Peace Institutionalization: HWPL Urges Collective Action to Make Peace a Culture and Norm

HWPL's 9th Annual Commemoration of the Declaration of World Peace was held online on May 25th, 2022, to address the current threats to life and stability posed by wars and conflicts.

The event, themed "Institutionalizing Peace: Realizing the Collective Will for Peace," featured participants from politics, religion, academia, media, and civil society, and presented the progress of international cooperation to realise sustainable peace as guaranteed by legal instruments.

Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), the host organisation, issued the Declaration of World Peace in 2013.

The declaration calls for national leaders' support, the involvement of women and youth, civil society cooperation, and increased media coverage of peace.

It was later expanded into the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) as part of a process to establish international legal instruments for global peace.

Young Min Chung, the General Director of the International Peace Youth Group (IPYG), an affiliate group of HWPL, said in his progress report, "730,000 citizens from 176 countries have signed in support of the DPCW for the past nine years which allows them to express their opinions more directly. Recently, the IPYG is running the Youth Empowerment Peace Workshop (YEPW), where they discuss the agendas such as education, human rights, and conflicts and conduct joint action as well as policy proposals."

The DPCW's ten articles and 38 clauses include conflict prevention and resolution, gradual reduction of war potential and turning weapons into everyday tools, respecting and resolving religious and ethnic identity conflicts, and spreading a culture of peace.

The declaration aims to mobilise nations, international organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and individual citizens to take action for a peaceful world.

As for the collaboration for peacebuilding, Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL appealed to the participants to be united as "messengers of peace" to bring freedom and peace to future generations.

He said: "This time (Russia) invaded Ukraine and started the war. This is why HWPL and families of peace have long called for the establishment of international law to prevent war potential. So, we gathered experts in international law globally and made the declaration with 10 articles and 38 clauses."

As a case of activities to resolve religious conflicts, Raeesa Sheikh, a member of the Ansari Qadiri Tariqa Youth Club in Durban, South Africa participated in the HWPL Religious Youth Peace Camp shared about the importance of youth engaging in religious dialogues.

"When we put ourselves in another person's shoes when we look at things from various perspectives, we can keep an open mind and understand differences, and not discriminate based on those differences but rather look at those similarities and then come together so that we can ultimately live as God wants us to love, as brother and sister, as a community, as a nation, as humanity," said Sheikh.

The event also introduced educators' participation in peace-related activities.

Teaching methodology using Metaverse was demonstrated as a virtual world platform where students can experience peace by reading materials and observing various peace activities taking place around the world.

One of the participant students said, "I learned the need for international law to achieve peace. We need a law that can achieve peace. People must abide by the law and if all people become citizens of peace, we would not even need the law."

HWPL has been working to strengthen international norms for peace at both the international and national levels, gaining the support of international organisations for the DPCW and working together to reinforce international norms for peace.

HWPL has collaborated with civil organisations to carry out activities for the public good in order to ensure that peace takes root.