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.
On
15 June 2007 the
United Nations General
Assembly voted to establish
2 October
as the International Day of Non-Violence. 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."
Some of the events and celebrations planned by the
Humanist Movement for 2nd of October 2007
can be read
here.
The first ever celebration of the International day of non violence
was observed in Bangkok by
United
Nations ESCAP. H. E. Mr.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Hon'ble Minister for
Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs &
Sports and Development of North-Eastern Region of India presided
over the programme.
More here...
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
Akshay Bakaya teaching International
school students in Paris to the World Social Forum in Bombay. 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
Sonia Gandhi and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu called upon the United Nations to
adopt the idea.
The United Nations Postal Administration 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
October 2nd and 31st carried the cachet. Information on various
philatelic material carrying this cachet is summarized at a website
dedicated to Gandhi philately and can be accessed
here.
References
External links