International Day of Non-Violence 2014 in Vienna

(Wikipedia) 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 Vienna NGOs organized two events:

in the frame of the special exhibition on Alfred H. Fried in Vienna, Währingerstraße 43, Bezirksmuseum, will be guided tours through the exhibitions by the curator Andreas H. Landl (starting with 14:00 and than every hour – as long as enough visitors come)  

The Burned Viennese Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the World War –

Der verbrannte Wiener Friedensnobelpreisträger und der Weltkrieg

More information:

http://www.friedensnews.at/2014/07/28/der-verbrannte-wiener-friedensnobelpreistrager-und-der-weltkrieg-2/

and

IPPNW Posterexhibition on Small Arms „Kleine Waffen ziehen große Kreise“

More information: http://www.ippnw.at/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=62

The next special events will be in the evening on the Stefansplatz in the center of Vienna.

Selfies for Non-Violence

Stephansplatz

Set a character of force freedom against each form of force

Place: Stephan workstation
Date: 02. October 2014
Time: 19,00 o’clock
Internet: www.gewaltfreiraum.net
contact: marita@neuer-humanismus.de, humanist68@yahoo.de, rupkroesen@gmx.at

Background

1. 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 Bombay.
2. 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.
3. On 15 June 2007 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence.[1] 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.“ [2]

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 October 2 and 31 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.

General Assembly Sixty-first session – Agenda item 44 Distr.: General 27 June 2007 – 06-51063
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 15 June 2007

International Day of Non-Violence

The General Assembly, Reaffirming the Charter of the United Nations, including the principles and
purposes contained therein, Recalling its

• resolutions 53/243 A and B of 13 September 1999,
• containing the Declaration on a Culture of Peace and the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, 55/282 of 7 September 2001 on the International Day of Peace and
• 61/45 of 4 December 2006 on the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non- Violence for the Children of the World, 2001–2010,
• as well as other relevant resolutions,

Bearing in mind that non-violence, tolerance, full respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, democracy, development, mutual understanding and respect for diversity are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, Reaffirming the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence, and desiring to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence,
1. Decides, with effect from the sixty-second session of the General Assembly and guided by the Charter of the United Nations, to observe the International Day of Non-Violence on 2 October each year, with the International Day being brought to the attention of all people for its celebration and observance on this date;
2. Invites all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, regional and non-governmental organizations and individuals to commemorate the International Day of Non-Violence in an appropriate manner and to disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to recommend ways and means by which the United Nations system and the United Nations Secretariat could, within existing resources, assist Member States, upon request, in organizing activities to commemorate the International Day of Non-Violence;
4. Also requests the Secretary-General to take necessary measures, within existing resources, for the observance by the United Nations of the International Day of Non-Violence;
5. Further requests the Secretary-General to keep the General Assembly informed at its sixty-third session of the implementation of the present resolution, within the United Nations system, as regards the observance of the International Day of Non-Violence.
103rd plenary meeting 15 June 2007