The 5th issue of the INMP -International Network of Museums for Peace - newsletter was published in May 2013.

In this issue, there is a full page coverage of some of the activities of Tehran Peace Museum.

Download the newsletter in PDF from here to know more about programs and activities of INMP and the museum for peace around the world.

A sister-ship agreement between Tehran Peace Museum and Halabja Monument/ Museum was signed in Tehran on Monday 10 June 2013.

Tehran Peace Museum (located in Tehran, Iran) and Halabja Monument Museum (located in Halabja, Iraqi Kurdistan) are the only museums in the world to address the chemical warfare and its consequences and have guides who are survivors of chemical warfare.

According to this agreement, the two museums will share experiences, have joint cultural- artistic or research projects, exchange experts and will cooperate on recording the chemical weapons victims testimonies as the oral history.

One of the main goals of both museums is to promote culture of peace through raising awareness about the consequences of war and to prevent repeat of such disasters.

To see the photos of this event click here.

To download the agreement's text, click here.

Mr.Gary Lewis, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Iran, visited the TPM on Monday 27 May 2013.

Following a visit to the Museum, Mr Lewis had a friendly meeting with some TPM members, war veterans and chemical warfare survivors who work with the peace museum as volunteer guides.

During the meeting, Mr Lewis reiterated the importance of raising awareness about the consequences of war to promote culture of peace and the role of war survivors in such awareness programs.

To see the photos of this event click here.

“My Friend” was the title of an exhibition of Iranian Children’s Drawings held on 22 & 23 May 2013 in Tehran’s Arasbaran civic center, as collaboration between Tehran Peace Museum and Hadis Pre-school center.

In this exhibition which was the 4th joint program of Hadis Pre-school center and Tehran Peace Museum, 40 drawings of children (4-12 years) were exhibited.

During two days, interested people, students as well as representatives of media, visited the exhibition and enjoyed watching children’s drawings.

To see the photos of the exhibition please click here.

A workshop on "Refugees, Humanitarian Assistance and Efforts toward Peaceful Life" was held at Tehran Peace Museum on 23 May 2013.

In the workshop which was a joint program of the UN Refugee Agency -UNHCR- and the TPM, over 50 students and TPM volunteers participated to discuss different topics including: History and mission of the UNHCR, basic facts, terminology, and the refugees challenges.

The participants also had chance to listen to the life story of one of the afghan refugees.

To se the photos of the workshop click here.

In a ceremony which held on 19 May 2013 to celebrate World Museums Day, and with the presence of representatives from different museums all over the country, Tehran Peace Museum selected as the superior museum of the last solar year (Spring to end of Winter). This selection was based on monitoring different items of museums' activities.

In this ceremony a large number of Iranian museums' members and officials from Iranian ICOM (International Council of Museums) were present; and awards and certificates of selection delivered by the jury members to TPM's Executive Director.

Tehran Peace Museum has been awarded in 5 items which are: Education, number of visitors, Creativity & Innovation, Introducing cultural & historical legacy, Collecting cultural-historical belongings.

TPM congratulates to its members and volunteers, and believes that achieving to this great honor couldn't happen without the efforts of all these friends.
We wish for more success on TPM's up-coming events

“Journey Recounted by Coughs” (Hiroshima Travelogue) book-launch ceremony was held in Tehran Peace Museum on 14 May 2013.

Hamid Hesam, the author of the book, together with a number of authors, artists, media representatives, Japanese Embassy Cultural Officer, as well as CW survivors and Peace Museum’s members were present in the event.

At the beginning of the ceremony, Head of museum’s International Relations had few words on the Iranian-Japanese war victims’ relations and this cultural exchange as one of the Tehran Peace Museum’s main program, then Ali Jalali Farahani, a CW survivor, and Ms. Kuniko Yamamura, interpreter and TPM member, talked on this travelogue’s positive traits.

To see the photos of this event click here. 

A group of students from Uppsala University in Sweden, visited Tehran Peace Museum on Friday 10 May 2013.

The swedish students had a meeting with students and young members of the peace museum and also had a chat with volunteer guides of the museum.

Uppsala University is Sweden’s oldest university which established in 15^th century and is one of the world’s best universities in humanities with a famous peace studies department.

A seminar on Nuclear Weapons and International Law was held in Tehran Peace Museum on 9 May 2013.

Among other participants, over 70 students of international law attended the seminar in which speakers from law school of AT University, International Committee of Red Cross, Ministry of foreign affairs, International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear war-PPNW-  and International campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons -ICAN- delivered lectures.

The seminar was part of a serial join education program in the framework of collaboration between the Tehran Peace Museum, ICRC-Tehran and the National Committee of Humanitarian Law.

An observance on "Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare" was held in Tehran Peace Museum on Monday 29 April 2013.

Survivors of chemical warfare and their families, war veterans, representatives of NGOs and international organizations as well as officials were among the participants of the ceremony.

Statements by Iranian vice president, UN Secretary General and the OPCW Director General were read during the program.

Mr. Mohamadi a survivor of chemical warfare, delivered a message on behalf of CW victims and wished for abolition of chemical weapons and all WMD.

At the end of the program, an Olive tree was planted in front of the Peace museum as the symbol of peace and non-violence.

