Strongly hitting out at Pakistan for again raking up the Kashmir issue at the UN, India has said a constructive contribution cannot be expected from a country that has an established practice of hosting terrorists and is the “epicentre” of global terrorism, and the biggest destabilising force in the world.
Counsellor in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, A Amarnath, said on Monday that India does not need advice from a nation with a proven track record of illicit export of nuclear material and technology.
“Pakistan’s desperate attempts to peddle falsehoods and habit of abusing the sanctity of multilateral forums deserves our collective contempt,” he said.
“Pakistan has made a number of futile and unsubstantiated allegations against India, including in relation to the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. These do not merit a response, as they pertain to matters internal to India,” Amarnath said.
India exercised its Right of Reply after Pakistan’s envoy to the UN Munir Akram raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir during the meeting of the General Assembly’s First Committee that deals with disarmament and international security issues.
Amarnath reiterated that the entire union territory of Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.
“This includes the areas that are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation,” he said in the Right of Reply.
“Given its established state practice of hosting, aiding, and actively supporting terrorists, how could one expect any constructive contribution from Pakistan to the First Committee, that deals with important matters of international peace and security,” Amarnath said.
With the Pakistani envoy also referring to India’s defence arsenal, New Delhi hit back saying that as a “responsible state, India strictly abides by its obligations under international treaties and needs no advice from a country, which has a proven track record of illicit export of nuclear material and technology”.
“India’s security concerns are not confined to a region and, therefore, India has always approached these issues in a global context,” he said.
He said that in contrast to India’s constructive approach on disarmament matters, Pakistan has only been “disruptive”. PTI
According to the Pew Research Center’s 2020 report, persecution against minority religions happened in more than 90 percent of countries. Leading media outlets including the New York Times reported related cases like India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party abused voters’ faith to instigate confrontation among religious groups, China’s Tibetan genocide, and Sri Lankan religious conflict.
Mr. Sathit Kumarn, the president of Ramakrishna Vedanta Association presented his opinion for peaceful coexistence with minority religion, “The one thing which is really important is treatment. We must treat equally neither who are in belief of major or minor religion.”
After opening presentations by religious leaders from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam about introduction of each religion, HWPL presented the definition of minority religions, cases of minority religious persecution around the world, and national and private cases of action for interreligious coexistence.
Participants then shared in groups perceptions of religion in each countries and discussed roles and ways to improve awareness of minority religions and achieve coexistence.
Prof. Tarig Mohamed Nour Ali, the associate professor of the University of Khartoum proposed the reason for the conflicts with minority religions and solutions by saying, “The important thing is to respect their religion. We should be careful that your belief is not the only one truth.”
Mr. Mambo Leonard Andruga, the advisor for program and administration to the secretary-general of South Sudan Council of Churches said, “We must recognize that we are all equal. We are all a part of the world. So we have to hear each voice by having inter-religious dialogues and understand each other.”
HWPL was established in 2013 to achieve world peace with cessation of war and has been working with more than 100 international organizations, civil society, and governments to promote peace. HWPL Religious Peace Camp has been held in India, America, Myanmar, Burundi, and other countries every year to overcome religious differences amid the growing issue of religious conflicts around the world. In September, HWPL will hold the HWPL World Peace Summit with politicians, legal professions, religious leaders, educators, youth, women and journalists to present concerted action for sustainable peace amid the current global crisis.
The event held on 30th July 2021 brought together a total of sixteen leaders of local tribes, civic groups, and youth organizations that lead the development of communities including Adam Salih Mohammed Atim, leader of Fur tribe, and Mohammed Aboshama Shata, leader of Arab tribe.
Attendees suggested the following as resolution of conflicts and peacebuilding: trial for perpetrators of genocide, disarmament of all tribes in Darfur, improving awareness of peace through peace education and workshops.
The prolonged drought in Darfur since the 1980s, has driven northern Arab nomads into southern African agricultural land. Meanwhile, the Sudanese government’s policy alienation in the western region was the starting point of the uprising. In February 2003 the conflict began in earnest when rebel groups opposing the policy alienation in the regions attacked the North Darfur and has continued to this day due to complex reasons such as racial and religious conflicts and regional inequalities.
According to the United Nations, about 300,000 people were killed in fighting between Darfur rebels and pro-government Janjaweed militias, and about 2.5 million indigenous people walked 600 kilometers to flee to the neighboring countries Chad and South Sudan, who are still refugees. Even about 237,000 refugees were reported in the first four months of 2021.
