International Peace Advocates Call for Coordinated Global Initiatives to Advance Environmental Sustainability and Uplift Human Consciousness and Peace
Faith leaders, educators, and peace practitioners from the Indo-Pacific region and around the world meeting in New Delhi called for “a unifying vision that affirms the self-evident, transcendent truths that define our common humanity, grounded in universal principles that support fundamental human rights and the spiritual and moral essence of all people.”
Global Peace Foundation Chairman Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon addresses the 2023 Global Peace Leadership Conference in New Delhi.
A coordinated action plan for peace, conference participants said, was urgently needed to counter the threat of extremism and growing political and social divisions around the globe.
“Politics, economics, and technology alone are inadequate to resolve the many challenges facing the world today,” Global Peace Foundation Chairman Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon told the conference. “These challenges arise, at root, from a clash of fundamental worldviews that can only be effectively addressed by drawing on deep and ancient spiritual traditions and the universal truths they embody.”
Meeting over three days at the Global Peace Leadership Conference 2023, peace advocates addressed focus areas of Youth Empowerment, Transforming Education, Values-based Peacebuilding, and Environmental Conservation. Basing its sessions on the sacred teaching of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam from India’s Upanishads, meaning “the world is one family,” the conference adopted the New Delhi Declaration at the proceeding’s conclusion.
Dr. Markendey Rai, chairman of Global Peace Foundation India, addresses the closing plenary session.
The Declaration highlighted “the strength of a united humanity to inspire civil societies to take up the task of healing the world and propagating greater consciousness of shared human welfare, of Creation, and of God.”
The Declaration’s specific action items included:
- launching a Peace Hubs campaign and youth-led Peace Clubs to empower youth leadership;
- supporting a lifestyle of Seva (service) to others to further a global peace and service corps alliance to addressing challenges of poverty, the environment, and other key 2030 Sustainable Development Goals;
- undertaking specific university and secondary school initiatives to inculcate the ethical and moral values of compassion, creativity, and integrity;
- fostering partnerships with civil society organizations to create a global coalition working towards a shared vision for peace and prosperity, education, and environmental conservation in furtherance of C20 policy recommendations; and
- developing strategies to upscale grassroots environmental conservation initiatives supported internationally.
The signed declaration will be presented to the Civil 20 India 2023 and the G20, which will be hosted in India in September.
Global Peace Leadership Conferences are strategic, multi-sector convenings of the Global Peace Foundation and partners, engaging leaders from government, business, academia, the non-profit sector, and faith communities to address pressing regional challenges and work toward collaborative solutions within a framework of moral and innovative leadership.
The Global Peace Leadership Conference 2023 Indo Pacific, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: Vision for Advancing Human Consciousness and Peace” वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् convened in New Delhi on April 11-13 and was organized by the Global Peace Foundation, the Indian Council for International Co-Operation, Manav Rachna University, and Yuvsatta Youth for Peace in cooperation with Civil 20 India 2023.
Learn more about the conference, with featured tracks on Youth Empowerment, Transforming Education, Values-based Peacebuilding, and Environmental Conservation. Sign the online declaration here.
Previous GPLCs have been convened in Tanzania, India, South Korea, Nigeria, Mongolia, Northern Ireland, Uganda, Brazil, and the United States.
