Sophia 2010 Women and Wisdom encourages you to support the United Nations International Day of Peace, Sunday, September 21st by sending a text message.
In the United States, cellphone users are urged to compose a 160-character message on peace beginning with the world “PEACE” and sending the message to the number 69866
Please join with us and invite others to send:
Peace flows to and from Sophia 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria
CAMPAIGN TO MAKE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE MORE VISIBLE
The United Nations General Assembly established the day in 1981 and set observance annually on 21 September of a “day of ceasefire and non-violence”. The United Nations Department of Public Information will gather the messages, publish them on the website www.peaceday2008.org and deliver them to world leaders gathered for the General Assembly on 23 September. United Nations offices and peacekeeping operations around the world and non-governmental organizations observe the Day of Peace each year. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will ring the Japanese Peace Bell at United Nations Headquarters on Friday, 19 September, at 9:30 a.m. along with United Nations Messengers of Peace, HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall and Midori Goto. He and the United Nations staff will observe a minute of silence at 12 noon.
“On 21 September, the International Day of Peace, I call on world leaders and peoples around the world to join forces against conflict, poverty and hunger, and for all human rights for all,” the Secretary-General said in a message issued on 29 August. “Together, let us send a powerful signal for peace that will be read, heard and felt around the world.” For more information, contact Melanie Nolte, United Nations Department of Public Information, e-mail: nolte@un.org. For background on the International Day of Peace, go to www.un.org/events/peaceday/2008.
Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show. Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females. Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament. The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in Monday’s vote. Indirect elections for women’s quota seats took place on Tuesday and votes for two youth representatives and a disabled quota seat are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. It is the second parliamentary elections since the genocide of 1994 when some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.
President Paul Kagame was instrumental in establishing the Tutsi-led ‘s Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) – the rebel force which took power and ended the genocide. The BBC’s Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party have conceded defeat. In the outgoing parliament, 48.8% of MPs were women – the world’s highest rate. It is now set to be at least 55%. Women who stood in seats reserved for female candidates were not allowed to represent a party. “The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves,” voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC’s Focus on Africa. “You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children… but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better.” |
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