Seoul, 17th-19th September 2018
The Peace Summit of the World Alliance of Religions, held yearly since 2014 by the South Korean non-governmental organization “Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light” (HWPL) represents a platform for cooperation through which political and religious leaders from across the world, youth and women’s organizations, journalists and representatives of academia can exchange experience and good practices with the main objective of fostering peace at a global level. This interdisciplinary approach, founded on the principles found in the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) aims to develop international cooperation both between states and at the level of civil society in a wide range of countries, to prevent conflicts and preserve peace, to intensify religious dialogue and educate the younger generations in the spirit of peace, and to promote the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The HWPL organization has attempted to co-opt as many state and non-state actors as possible, to join its efforts to peacefully unite the Korean peninsula and promote peace on the global level. The 2018 edition was held on the Incheon Stadium in Seoul with an audience of 30.000, and had as its main goal the gathering of support from world leaders for signing the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War, in order to present it to the United Nations, who would then adopt it through a UN Resolution. Interfaith dialogue and the importance of educating the younger generations in the spirit of peace were central themes to the debate sessions organized around the plenary lectures of the summit. The President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Emil Constantinescu, presented the Levant initiative for global Peace, underlining the role of cultural diplomacy in the creation and consolidation of a culture of peace worldwide. On this occasion, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization signed a collaborative protocol with the “Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light” organization, in order to promote cultural diplomacy.
Message of the President Emil Constantinescu at the 4th Annual Commemoration of the September 18th WARP Summit:
„Any meeting in South Korea, a country that bears the suffering of a people divided into two states due to an aggressive atheist ideology, has a special significance for our world”
„The first Summit of the World Alliance of Religions for Peace organized in Seoul in September 2014 was one of the most important events dedicated to peace during times when many new bloody conflicts threaten different regions of the world. The Summit in Seoul aimed to achieve much more than solving punctually and temporarily those conflicts. It aimed to create a culture of peace through restoration of harmony among people and between people and nature, as they were offered us by God, no matter how religions or beliefs praise Him.
I truly admire the exceptional endeavors that Chairman of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light – Man Hee Lee has made in order to organize such popular manifestations of youth in several places of the world and the support that Chairman Man Hee Lee offered to promoting the cultural diplomacy, through his personal participation in the meetings with different world religious leaders and important representatives of the academic medium, in several countries’ Parliaments, during the conferences held under the aegis of the UN in Washington, UNESCO in Paris or in the Parliament of Romania, and I have been honored to work together for this noble mission.
Four years later, we are together again for discussing how we can implement the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War. Any meeting in South Korea, a country that bears the suffering of a people divided into two states due to an aggressive atheist ideology, has a special significance for our world, that is torn by so many ideological, ethnic, social and, not least, religious divisions.
The event which is taking place on this Stadium is mainly addressed to the youth, who do not want to be forced by their country leaders to fight against each other, and to women, who would like to protect not only themselves, usually innocent victims, but to protect also their husbands, children and brothers from the horrors that any war inevitably bring about. Youth and women can become the most persuasive emissaries of peace in the present and in the future.
Avoiding wars and peace building process require a laborious effort to create a culture of solidarity, outlining a pragmatic style, in which the statements should be enforced by the effective actions. The fact that so many distinguished representatives of the world public opinion, religious leaders, politicians, diplomats and cultural personalities are today in Seoul represents such a beneficial action. Differently from four years ago, we are now much more people, more united and more determined to stop the wars wherever they are.
I believe that the Declaration of World Peace proclaimed in Seoul can gather around it everyone – no matter that they are men, women, youth and children – ready to unite and endue the mantle of peace, taking responsibility to promote the message of peace to the entire world.”
