The Start of International Peace, UN Day
The Start of International Peace, UN Day
Hello, this is Chris & Partners.😊 Perhaps because October has many public holidays and commemorative days, it seems to pass by especially fast. In a fast, busy October, do you know there's a commemorative day related to international peace?🌎 Today we'll cover together the soon-approachingUN Day and the importance of international peace.
What is UN Day?
UN(United Nations) is an organization founded after World War II to maintain international peace, strengthen amity among nations, and cooperate with one another on political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian issues. UN Day was established to commemorate the founding of the UN on October 24, 1945. The UN has six principal organs—the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, and more—and has 16 specialized agencies such as the ILO, the WHO, the IBRD, the IMF, and the IAEA, with its headquarters located in New York.
Korea and the UN
The UN's bond with our country began when the UN Temporary Commission on Korea entered the country in 1948 to observe the general election. When the June 25 (Korean) War broke out in 1950, the UN Security Council swiftly resolved to enter the war, and troop deployments and support from UN member states followed; with the UN's help, schools and factories were also built for Korea's recovery and revival. The UN established a UNESCO office in the Republic of Korea in 1957 to support providing elementary-school textbooks, and established a UNICEF office in 1962 to provide baby food, medicine, food, and clothing for children—offering continuous aid.
Afterward, Korea grew rapidly and, from the early 1980s, no longer received UN Development Programme aid. The dissolution of the UNESCO office that had been set up in the Republic of Korea became an occasion showing that Korea had transformed from an aid-recipient country into a donor country. Korea's 1991 UN membership became the beginning of the friendly partnership between the UN and the Republic of Korea that continues to this day. After joining, Korean diplomacy played several key roles at the UN. It was elected a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the 1997–1999 term, and was also elected President of the 56th General Assembly. It also produced the 8th UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. Just a few decades ago, Korea was a country suffering severely from war orphans and poverty, but thanks to the help of international peace organizations, it was able to recover and grow into its present form. Korea changed from a country that received help into one that supports countries in need, maintaining a close cooperative relationship with UN agencies.
The importance of peace
Not long after the UN's founding, when North Korea invaded South Korea by force in June 1950, the way the US and other UN member states stepped up to help the Republic of Korea became a case of faithfully fulfilling the UN's role in leading international peace and cooperation. Through the case of the Republic of Korea, which was able to change from an aid-recipient to a donor in a short period with the UN's help, we could glimpse the importance of the United Nations and international peace. Currently Korea lives having overcome the crisis of war, but there are still many places left around the world that desperately need the UN's help and the news of international peace. With COVID now nearing two years, the whole world has experienced economic difficulty, and unemployment and business-closure rates kept rising. Also, just at the end of last August, the Taliban regime seized Afghanistan, and in an instant Afghans, having completely lost their freedom and rights, are desperately awaiting a rescuing hand amid suffering. From this perspective, the United Nations and peace seem to be important factors in this era. If disputes and conflicts between nations aren't resolved, there will be limits to a country's development and technological innovation. Amid an ever-changing world situation, to advance the purpose and value of peace and to raise people's interest in and awareness of peace, you can see various industries and companies holding diverse peace-themed conferences.
Various peace conferences
1.Global Peace Convention 2021
The Global Peace Convention is an international conference discussing world peace and prosperity—an international convention held across four continents worldwide, starting in the Philippines in 2009. In February 2019 it was held in Seoul, discussing strategy under the theme ‘A Vision for a Unified Korean Peninsula.’ This year, under the theme ‘A Changing World: Moral and Innovative Leadership for Building Peace,’ the 2021 Global Peace Convention event was held over ten days last August. As forum speakers, leaders from all walks—domestic and international scholars, policymakers, journalists, and more—took part, including representatively Hyun Jin Preston Moon (founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation), John Everard (former British Ambassador to North Korea), Lee Jong-geol (standing chair of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation), and Thae Yong-ho (People Power Party lawmaker), opening a useful forum for discussion sharing the various challenges to peace the world faces.
2.GEEF 2021
The 3rd GEEF was held this February under the theme ‘3Ps Beyond Security: Peace, Prosperity and Partnership’. This event was attended, as speakers and discussants, by world-class authorities and scholars from various fields, including former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Margaret Chan (7th Director-General of the World Health Organization), and Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University. There was also a special dialogue between actress Angelina Jolie, a UNHCR special envoy, and Ban Ki-moon, honorary chair of Yonsei University's Institute for Global Engagement & Empowerment (8th UN Secretary-General). It diagnosed the global crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19, examined problems of the existing international-cooperation system centered on some advanced countries, and discussed the direction of change for the international-cooperation system to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
3.SPIC 2021
This coming November, the 1st Seoul Peace Think-Tank International Conference, addressing peace issues of daily life, the Korean Peninsula, and the world, will be held as a contactless video conference on November 8–9, 2021. SPIC 2021(Seoul Peace Initiaive Consortium) is scheduled to diagnose problems of discrimination and conflict arising in Seoul and across the world, and to open a forum for public discourse to achieve coexistence and peace. This conference is composed of sessions discussing pressing peace and security issues and a Seoul-centered peace initiative—sessions sharing the views of the international community and Korea. Various concepts of peace and peaceful coexistence in the age of globalization—what outlook do they hold? It'd be good to have a useful time SPIC 2021 taking part to find out😉
Are you planning a hybrid event? Chris & Partners—partner with us! As a proven PCO that responds flexibly and aptly to clients' needs, we provide tailored services to deliver the best results from the planning stage to the finish—program and content planning, consulting, speaker booking, follow-up, and more.