To see the photos of the event click here.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his message on the "Day of remembrance for all victims of Chemical Warfare" which was delivered to the Tehran Peace Museum's memorial ceremony on 29 April 2013 by the head of UNIC in Iran, reiterated that:  Until the (Chemical Weapons) Convention is universal and the last stockpiles have been destroyed, our debt to the victims of chemical warfare will remain unpaid. 

to read the full statement by the UN Secretary General click below.

I wish to welcome you all to this solemn ceremony to pay homage to the memory of all victims of chemical weapons. I am grateful to you, Ambassador Peter Goosen for presiding over this commemoration in your capacity as Chairman of the Conference of the States Parties.

It is an honour for me to welcome in our midst Mr Karel van Oosterom, Director-General of Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Mr Jozias van Aartsen, Mayor of The Hague. Your presence underlines the close cooperation the OPCW enjoys with both the Municipality of The Hague and the Dutch government and their consistent support for the Organisation.

Kimia Sadat Hashemi, 10 years old Iranian child, awarded in 27th Hiroshima International Children's Peace Drawings Competition. This year, like last year, among all the participants in this international competition from different countries such as Australia, Germany, France, Russia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, India and United States, who have sent their drawings with the theme of Peace to the secretariat of this competition in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The drawing of one of the Iranian participants has achieved the Certificate of Honor, signed by president of Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation who is also Mayor of Hiroshima.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon visited the art exhibition set up by TPM on the side line of the 3rd review conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention in the Hague and had a chat with TPM members including survivors of chemical warfare.

Ban Ki-moon who was in the Hague to attend the opening ceremony of the CWC review conference, in his opening speech mentioned his meeting with the gas attacks survivors and that it makes our responsibility heavier to try for abolition of WMD including chemical weapons.

The third review conference of the Chemcial Weapons Cinvention was started on 08 April in the Hague with diplomatic delegationd from 188 member states, over 70 NGOs and international organizations. A delegation from the Tehran Peace Museum and the Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support - SCWVS - have participated in the conference as amembers of CWC NGO coalition.

The 3rd  review conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention - CWC- will be held in the Hague, the Netherlands from 8 to19 April 2013.

Diplomatic delegations from 188 state parties , representatives of International organizations as well as many NGOs will participate in this very important event which takes place every 5 years.

Representatives of the SCWVS and Tehran Peace Museum are invited to attend the conference.

Among other side events of the conference, would be an art exhibition by Nasim Taghipoor, a volunteer member of the Tehran Peace Museum who will exhibit her art works on impacts of war and Chemical Warfare.

On Monday 11 March 2013, the Tehran Peace Museum organized a ceremony to welcome the spring and Nowruz (Iranian New Year).During the event, a group of children played the Beethoven’s symphony No. 9 with their musical instruments and sang together a song on peace and friendship between humans.

Also to commemorate the second anniversary of 11 March 2011 catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, and in solidarity with the people of Japan, the Ginkgo tree seeds which are sent to the museum from Japan’s “Green Legacy Hiroshima” project, as the messengers of life, hope, peace and friendship, were planted by children and volunteers of the TPM under the supervision of one of the Gardening Education Center’s specialists.The pots with planted seeds were then handed to this center’s greenhouse for further protection and support.

Participation of a group of war veterans and chemical weapons’ survivors was one of the spotlights of this ceremony.

After this event, the participated children and museum’s visitors have given small plants to take care of, books and small olive trees as New Year’s peaceful gifts.

Click here to see the photos of this event.

On Monday 11 March 2013, at 10 am, Tehran peace Museum in collaboration with City Park and the Gardening Education Center, will hold an event to welcome the Nowruz (Iranian New year).

Also,to commemorate the second anniversary of March 11, 2011 catastrophoc earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear accident , and in solidarity with the people of Japanthe, during this event,Ginkgo seeds which are sent to the museum from Japan’s “Green Legacy Hiroshima” project, as the messengers of life, hope, peace and friendship, will be planted along with a number of olive trees as symbols of peace and hope.

As the last part of the ceremony, a group of children and their teachers will pray for a new year full of peace and friendship. 

These days, Tehran Peace Museum and Tehran's City Park are hosting the seeds of Hiroshima's Ginkgo tree, collected in 2012 from the mother tree located in Shukkeien Garden less than 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter of the atomic bomb attack (1945). These seeds are the precious messengers of life, hope and peace and with their surviving during all these years, have planted the seed of hope in the hearts of many survivors of wars around the world.

Since the beginning of 2013 , many school children from several schools, along with their teachers visited the Tehran Peace Museum.

During their visits, the students had chance to meet with war veterans and survivors of chemical warfare and listened to their eye witness accounts.

The students also exchanged ideas on promoting peace in the society, schools and families.

To see some photos of these visits, please click here.

We are happy to inform you that the Tehran Peace Museum is this month's Spotlight on the INMP (International Network of Museum's for Peace) website.

Each month, the INMP selects one of its member museums for some well-deserved extra attention on its website. To start 2013, they have selected Tehran Peace Museum!

We hope this extra attention in INMP Spotlight will give our museum more publicity and hits on the webpage and site.

You can see these special sections via the links below:

http://www.inmp.net

http://inmp.net/?option=com_content&view=category&id=31&Itemid=107