribution to make.