Under these circumstances, leaders attended the online forum to protect the human rights of local citizens and to build sustainable peace, announcing their ideas on conflict resolution and peace. Heavenly Culture, World peace, Restoration of Light, an international peace organization (HWPL), the host of the event, also shared how the conflict was disputed in Mindanao, Philippines, where more than 140,000 people were killed in the 40-year conflict. HWPL encouraged participants to engage in peaceful activities in Sudan through Mindanao’s positive example achieved by citizen-led cooperation.
Shams Eldien Ahmed Salih Khamis, Teacher of Shams Eldien Academy Private High School said: “Making it known to everyone the importance of peace is the best way to bring peace to Darfur. Peace is the law of nature and the only way for everyone to be a winner. These courses should be spread through the workshop.”
Abaker Mohammed Sharf Mohammed, the former engineer of UN and peace activist, emphasized disarmament as a key for peacebuilding by mentioning: “Weapons are inhumane and it causes unnecessary suffering. Citizens who are not armed are dying by conflicts between some armed groups. There is no winner from conflict by using weapons.”
Ibrahim Ahmed Idris, the former facilitates management assistant of UNAMID, said “Peace agreement, which was set by Mindanao’s leaders and the Philippine government, and HWPL is very impressive. I hope what happened in Mindanao will happen in Darfur. It may be different from what happened here, but there is no problem in the world that cannot be solved. We want peace in Darfur and we want to find the future of the people of Darfur.
In 2014, Man-Hee Lee, a chairman of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) visited Mindanao to resolve the dispute and held a peace walk event for the first time in Mindanao with more than 1,000 people including various religious groups, college students and international youth organizations.
Chairman Lee asked participants, including religious leaders, youth organizations, and university professors, whether they want war or peace, emphasizing the need for peace. And with the consent of all participants he could finally lead a peace agreement.
In addition, he proclaimed the ‘Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW)’ in 2016, comprising 10 articles and 38 clauses to settle all disputes in the world and leave sustainable peace to future generations.
The DPCW was drafted by international law experts in 15 countries to back up current international agreements and declarations in the changing international situation, based on the values and spirit contained in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL, Chairman Lee Man-hee) has held various events and activities in the Philippines since June 2013, including bringing relief for the slums, holding conversations with religious leaders for interfaith harmony, and establishing a youth network for peace. Amid these efforts, Chairman Lee Man-hee was invited to Mindanao by H.E. Antonio J. Ledesma, Archbishop of Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.
Chairman Lee realized the Mindanao conflict was a Catholic-Islam religious conflict and hosted the first peace walk festival on 24 January 2014 in Mindanao, General Santos, Philippines. Over 1,000 people, including believers from both religions, students from both religions, students from the Mindanao State University, and members of the International Peace Youth Group, participated. After the peace walk, Chairman Lee spoke about the necessity of peace to Catholic and Muslim leaders, youth groups, and university professors at a hotel in General Santos.
Chairman Lee criticized the religious leaders that gave rise to this long-time conflict brought with words and religion and emphasized that “God’s will is peace, not war.” He then asked the attendees, “Do you want peace or do you want war,” and had them raise their hand if they wanted peace. When all the attendees raised their hand, Chairman Lee called the Catholic and Islamic representatives to the stage while saying, “Then sign the peace agreement.”
H.E. Fernado Robles Capalla, D.D, Archbishop Emeritus of Archdiocese of Davao, and Esmael G. Mangudadatu, Governor of Maguindanao, signed an agreement for the creation of peace and the cessation of war as the representatives of Catholicism and Islam, respectively, during the spontaneous peace agreement signing ceremony.
The Mindanao peace agreement that was mediated by HWPL proposed a “civilian-centered awareness improvement and action”- based approach to peace. In line with this approach, HWPL began peace activities across the Philippines, including Mindanao, to raise public peace awareness on the universal peace principles of mutual understanding, respect, and harmony. HWPL is also carrying out peace initiatives centered around civil society, including education, religion, youth, and women, in order to eliminate the factors that are sources of conflict and also to strengthen the core values for peaceful development.
In a bid to seek solution to the crisis, ‘The 3rd Youth Empowerment Peace Workshop (YEPW)’ was held virtually on 12th June 2021 bringing together 35 youngsters from youth organizations from seven countries, including Cameroon, South Sudan and East Timor.
Focusing on the ‘what kind of non-formal education is needed at each community level’, part 1 was composed of the discussion on Non-formal education of the NGO and part 2 was composed of introduction to HWPL Peace Education and a presentation on the need for peace education. HWPL’s peace education has a specific curriculum that can teach harmony and peace between individuals, communities, nature, people and generations, and aims to foster peace citizens and make peace sustainable.
