New UN stamp promotes benefits of disarmament to children

UN News Centre
Oct 15 2004

15 October 2004 – Declaring that “the children of the world need
books, not guns,” United Nations Messenger of Peace and Oscar-winning
actor Michael Douglas today launched a new UN stamp that promotes
disarmament.

Designed by artist Michel Granger of France, the stamp highlights
the theme that children should be in school instead of facing wars
or gun-related violence.

The UN Postal Administration (UNPA) and the Department of Disarmament
Affairs worked together to develop the stamp, which costs 37 cents
and is available for purchase.

In a video message to mark the stamp’s launch in New York, Mr.
Douglas said “the proliferation of light weapons has cheated children
of the chance to go to school, to play in the fields and to be raised
within a secure environment protected by elders. It has allowed
children to be used as instruments of war.”

He added that “the individual and social investment in weapons – that
find their way into the hands of children – must be redirected. The
children of the world need books, not guns, education, not war.”

The disarmament stamp is Mr. Granger’s third design for UNPA; he
has also designed stamps about the issue of chemical weapons (1991)
and road safety concerns (2004).

Yesterday UNPA also launched eight commemorative stamps on the theme of
Human Rights (Education Decade 1995-2004). Yuri Gevorgian of Armenia
designed the stamps for this series.