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The 36th United Nations General Assembly (November 30, 1981) designated the third Tuesday of September as an “International Day of Peace” and the year of 1986 as an “International Year of Peace.” The UN “International Day and Year of Peace” was first discussed at the 6th General Assembly of International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) held in San Jose, Costa Rica in June 1981. At that meeting Dr. Young Seek Choue, then President of Kyung Hee University and chair of the 6th General Assembly of IAUP, proposed the establishment of a UN International Day and Year of Peace in what was referred to as the “Costa Rican Resolution” in a speech entitled “Peace is more important than Triumph.” The resolution, sponsored by Costa Rican Government, was officially adopted (Agenda 133) at the 36th UN General Assembly on November 30, 1981 and enacted as the “UN International Day of Peace” which is celebrated to this day. Since then, Kyung Hee University co-hosted the “1999 Seoul International Conference of NGOs” in cooperation with the UN NGO DPI and CoNGO, an event that reinforced relations with the UN and UN NGO Consultative bodies. Kyung Hee also held a workshop as part of its Global NGO Complex at the UN NGO DPI General Assembly in 2001. A ceremony to celebrate completion of UN Peace Park and GNC was held in 2004 and an MOU for exchange and cooperation with UN DESA DPADM was signed in 2006. Kyung Hee and the UN DPI co-hosted the “UN Depository Library Seminar” and as a result Kyung Hee has run a student internship program at UN agencies such as CONGO, DESA and DPI secretariat.

A “Kyung Hee-UN Academic Impact (UNAI) International Symposium” was held in 2011 in commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the UN International Day of Peace,. The UN Academic Impact (UNAI) is a subcommittee representing higher education cooperation in the UN that was launched by Secretary General Ban Kimoon in November 2010. UNAI realizes a significant role of higher education to promote socioeconomic development and world peace, and pursues gathering wisdom and actions of higher education leadership through exchanges among higher educational institutions in order to solve pending global issues.

The main theme of “Kyung Hee-UNAI International Symposium” was “Give Peace Another Chance.” The UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon and Kyung Hee University’s President Inwon Choue delivered key note addresses, followed by a roundtable entitled “Higher Education and Human Dignity.” The symposium was simultaneously held in Seoul and New York via a video conferencing system and was aired live worldwide via UN webcast.