The first and second YEPW saw participants sharing ideas in how peace education should be preceded by equal quality education where non-regular education is needed to solve the global shortage of educational infrastructure.
Daniel Santos do Carmo, Executive Director of FONGTIL, who was in charge of presenting the education system for youth in community, explained the current education system in Timor-Leste and highlighted NGOs role to make revitalize youth education. He said “
He said “The Ministry of education has renovated and repaired many schools which were destroyed in 1999. Further-more MOE has continued to provide and improve training programs for teachers, and establishing a standardized curriculum relevant to East Timorese students. Despite such efforts, in number of challenges still remain including training of teachers and lack of proper facilities, etc.
For development of the country, the government should invest the better education system and education infrastructures, and NGOs should be interested in and move on the advocacy for quality education which can be done through policy changes.”
YEPW is a global peace discussion platform where youth from 111 countries around the world who work with IPYG participates. For solving the problems that community and youths facing, IPYG is conducting workshops to find, discuss in each continent with youth in each country. This could be one of the ways to achieve the fourth goal of the UN-SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), quality education and implement the spread of peace culture in Article 10 of the DPCW.
With several cases of international partnership for peace building projects endorsed by youth and women organizations categorized by each region – Africa, Europe, and Asia, this year’s event aimed to discuss a citizen-led peace movement and cooperation to promote coexistence and harmony in the global community, and to overcome global challenges that stem from hatred, conflicts, misunderstanding, and lack of communication in this current pandemic era.
The event commemorated the Declaration of World Peace, proclaimed on May 25th in 2013, which contains not only the cooperation of each state to establish international law for peace and the role of the media in contribution to sharing information of peace but also the active peace movement of youth and women who seek to transform themselves from the greatest victims of war to the greatest actors for peace.
From this peace initiative, HWPL says that millions of global citizens for 8 years have participated in promoting peace projects locally fitted to creating a favorable environment of peace, including education, relief, and forums to offer public policies to meet the needs of the community.
Chairwoman Pascale Isho Warda of Hammurabi Human Rights Organization(HHRO) in Iraq, who was appointed as Minister of Migration and Displacement by the UN from 2004 to 2005, introduced a legislation project of law that prevents violence against women and children in cooperation with IWPG.
Regarding the importance of peace activities through education, she said, “We need to learn the mechanism of guiding everyone to become a tool of peace, strengthening from daily life, and sometimes throughout the simplest matter of life, starting with personal peace with oneself, in the family, and with others.”
Ven. Ashin Htavara, General Secretary of All Burmese Monks Representative Committee in Norway, who went through the Saffron Revolution in 2007, stated that 3 HWPL Peace Libraries were established in Payapon, Myanmar and that a fourth library is currently being prepared.
“There are too few libraries for children in Myanmar. I wanted to give hope to these little children. In the future, the library will conduct peace education, peace activities, and peace campaigns, and we will do everything that can help achieve peace,” he said.
The event also advocated global participation in peace activities such as the peace tree planting campaign that began in Ukraine with 1,000 participants from 21 countries and peace policy proposal dialogue between citizens and policy experts in Mali where the recent coup triggered social unrest.
“It is we in this day who have to do all the necessary things to make peace and prevent our globe from being destroyed. War does not end with words, but it comes to an end with our practical actions. I believe that this can be achieved since no one in our global village is not willing to see peace,” highlighted Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL.
“We urge the head of state of each country and the international community to actively pursue peaceful measures to safeguard the lives of Myanmar’s citizens.” It added, “We urge people and media worldwide to raise their voices in support of finding peaceful resolutions to the current crisis,” reads the statement in part.
The statement highlighted the global youth’s ‘commitment to work toward ceasing conflicts, countering violence and establishing sustainable peace through the 2018’s UN Youth Declaration’.
Mr. Mainza M Hiyamwa, Chairperson of Chosen Generation Youth Club Solwezi (CGYC) of Zambia, said, “The UN and international society are being the main pillars of peace and security, human rights, and development. It’s more vital that we gain access and disseminate information on the range of issues affecting the people of Myanmar. By so doing it would carry more impact and help in the restoration of peace, human rights promotion, and development of the country.”
Facing the current deadlock of counteractions against the humanitarian crisis from the deaths and injuries continually occurring in Myanmar, this global movement by youth organizations has been led by the International Peace Youth Group, an affiliated organization of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light registered in the UN ECOSOC.
This joint statement was sent to the UN Secretary General, international organizations, governments and civil society organizations.
The recent efforts of the Myanmar military to suppress nonviolent protests have led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. The number is still continuing to increase.
Human life must not be disregarded in any circumstances. No conflict of interest can justify violence against civilians, and no interest of any group can prevail over human life.
