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Updated on 21 September 2015 and on 19 December 2015
Photo: un.org
"I call on all warring parties to lay down their weapons and observe a global ceasefire. To them I say: stop the killings and the destruction, and create space for lasting peace."- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-mmon
The theme of this year’s (2015) commemoration is “Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All” which aims to highlight the importance of all segments of society to work together to strive for peace.
Background
A UN resolution established the International Day of Peace in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the UN General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in 1982 and was held on the third Tuesday of September each year until 2002, when September 21 became the permanent date for the International Day of Peace. The assembly decided in 2001 that the International Day of Peace should be annually observed on September 21 starting from 2002. By setting a fixed date for the International Day of Peace, the assembly declared that the day should be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence.
By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged people to work in cooperation for this goal. Since its inception, Peace Day has marked personal and planetary progress toward peace. It has grown to include millions of people worldwide and many events are organized each year to commemorate and celebrate this day.
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German photographer Casey Hugelfink had access to the Islamic republic in the dark decade after the 1979 revolution, throughout the Iran-Iraq war, when the country was sealed off to reporters and most of the world. She captured the scenes of everyday life
‘I was married to an Iranian and we owned a shop with Iranian handicrafts in Munich. For this reason we had connections with traders in the bazaar in Isfahan and I visited the country several times between 1980 and 1989. We also did lots of family visits, but I never lived there.
I really love Iran and its people. Those years of war had been a hard time and I remember ration coupons, nightly blackouts and losses in every family. But this is slowly fading away and what remains is so much love and the strong will of the people supporting each other.’
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'From The Full Monty to The Matrix, films have a lot to say on economics. Mary Poppins teaches us that banking is about confidence, and Some Like it Hot lays bare the trouble with capitalism’
1- Wall Street (1987): beware the corporate raiders
2- Some Like It Hot (1959): the trouble with rentier capitalism
3- The Matrix (1999): you can't trust happiness
4- Mary Poppins (1964): why banking is all about confidence
5- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005): the value of the welfare state
6- Erin Brockovich (2000): how to measure environmental cost
7- The Sound of Music (1965): how to handle success
8- The Full Monty (1997): the reality of unemployment
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- “Tuesdays with Morrie”: The old , frail professor, a former student and the insights into life's biggest questions
- Thomas Paine: Neglected Father of the American Revolution Who Changed the World
- The Good Life: Lessons from Benjamin Franklin
- The British Tradition of Solidarity, Cooperation and Selflessness that Thatcher Could Not Destroy