International Day of Non-Violence

International Day of Non-Violence
Non-violence sculpture from Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd in Malmö, Sweden
Also called Gandhi Jayanti (in India)
Observed by All UN Member States
Date 2 October
Frequency annual

The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. This day is referred to in India as Gandhi Jayanti.

In January 2004, Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi had taken a proposal for an International Day of Non-Violence from a Hindi teacher in Paris teaching international students to the World Social Forum in Mumbai. The idea gradually attracted the interest of some leaders of India's Congress Party ("Ahimsa Finds Teen Voice", The Telegraph, Calcutta) until a Satyagraha Conference resolution in New Delhi in January 2007, initiated by Indian National Congress President and Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called upon the United Nations to adopt the idea.[1]

On 15 June 2007 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence.[2] The resolution by the General Assembly asks all members of the UN system to commemorate 2 October in "an appropriate manner and disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness."[3]

The United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in New York City prepared a special cachet to commemorate this event, following a request from the Indian Ambassador at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN. The boxed pictorial cachet design was prepared by the UNPA and was limited to cancellation at UNPA's NY location (not Geneva and Vienna). The UNPA has indicated that all outgoing UNPA mail between 2 and 31 October carried the cachet.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Conference calls for declaring International day of non-violence".
  2. ↑ "UN declares 2 October, Gandhi's birthday, as International Day of Non-Violence". United Nations. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "General Assembly Adopts Texts On Day Of Non-Violence, Ethiopian Millennium; Pays Tribute To Former Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim". United Nations. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  4. ↑ Topical Philately Related to Mohandas K. Gandhi, gandhi.topicalphilately.com
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