Messages of Peace for the New Millennium
A tribute to the United Nations and its efforts to foster peace and friendship among peoples and nations. This is a compilation of messages of peace from the heads of state of the United Nations Member States
An Invitation to Support Peace Efforts
In 1991, Carlos Peralta, President of the World Organization for Peace, proposed to the UN official Kofi A. Annan to make the book Messages of Peace for the New Millennium and together they went to speak with the Secretary General of the United Nations Javier Pérez de Cuéllar about creating this book with the heads of member states. Mr. Kofi Annan would take office as Secretary General of the United Nations Organization, UN and would sign that first message to open the book. Mr. Kofi Annan has received the Nobel Peace Prize
messages around the world
H.E. Mr. George W. BushOn behalf of the United States of America, I salute the United Nations’ contributions to world peace. Created more than five decades ago in the shadow of two World Wars, the United Nations symbolizes humanity’s belief in the possibility of a world free from war. All nations benefit from the UN’s efforts to defuse international crises, resolve protracted conflicts, and erase the scourges of poverty and disease.
Much has changed in the half century since the UN’s creation. Back then, the world was rapidly dividing itself into two ideological blocks characterized by mutual hostility and drastically different views about human freedom.
Today, global forces of expanding trade and advancing technology are making the world smaller and more complex, and UN membership has grown from 51 nations in 1945 to 189 today. In this fast-changing world, the promise of bringing peace and progress to more of the world’s people has never been greater. Achieving this great goal is still an aspiration.
We can only realize it through strong global leadership, including the leadership of the world’s important multilateral institutions like the United Nations.
Throughout its history, the United Nations has demonstrated a strong ability to rise to the unique challenges of each era. Today, we need the UN to build upon this tradition as we seek to meet new challenges and create new methods to preserve peace and promote prosperity across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The United Nations is where nations and peoples can bridge the differences that often divide them; where peaceful countries can join together to promote and protect human freedom; and where nations can protect common interests by speaking out against and, if need be, sanctioning dictatorships and human rights abusers. The leadership of the United Nations also helps to make a difference in the fight against HIV AIDS, which threatens innocent civilians, peace, stability, and development.
The United Nations faces great challenges. Building on the best traditions of its past and drawing on the ideals embodied in its Charter, the United Nations will continue to advance the cause of peace, and the United States will continue to be its partner.
Original messages signed by the heads of State for World Peace
This work that OPP, OMPP WOFP convenes with original messages signed by the heads of states for World Peace, is a tribute to the United Nations for its more than half century in favor of a world in Peace. Thus, heads of state from 181 nations and by the end of 2000 there were 192 UN member countries that signed the agreement, since it was other countries that joined the United Nations during that period. A long journey around the world and everyone united for the first time to give their message of Peace.
Message from the UN Secretary-General
The book begins with words from the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: “It is a very gratifying experience for me to be one of the constituent parts of the first World Guide to Peace. Peace is a universal goal, and it cannot be achieved without global cooperation. We must all work together, not only to end war, but also to eradicate hunger, poverty and pestilence. We must build societies based on the principles of justice, democracy and the rule of law, for true peace encompasses all of these elements. For the sake of our future, let us strive to create a global culture of peace.”
