The 21st of September is the International Day of Peace, which the UN General Assembly declared to observe as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. To commemorate the Day, the United Nations Informaiton Centre and Fatima Jinnah Women University jointly organised a discussion on the university campus today to raise awareness of the importance of the Day and for its students to reflect on how to contribute to the peace of the world.
The panelists were Dr Tanvir Ahmed Khan, former Foreign Secretary, Dr Riffat
Hussain, Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies of
Sri Lanka, and Mr Paneerselvam Perembalam of the UN Department of Peacekeeping
Operations who is the Chief Administrative Officer of the UN Military Observer
Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). Dr Nazir Hussain, Associate Professor,
Department of Defense and Strategic Studies of Quaid-e-Azam University, acted
as moderator.
The session started with opening remarks by Ms Ishrat Rizvi, National Information Officer of UNIC, who set the course of the discussion. After the Secretary-General's message for the Day, three panelists made brief presentations touching upon UN peacekeeping operations, conflicts, diplomacy for peace, history of the UN's work for peace, peace and human development as well as Pakistan's active participation in peace diplomacy and peacekeeping operations. The presentations were followed by a lively exchange of opinions between the participants and the panelists on broad aspects of issues related to peace.
In her closing remarks, Professor Dr Najma Najam, Vice-Chancellor of the University, stressed the importance of the young generation as future decision-makers to always keep abreast of current affairs and encouraged the students to constantly seek roots and causes of conflicts.
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