Europa NewsWire.
Photo by: Luiz Rampelotto.
United Nations, November 03 2009 - Chilean Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz announced today (3 November) that proceeds from a re-release of the 1960s anthem “Give Peace a Chance” will be donated to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund.
Muñoz, Chairman of the Peacebuilding Commission, called for more private-sector aid to countries emerging from conflict, and said that after a peace agreement has been signed and “the TV cameras leave”, political, economic and ethnic fractures often re-emerge “and many of these countries relapse into conflict.”
He announced that Yoko Ono, who co-wrote the song with her late husband John Lennon, had arranged to donate income from the fortieth anniversary digital single to the Fund, which allows relatively quick funding for targeted projects.
Ono and John Lennon’s children, Sean and Julian, partnered with EMI music and Sony ATV music to allow the net proceeds from downloads of the re-release, exclusively available on iTunes, to go to the Fund, from today until 31 December 2009.
The Ambassador celebrated “the uniting spirit” of the Plastic Ono Band’s song, which he called “a universal anthem”. The song was inspired by John Lennon’s off-the-cuff explanation to a reporter of why the couple was protesting the Viet Nam War. As recorded on 1 June 1969, it included a chorus of some of the best-known peace activists of the time.
Ono, who visited the UN in April when she auctioned an artwork to benefit autism research, said then that she hoped very soon the world will “live happily in peace.”
The Peacebuilding Fund has provided resources for Sierra Leone, Burundi, Central African Republic and Guinea Bissau -- as well as some 14 other countries emerging from conflict.
Source: UNTV.
