USA / SOUTH KOREA – On September 24, 2021 – Heavenly Culture World Peace Restoration of Light (HWPL) held a virtual conference titled “A New Normal for Sustainable Peace.”
During the conference participants discussed how HWPL has contributed to peace in the Caribbean region and collected best practices for future initiatives. The virtual forum also marked the 7th Annual Commemoration of HWPL’s World Alliance of Religions’ Peace (WARP) Summit held in Seoul, South Korea.
Since 2014, this Summit has hosted political and religious leaders, heads of women’s and youth groups, civil society, and the press worldwide. Notable Government and Civil Society Leaders at this year’s event included:
- Kevin Bernard, Minister of Youth – Belize
- Octavia Alfred, Minister of Education – Dominica
- Dr Sa Sa, Union Minister, Spokesperson National Unity Government, Former Special Envoy to the UN – Myanmar
- Basdeo Panday, Former Prime Minister – Trinidad and Tobago
- Samuel Hinds, Former President and current Ambassador to US – Guyana
- Donald Ramotar, Former Prime Minister – Guyana
- Rod Rembendambya, Charge d’Affaires I.A and Head of Embassy – Gabon
- Maximo Anico Guzmán, VP of ODEPRI – Dominican Republic
- Centro de Ayuda para la Restauración Familiar – Dominican Republic
- Rommel Santos Diaz – Dominican Republic
- Christine Yassingou, Cultural Attaché, Embassy of Central African Republic – Central African Republic
- Marinus Bee, Chairman of Suriname National Assembly – Suriname
- Steven Ishwardat, Advisor to Suriname National Assembly – Suriname
- Veronica Dorsette-Hector, Acting Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports – Montserrat.
Forum sessions covered a broad array of topics, including practical ways to amplify youth and women’s voices around peace, how interfaith dialogue sessions around peace have grown globally due to the efforts of HWPL’s Alliance of Religions program, and the economic cost of violence. Together, leaders in each session were able to discuss ways to implement the group’s peacebuilding principles found in the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW).
The DPCW is a legal framework for spreading a culture of peace on a local, national, and international level. The DPCW, which serves as the solution for worldwide peace and conflict resolution, has already been enacted as a National Declaration in several countries worldwide, including Antigua and Barbuda, Seychelles, and Eswatini, and international organizations such as the Central American Parliament. The goal is to present the law as a regional resolution throughout the Caribbean Community.
One of the event’s speakers, Donald Ramotar, former prime minister of Guyana remarked: “The system that we live on, the war machine, is generally oriented on maximizing profits. It is not trying to solve the problem of war, not trying to solve the problem of poverty, not trying to deal with the issues of inequality, not trying to solve many of those problems that have created other issues like migration.
There is a need for a new approach, a new systemic approach. But we need greater cooperation within the world.”
An HWPL volunteer followed up by saying “Heads of State must share our urgency in this. They must join and sign the DPCW for this work of progress. It’s the heads of state that must be moved as we are for this work of peace. Each of us has a responsibility to our countries and to the world to find solutions for peace, like those seen in the 10 articles of the DPCW, so we can decrease violence, gain profit for peaceful endeavors, and move one step closer to a world that each of us can be proud to pass down as a lasting legacy for future generations.”
The host organization, HWPL, is a non-governmental organization affiliated with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The organization advocates for the cessation of war and conflict worldwide. HWPL carries out its peace initiatives in the Washington D.C. area and the Caribbean by working with its affiliate partners,
the International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG) and the International Peace Youth Group (IPYG). Moreover, regional leaders are participating in HWPL’s Peace Advisory Council and as HWPL Publicity Ambassadors.
