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UNI is sponsoring the contest to promote world peace, which will be a key theme of the World Congress it will host in Nagasaki, Japan, in November 2010. Nagasaki is a symbol of the destructive power of nuclear weapons but since the end of World War II it has also been a hotbed of activism for world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.



“It is our responsibility to future generations to struggle for world peace and nuclear disarmament but young people must take up the fight as well. With this contest, we hope that local students will think critically about nuclear abolition and produce creative and persuasive artwork that will help convince the world that the proliferation of nuclear weapons only put us all at risk,” UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings said.



Every year UNI, which has its global headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, hosts the Peace Messengers, a group of high school students from Nagasaki and Hiroshima who travel around the world to share their push for world peace and nuclear disarmament. In 2009 the Peace Messengers were received by UNI, local students and the Nyon municipality.



Philip Jennings was at the Gymnase on Tuesday to talk to students about the contest and encourage them to enter.



While UNI is a trade union organisation that focuses on workers’ rights, peace and stability must form the base of any society that truly respects the rights of all of its working citizens, he said.



This work with Japanese students inspired the art contest, which is being organized in collaboration with local secondary school Gymnase of Nyon and the Community of Nyon. Second year students at the Gymnase have the chance to win a trip to Japan by creating a work of art, literature or music that exemplifies the theme of world peace.



The contest is open to all second year students at the Gymnase of Nyon. The deadline for submissions is 26 August 2010. Two winners will be picked in September by a jury, made up of representatives from UNI, the school and the local community. The winners’ work will be featured at UNI’s World Congress in Nagasaki, Japan. UNI will bring the winners to the Congress and arrange a full schedule of social and cultural exchange events for them.