GENEVA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- To celebrate the 100th year since the creation of the League of Nations in Geneva, the United Nations on Wednesday marked the first International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.
"One hundred years ago, the League of Nations was founded, and soon afterwards Geneva became home to this first multilateral organization with the objective of maintaining world peace," said the UN in a statement here.
"It is not enough to proclaim the virtue of multilateralism; we must prove its added value," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the first observance of the international day.
"We must show that multilateralism can respond to global anxieties and deliver a fair globalization that lifts all," he said.
The creation of the League of Nations in 1919 symbolized the birth of modern multilateral diplomacy which, over the past 100 years, has significantly developed from the League's initial steps to today's complex and comprehensive work of the United Nations, said the UN.
"To celebrate this anniversary, the United Nations marked the first International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace, which was established by the General Assembly resolution 73/127 in 2018," said the UN statement.
UN Geneva celebrated the day with an event screened in the cinema room of the Palais des Nations, titled "The League at Work" -- a documentary film produced in 1937. A discussion about the evolution of multilateralism followed.
"Today and even more so tomorrow, multilateralism must be inclusive, integrated and interconnected; it must break down silos and connect across disciplines; involve actors from all backgrounds and at all levels - from grassroots to governments; from the private sector to civil society," said Michael Moller, the Director-General of UN Office at Geneva.
