DUSHANBE, September 21, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan marks an International Day of Peace today.

A number of activities dedicated to the International Day of Peace are being held in Dushanbe. 

Olim Olimov, Media Assistant at the United Nations Tajikistan Office of Peace-Building (UNTOP), said the Office staffers today honored with a minute of silence their colleagues who were killed in Tajikistan in 1998.   “An exhibition of works by young Tajik painter Payrav Gulov was opened in the building of the UNTOP in Dushanbe today,” Olimov said.  The exhibition runs through the end of September, according to him. 

Besides, symposium dedicated to reestablishment of peace and accord in Tajikistan and problems of culture peace will be held in the Tajik capital on September 26.  

The International Day of Peace, established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly, was first inaugurated on the third Tuesday of September, 1982.  Beginning on the 20 ^th anniversary in 2002, the UN General Assembly set September 21 as the now permanent date for the International Day of Peace.

In establishing the International Day of Peace, the United Nations General Assembly decided that it would be appropriate to devote a specific time to concentrate the efforts of the United Nations and its Member States, as well as of the whole of mankind, to promoting the ideals of peace and to giving positive evidence of their commitment to peace in all viable ways.  The Assembly''s resolution declared that the International Day of Peace “will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our Organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the Organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace.”