International Year of Peace

Costa Rica is a small country, bordered by Nicaragua and Panama, and on either side by the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Small it may be, but it was Costa Rica's initiative that saw the International Year of Peace first proposed in the United Nations General Assembly in 1981.

The following year, a proposal to observe the calendar year of 1986 as the official United Nations International Year of Peace was adopted by consensus. The International Year of Peace offered a rare opportunity for the international community, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and individuals all over the world to focus on the problems and prospects of peace.

The three major dimensions of the programme of the year-peace and disarmament, peace and development and preparation for life in peace- are illustrative of the many perspectives in which the pursuit of peace must be seen.

Links

A debate on an IYP motion in the parliament of Ireland on 21 March 1986.

All the International Years proclaimed by the General Assembly.

Stamp catalogue

Aruba 29 August 1986

Austria 24 January 1986

Bangladesh 29 December 1986

Belgium 8 March 1986

German Democratic Republic 5 August 1986

Jersey 4 November 1986

Solomon Islands 22 May 1986

Sovereign Military Order of Malta 9 December 1986

Tunisia 24 November 1986

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 2 January 1986

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last revised: 1 July 2009