The United Nations declared 1986 as the International Year of Peace and also stated that this is the basic objective of
their being formed. In recognition of this event, the Royal Australian mint issued a commemorative one dollar in the same year. The reverse was
designed by Horst Hahne and shows the dove of peace being released from open hands surrounded by a wreath. The
legend reads INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF PEACE. The obverse features the Maklouf effigy
of HM Queen Elizabeth II facing right and crowned. It also has the legend ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA
1986. The issue was struck at the Royal Australian mint in an aluminium bronze alloy with an
additional sterling silver striking in 1990 as part of the Masterpieces in Silver set.The International Year of Peace was
announced to the world by the United Nations in an effort to channel resources and thoughts into making peace possible. Everyone
has a different idea on how this can be acheived but the United Nations gave directives and set the wheels in motion. They
also noted an important point during the 37th session of the General Assembly that, "Considering that the promotion of peace is the basic objective of the United Nations"
(United Nations, 1982)
. The International Red Cross also emphasised that their Fundamental Principle of humanity is to prevent and alleviate
human suffering, protect life and health, and to promote lasting peace and international co-operation. The world that we
live in has become more violent in recent years and we need to make every effort to ensure that peace can prevail. We should
learn to settle our differences in a more appropriate way and the International Year of Peace offers a great opportunity
to make some in-roads. The United Nations wishes to save our future generations from the fall-out from war and to unite their
strength to maintain international peace and security.
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