UN Photo UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres rings the Peace Bell. António Guterres rang the Peace Bell for the last time as UN Secretary-General Peace and Security
On Wednesday, the traditional ceremony of ringing the Peace Bell took place in the Japanese garden at the UN headquarters in New York. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term expires at the end of the year, held it for the last time. He called on world leaders who will gather at the UN in the coming weeks for a high-level week of the General Assembly to take on the “hard work” of building lasting peace.
“Every year the sound of the Peace Bell reminds us of our most important and responsible task – building peace,” said Guterres.
Peace, he emphasized, is never a passive achievement: “Peace is hard work. Peace is action.”
However, today, the UN chief warned, efforts for peace are stalled: violence and division are destroying communities, conflicts are widening and deepening, people are suffering, and dialogue and solidarity, without which it is impossible to [find effective] solutions, are desperately lacking.
People themselves show way
Where governments fail to ensure peace, people show another way, the Secretary General noted. Around the world, volunteers, activists, civil society leaders and peacebuilders bear the brunt of this work. With their actions, according to the Secretary General, they embody the theme of this year’s International Day of Peace – “Invest in peace, for everyone, everywhere, every day.”
Guterres called on world leaders to follow the example of those who champion peace: invest in sustainable development – health, education, nutrition and social protection, strengthen institutions that people can trust, protect the rights and dignity of every person, return to the proven tools of peace – diplomacy, dialogue, negotiations and peacemaking – and immediately end wars and conflicts.
“Today I call on world leaders to stand up shoulder to shoulder with us: take action, invest in solutions and do the hard work to build a strong, sustainable world,” he said.
“I ring the Peace Bell for the last time. But I will always support the champions of peace around the world,” added the Secretary-General.
World Peace
The Peace Bell was given to the UN in 1954. It was cast from coins donated by delegates from 60 nations attending the 13th General Conference of the United Nations Association, held in Paris in 1951.
The bell is suspended from a wooden structure reminiscent of a traditional Shinto shrine. On its side are eight Japanese characters meaning “long-term absolute world peace.”
The Japanese Peace Bell is traditionally rung to mark the opening of the General Assembly in September, coinciding with International Peace Day, which is celebrated on September 21.