International Day of Peace commemorating ceremony, with the cooperation of Tehran Peace Museum, Iranian Secretariat of Mayors for peace, ICOM Iran, Iranian National Commission of UNESCO, United Nations Office in Iran, Tehran Book Garden, Museum of Friendship, Center of Communication and International Affairs of Tehran Municipality, was held at Tehran Book Garden. 

The opening of the ceremony began after the recitation of the Quran, and then the statement of the UN Secretary-General was read by Ms. Eigner Marie Venez (Head of the United Nations Information Center in Iran) and Mr. Pasha Tabrizian (UN Information Expert). Then Mr. Ahmad Mohit Tabatabai (President of ICOM Iran) gave a speech regarding peace in the history of Iran.

The opening was Followed-up by the video "What is peace?" and then Ms. Pope Mahdavi Nader gave a speech in relation to her project entitled "Walking around the world with the slogan of peace and friendship". Next, the statement of the Iranian Organ Donation Association with the theme "Organ donation, a symbol of peace" was read by Ms. Baran Nikrah (the ambassador of the Iranian Organ Donation Association). Then Ms. Zohra Bahrul Uloomi (origami master) introduced this art The opening ceremony was carried on by the reading Tehran Peace Musem statement by the two active veterans, Mr. Taqipour Moghadam (Director of the TPM) and Mr. Mohammadi. 

Tehran Peace Museum organized a workshop on preparing Iranian non-governmental organizations to participate in the 27th Conference of state parties Chemical Weapons Convention to empower Iranian NGOs participating in the conference on the 16th and 17th of August.

Topics such as the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Conference of state parties, and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were discussed in this workshop with the presence of representatives of seven related organizations from various cities in Iran.

The first day of the workshop started with discussing the subjects such as the history of utilizing chemical weapons in the world and Iran, the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and its national authority located in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also the structure of Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was studied. This day ended by receiving suggestions and questions.

 The memorial ceremony of Ms. Saba Bababae (Kuniko Yamamura), a peace activist at the Tehran Peace Museum, was held on Wednesday, July 22,

the meeting hall of the City Park; Peace activists, volunteer members of the TPM, chemical weapons veterans and Ms. Bababae's family attended the ceremony.

In this ceremony, selected parts of Saba Bababae's autobiography written by Hamid Hessam and Masoud Amirkhani were recited. 

At the beginning, Dr. Seyed Abbas Araghchi (former ambassador of Iran to Japan) gave a speech about the prominent traits of Ms. Bababae as a Muslim woman. Afterwards, Dr. Mohammad Reza Soroush (President of Tehran Peace Museum) spoke about Ms. Bababae's invaluable endeavors at the TPM.

The ceremony of commemorating the National Day of Victims of Chemical and Microbial Weapons and the 35th anniversary of the chemical attack on Sardasht was held on Wednesday, July 8, in Tehran Peace Museum. 

First, the video message of Fernando Arias, director general of  the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was played. 

The representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mr. Eshraq Jahrami read the message of Mr. Hossein Amirabdollahian (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran).. 

Then, the statement of Tehran Peace Museum and Society of Chemical Weapons Victim Support (SCWVS) was recited by Dr. Hamid Salehi, a member of the board of directors of Tehran Peace Museum. 

"Peace Reporting Simulation" workshop was held by Iran Secretariat of MFP and the Peace Reporters Association and Iranian Association for Peace Studies at the Tehran Peace Museum 27, 28 December 2019.

The basics and principles of peace reporting, based on how a reporter can prevent biased and escalation and the ways of coverage the truth news to the audience was the topics that educated on the first day of the workshop.
Principles of humanitarian law, the need to protect civilians and not to attack civilian places and the protection of journalists was trained on the second day.
The program also discussed the political history of Afghanistan and the process of peace negotiations between America and the Taliban.

The final section was a simulation of peace reporting on the subject of Afghan peace negotiations.
The participants were divided into different groups and reported on the topics, they had learned during the workshop.
Upon completion of the group reporting, the representatives of each group read their report to the public, and lecturers corrected the texts and explained the important points of each report.

In the end, the participation certification was awarded to participants.

Two Volunteers of Tehran Peace Museum participated in the “Science for all” festival run by Iran’s National Science Museum in November.

Science for all is a festival which provides people with the opportunity to gain knowledge about different aspects of science. In this festival, Ms. Farzaneh Nazari who was one of the participants of "Hiroshima and Peace 2018"course, delivered a speech regarding the peaceful ways of using nuclear energy. The main sections of her speech were about nuclear structure, application of nuclear energy in health, agriculture, water resource management, the nuclear disaster in Fukushima and Chernobyl and also Hiroshima atomic bombing.

Ms. Mona Badamchizadeh who was also an intern of Mayors for Peace organization held a digital art exhibition by artworks related to the consequences of using weapons of mass destruction with support from TPM and Iran’s National Science Museum.

It is worth mentioning that two paintings from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’s collection were also digitally displayed. These are two examples of TPM volunteer’s contribution toward raising people’s awareness regarding the effects of weapons of mass destruction.

Tehran Peace Museum Declaration

As the years pass by, the seed of hope grows steadily in the heart of Halabja, reflecting the strength and spirit of life.

It was 27 years ago, during the last days of winter, that the chaos of war changed the course of Halabja’s history.  White and gray gas exploded and spreaded the elixir of death throughout the city.

First came the skin burns.  Then the breathing slowed down.  Then it stopped.  Women and children stared ahead – unseeing – at the seeds in the ground.

On 5 April 2014, the International Convoy of Peace for Syria kicked off their humanitarian and peace journey to Syria at the Tehran Peace Museum.  The convoy consists of a group of 14 peace activist from a number of countries including Mairead Maguire, the Nobel peace prize laureate, David Smith, a priest from Australia, Sheik Ali Ahmad, a Syrian spiritual leader and Sam Eskandar, the Lebanese peace campaigner.

During their visit to the museum, the convoy had the opportunity to talk to NGO activists in Iran, as well as war veterans and chemical weapons survivors, Iranian artists and volunteers at the museum.  The convoy left for Syria on Wednesday April 9^th, and will take aid and medicine for the war affected people of Syria.

To see the photos of this event, please click here.

On 31 March 2014, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Gary Lewis, received an e-Petition from Iranian media celebrities and representatives of the Tehran Peace Museum at the UN Common Premises in Tehran.

 The event was organized so that the e-Petition signed by over 1.500.000 Iranians in support of the release of the abducted border guards can be conveyed, ultimately, to UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.

“On an occasion as important as this, where over 1.5 million Iranians have combined to give us their voices through their computer screens and by SMS, I am honoured to witness this solidarity that has been displayed by the Iranian people in support of the abducted border guards. I promise to deliver the e-Petition to UN Headquarters in New York and – like all Iranians – the UN hopes for a peaceful and successful outcome to the process underway to secure the border guards’ release.” said Mr Gary Lewis of the UN.

Full report of the  meeting is available here on the UN website.

The 7^th issue of the INMP (International Network of Museums for Peace) Newsletter is published and is now available on the following link.

In this issue of the newsletter, you can find reports and news from the peace museums around the world as well as useful information about the 8^th international conference of museums for peace which will be held in South Korea in September 2014.

One full page of this issue of the newsletter is allocated to the news from Tehran Peace Museum. To read the newsletter click here