In January 2004, Iranian Nobel laureate
Shirin Ebadi had taken a proposal for an International Day of
Non-Violence from a Hindi teacher in Paris teaching international students to the
World Social Forum in Mumbai. The idea gradually attracted the interest of some leaders of India's
Congress Party ("
Ahimsa Finds Teen Voice", The Telegraph, Calcutta) until a Satyagraha Conference resolution in New Delhi in January 2007, initiated by
Indian National Congress President and Chairperson of the
United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, called upon the United Nations to adopt the idea. On 15 June 2007, the
United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence. The resolution by the General Assembly asks all members of the
UN system to commemorate 2 October in "an appropriate manner and disseminate the message of
non-violence, including through education and public awareness". External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar and
UNSG António Guterres, unveiled the bust of Mahatma Gandhi in the prestigious North Lawn Gardens of the United Nations headquarters at
New York. The Gandhi bust is a gift from India to the UN and is the first Gandhi sculpture installed at its headquarters. == See also ==