Using violence to suppress peaceful protests and silence voices for change is contrary to the will of the people of Myanmar. Authorities should respect people’s human rights and freedom of expression. We call on all relevant parties in Myanmar to express regret at the ongoing situation and engage in dialogue to seek a peaceful resolution. We are confident that the international community will support this effort, which will contribute to security and peace not only in Southeast Asia but also in other parts of the world.
We, HWPL, along with our members all over the globe are deeply concerned about the harm caused to civilians by the escalating violence in Myanmar. International attention is focused on Myanmar, and history will remember these moments. The situation should be resolved in a just and peaceful way also for the sake of the growing generation, who will learn from this crisis to build their future. We call on all parties to refrain from repression or force and instead settle the crisis through dialogue and consensus based on mutual respect and understanding. And we call on the United Nations to take active measures so that the human rights and safety of the people of Myanmar may be protected.
We ask the global family of peace to issue statements urging authorities and civilians in Myanmar to pursue dialogue and seek a peaceful solution in order to restore peace to the country.
In one voice, HWPL and all our members around the world express hope that the
ongoing crisis in Myanmar will be resolved peacefully through dialogue, not violence, and we call on the international community to join us.
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), organized this year’s commemorative event, “Marching on Toward Sustainable Peace in a Pandemic Era”, as a platform to share direction for the future and case studies of different sectors cooperating across the world as peace messengers, responding to the pandemic and bringing peace in this new socially distanced world.
The host organization, HWPL, is a peace NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC and associated with UN DGC. For the purpose of ceasing all wars and creating a peaceful world as a legacy for future generations, HWPL has been carrying out 3 main peace initiatives – international law for peace, interfaith dialogue meeting, and peace education.
The Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) includes principles of peacebuilding such as the prohibition of the use of force, development of friendly relations, and peaceful dispute settlement. It emphasizes international cooperation based on interfaith dialogue and civic participation to create a culture of peace. Since its proclamation on March 14th, 2016, the DPCW-based peacebuilding model went on to receive government recognition and support for inter-religious dialogue, peace education, youth and women’s peace activities.
As a member of the International Law Peace Committee (ILPC) who drafted the DPCW, Professor Ciaran Burke explained the background of how the DPCW was founded on “the conviction that judicial and other dispute resolution measure can replace the role of war with the rule of law.”
He also stressed the kernel of the DPCW by borrowing words from Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL, is that “the envisioned effect of the DPCW is cumulative to scale up the moral and political responsibility of world leaders by crystallizing the legal obligations of their government thereby bridging the gap between law and politics.”
Efforts to institutionalize peace based on the DPCW are underway. Countries in Southeast Asia and Central America have begun to rebuild their national legal infrastructure based on the DPCW, and the local governments are officially declaring their support for the DPCW in order to implement peace principles. In South Asia, the DPCW was introduced into the university curriculum as an academic research course on the role of law for a peaceful society.
According to UNESCO, over 190 countries closed down educational facilities, and over 1.6 billion students lost their opportunity for sustainable education. As a part of the online campaign, “Teaching goes on”, HWPL’s peace education is now taught at 214 locations in 34 countries, providing online peace education for over 5,000 students 224 times in 15 countries.
Stressing the importance of strengthening partnership for sustainable education, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Mali to UNESCO, S.E Monsieur Oumar KEITA, said, “We must unite in a spirit of cooperation to ensure peace at the national and international levels. We must consider the need for a comprehensive legal approach that will lead citizens in their everyday lives, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or religion. The preamble to DPCW with 10 articles and 38 clauses speaks of that very well.”
Regarding the importance of religion in spreading hope and peace during the pandemic crisis, Allama Syed Abdullah Tariq, President of the World Organisation of Religion & Knowledge, said, “Whenever humanity faces a difficult time era, there has been a religion which gives them hope and courage to overcome crises. Religion has its power to narrow down differences among us and unite us to be strong enough to break through obstacles. Such efforts will fertilize the culture of peace when the current generation is in desperate need for hope.”
Since it began in 2014, HWPL’s interfaith dialogue meeting also known as the WARP Office meeting is now expanded to 129 countries, seeing an increase in online meetings because of the pandemic. The religious communities in the WARP Office meeting also have held several pan-religious prayer meetings, meditation, and peace camps to reach out to people of the world who are facing hardship due to the pandemic.
International Peace Youth Group (IPYG), an affiliate of HWPL, is building a peace network of youth around the world with the Youth Empowerment Peace Workshop (YEPW), which was inspired by the DPCW’s peace realization process, to achieve youth empowerment proposed in the UN SDGs and Youth 2030.
