CAIRO: In an attempt to raise awareness about International Peace Day on Sept. 21, the United Nations is encouraging people to send messages to world leaders to promote peace. The campaign known as Text for Peace has promised that the messages will be conveyed to world leaders at the annual opening of the General Assembly on Sept. 23, 2008. People living in the United States will be able to send messages to a special number while anyone living outside the US can send messages via a website dedicated to the cause: http://www.peaceday2008.org. "I call on world leaders and peoples around the world to join forces against conflict, poverty and hunger, and for human rights for all, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message on Aug. 29. Ki-moon will ring the Peace Bell on Sept. 19 at the UN Head Quarters in the company of UN Messengers of Peace, including HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall and Midori Goto. A minute of silence will be observed on Sept. 21 at noon. UN offices and peacekeeping missions across the globe will also be holding events to observe the occasion. In 1981, The International Day of Peace was established by the United Nations Assembly for "commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace within and among all nations and people. Twenty years later, the General Assembly set Sept. 21 as the date to observe the occasion annually as a "day of global ceasefire and non-violence ... through education and public awareness and to cooperate in the establishment of a global ceasefire. Observing the Peace Day in 2008 coincides with the same year in which both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN peacekeeping commemorate their 60th anniversary. The day offers an opportunity to focus on the vital and inseparable relationship between peace and human rights. The United Nations says that it is determined to help the countless number of victims of conflicts and to ease suffering and restore basic rights and a stable normal life. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the campaign will "send a powerful signal for peace that will be read, heard and felt around the world.
