The Hague, The Netherlands –

The first day of spring, 21 March 2014, saw the launch of outreach activities for the EU-financed Discover Peace project, in which the INMP is actively involved. The project is to design peace trails, with information about historical and contemporary peace sites, in seven European cities: Budapest, Manchester, Paris, The Hague, Torino, Vienna and Berlin.

On this day, Peace Wish Trees were inaugurated in each of the seven cities, inspired by Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tree. In The Hague, the Carnegie Foundation sponsored the event by donating a young dogwood tree and offering a permanent place for the Peace Wish Tree at the entrance of the Peace Palace. During the opening ceremony, Carnegie Foundation Director Steven van Hoogstraten gave a welcoming speech, and the Peace Carillon played seven well chosen songs. Invited guests and passersby were asked to write a peace wish on weatherproof paper and to hang them in the special tree.

For the Discover Peace project, INMP designed Peace Trail The Hague with the assistance of peace historian Marten van Harten. After the Peace Wish Tree ceremony, several people participated in the inaugural walking of a section of the peace trail, from the Peace Palace to Humanity House, where they received free entrance to see the current exhibition.

On 20 September, the Saturday of the Just Peace weekend in The Hague, the INMP presented the Peace Trail The Hague pocket guide, in both Dutch and English. The book describes 15 historical places connected with the Hague tradition of peace and international justice. The first issues of the guide were ceremonially presented to two museums which are part of the trail: Yi Jun Peace Museum and Humanity House, and also to Tim Akkerman, the 2014 Peace Ambassador.

 

Sources and related links:

Discover Peace in Europe – www.discoverpeace.eu

INMP Discover Peace – www.museumsforpeace.org/projects/discover-peace.html