Mr. Reuben Sapetulu, Deputy Secretary Agent for the United Nations Youth Association of Zambia (YUNA Zambia), said, “I participated in the delivery of 3,000 peace letters to the minister of justice in Zambia for the DPCW proposal. My commitments are simply because I agree that the DPCW is an effective way to bring a cessation of war and world peace. The YEPW was also inspired by the DPCW’s peace realization process. Spreading peace culture based on the DPCW is certainly the way to achieve peace. World leaders, please pay attention and support what the DPCW is stating about the peace realization process.”
Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL urged cooperation and unity for achieving peace by saying “No property or anything can become a legacy in the future. We must create a world of freedom, peace, and love without war, and make it an eternal legacy for our descendants. This is what we need to do in this era. Although the process of submitting the DPCW to the UN was paused for a while due to the corona pandemic, as much as this desire to achieve peace, there is no change.”
In his first primetime address as president, Mr Biden said he would order states to make all adults eligible for vaccinations by 1 May.
Current measures prioritise people by age or health condition.
Mr Biden was speaking exactly a year to the day after the outbreak was classified a global pandemic.
Half a million Americans have since died – more than the death toll from World War One, World War Two, and the Vietnam War combined.
Schools have been closed, businesses shuttered and people kept apart.
Last year many Americans were forced to forgo the elaborate parades, fireworks displays and parties that feature in the national holiday on 4 July, which marks independence from Britain.
In his speech, President Biden said he did not expect large events to be able to go ahead, but he hoped small groups could meet again.
“If we do this together, by 4 July, there is a good chance you, your family and friends can get together in your backyard or in your neighbourhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” he said.
“After a long, hard year, that will make this Independence Day truly special – where we not only mark our independence as a nation but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”
The US has by far the highest death toll in the world from the virus, but death and infection rates have been declining in recent weeks as the vaccine programme picks up.
The country’s health system is complex and individual states are in charge of public health policy. While the federal government is responsible for getting the vaccine distributed to the states, it has largely relied on them to handle the distribution.
But as part of the plans to expand vaccinations, President Biden said the number of places where people could be immunised would be increased, with veterinarians and dentists among those also allowed to vaccinate people.
Mobile units will travel into local communities to provide vaccinations in underserved communities, he said.
Mr Biden previously set a target of 100 million vaccinations by his 100th day in office. But in his address on Thursday, he said this target would be reached on day 60, which is 20 March.
He was speaking shortly after signing a $1.9tn (£1.4tn) economic relief bill, which marks an early legislative victory for his administration. It includes a $1,400 direct payment to most Americans, along with other measures to help people out of poverty and provide additional funding to local and state governments.
Despite the good news on vaccinations, Mr Biden warned that the “fight is far from over”.
He called on people to maintain social distancing measures, hand washing and wear a mask.
“Beating the virus and getting back to normal relies on national unity,” he said.
Mr Biden said last month he hoped that life would return to “normal” by Christmas 2021. Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, described this timetable as “reasonable”.
The president’s caution is at odds with some states such as Texas and Mississippi, which are relaxing restrictions in order to boost their economies.
One year ago, the United States joined the world in facing a brutal truth. The coronavirus pandemic was going to fundamentally alter everyday life. Businesses shuttered. Citizens sheltered in their home. Life ground to a halt.
On Thursday night, in his first prime-time televised address to the nation, President Joe Biden said there was light at the end of the tunnel.
The big news from his speech was that all adult Americans would be eligible for a vaccine by the beginning of May – a pace, he boasted, that was the best in the world.
His most important message, however, may have been his urging that all Americans should get the jab when it’s their turn. “I know they’re safe,” he said.
A recent opinion poll showed that nearly half of Republicans are sceptical of the vaccine. If their doubt becomes inaction, Mr Biden’s promises – widespread school openings, an ability to travel and Independence Day celebrations – will go unrealised.
His speech was part promise, part warning. Get vaccinated, continue social distancing, wear masks – or else.
“America is coming back,” he said. But, he added, Americans needed to do their part.
This time last year, there were 1,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US and about 30 people had died.
All US major sport was cancelled and then-President Donald Trump suspended travel from Europe, saying he hoped the US would be open again for Easter 2020. This prediction was repeatedly revised.
The pandemic has now left more than 530,000 people dead in the US and has infected more than 29 million.
In his speech, President Biden criticised the Trump administration by saying the virus was initially met with “denials for days, weeks, then months, that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, more loneliness”.
He also denounced “vicious hate crimes” against Asian Americans, who he said had been “attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated” for the pandemic. Mr Trump repeatedly referred to coronavirus as the “China virus”.
