UNIC-Tehran, for the tenth year running coordinated the participation of the UN System in Iran in the 26th Tehran International Book Fair, held from 1-11 May 2013 and inaugurated at Imam Khomeini Mossla (prayer ground) by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 30 April 2013.
The book fair is one of Iran's most important cultural events and according to authorities, this year more than 5 million people visited it. A large number of people visited the UN booth where UN information materials, including books, reports, pamphlets, flyers, CDs and posters were displayed and distributed to them. The agencies represented in the UN booth were United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and United Nations Information Centre (UNIC).
This year many high ranking people including some government officials, diplomats such as the Ambassadors of Japan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) President, UN Resident Coordinator, some Heads of UN agencies as well as many university professors, students and researchers visited the UN booth. According to the media reports, a total of 4,145 Iranian and foreign publishers, including 2,545 domestic and 1,600 foreign publishers from 77 countries, have put 445,000 titles of books on display in a 135,000 square meter plot of land.