Insights from Around the World on Peace, Security, and Human

Development

Eight hundred people from 91 nations attended the opening plenary of the Universal Peace Federation’s Summit at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel.

Faith leaders opened the Summit by offering prayers and lighting candles for peace.

AFGHANISTAN

• Peace and security are blessings from God.

• It is vital to use all the teachings that comefrom God and take wise and bold measures to establish lasting peace and security.

H.E. Mohammad Karim Khalili, Vice President

ALBANIA

• Our region consists of Allied countries, aspirant countries, and partners with NATO or the EU.

• Security and defense reforms in the region have grossly reduced the risks of conventional confrontation.

Prof. Dr. Arta Musaraj, Deputy Minister of Defense

AUSTRALIA

• The more the following factors are present, the higher the well-being of people: free enterprise, genuine democratic government, rule of law, opposition to totalitarianism, upholding the family unit, religious tolerance, and God-centered values.

Hon. David John Clarke, Member, Legislative Council of the Parliament of New South Wales

AUSTRIA

• Where I was born, we could hear the shooting of the border police; now we can cross the border freely.

• This has been a complicated solution, but a very successful one.

Dr. Werner Fasslabend, Minister of Defense, 1990 to 2000

BELARUS

• Russia has been seeking forms of integration that would assert its supremacy and at the same time encourage the CIS countries to join associations proposed by Russia.

• The post-Soviet space in Europe and Asia went through revolutionary upheavals; but it seems that old patterns may prevail.

H.E. Stanislav Shushkevich, Chair of the Supreme Council, 1991 to 1994

FEDERATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

• Knowing the horrors of war, today as a politician I act in a way so that those horrors of war would not happen again, neither to us nor to others.

H.E. Zivko Budimir, President

BURUNDI

• The Arusha Accords allowed us to achieve a rapprochement between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority, the negotiation of a cease-fire with rebel Hutus with the backing of the Tutsi leadership, a peaceful integration of rebel fighters into the national army, the organization of national elections, and the inauguration of a newly elected President.

H.E. Domitien Ndayizeye, President, 2003 to 2005

CANADA

• The main reason for human development differences in the Americas is that some populations enjoy better representative government with good constitutions and institutions of governance, the rule of law, and the sanctity of private property for all.

Hon. David Kilgour, Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa, 1997 to 2002

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

• International security will face three major threats in the 21st century: threat from increasing network attacks, threat from climate change to human survival and development, and threat from biological weapons in the future.

Dr. Mingjun Jiang, General Director, International Eco-Safety Cooperative Organization

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

• The deployment of a Neutral International Force to secure the problematic Eastern border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially with Rwanda and Uganda, will certainly help to create the conditions for a lasting peace.

Hon. Mr. Lambert Mende Omalanga, Minister of Information

EGYPT

• Faith, persistence and adherence to the principles of respect and dialogue can and will carry us through.

• Egypt throughout its history has been known to promote and support action towards peace and peaceful coexistence within and between nations.

Hon. Hisham Badr, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs

EGYPT

• The culture of peace means above all understanding the Other in its difference, understanding the stranger, understanding the one who belongs to another nation, another ethnic group, another religion.

• A stranger is a friend whom I have not yet met.

Dr. Sonia Ramzi, former Head of the Promotion of Cultural Heritage, UNESCO

GHANA

• The corrupt tendencies by some in the private sector, especially the foreign ones, are causing havoc in Africa, and they are doing it with impunity.

• Ordinary people at the grassroots normally do not harbor ethnic or religious hateful feelings against one another when governments ensure the rule of law or justice.

H.E. Jerry Rawlings, President , 1981 to 2000

GUINEA-BISSAU

• Tolerance and harmony among faiths is practiced in our cities and villages.

• However, people’s economic and social well-being worsened with the instability that the country experienced in the last decade and a half; and only a legitimate government, based on popular will expressed at the polls and imbued with patriotic spirit, can halt and reverse the process.

H.E. Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, President

ISRAEL

• You cannot imagine what it means for a man like me, coming from Israel, to sit down to dinner here with my neighbors from Arab countries.

• This is more than I could have believed would happen in all my 20 years of working for peace.

Hon. Ran Cohen, Member of the Knesset, 1984 to 2009

JAPAN

• Due to the incredible difficulty in de-nuclearizing Pyongyang, the international community must respond with either massive rewards or harsh penalties.

• We should envisage the tentative freezing of the nuclear and missile development program and/or its oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency or another UN agency, with the ultimate objective of total de-nuclearization.

Amb. Tetsuya Endo, former Ambassador in Charge of Japan-North Korea Normalization Talks, former Vice Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission

JAPAN

• A nation should have the primary responsibility for its own political system and make it suit its peculiar situation, such as its history, tradition, culture, and popular dispositions.

• The international community should honor a country’s endeavors and extend indirect help such as official development aid, trade, investment, technology transfer, tourism, and academic and cultural exchanges.

Amb. Yoichi Yamaguchi, former Ambassador to Turkey and Myanmar

JORDAN

• The international community has a mission to support the Arab peoples in the process of reform and transformation toward justice, democracy, and human dignity.

• This means it also has to move with full force to stand in the face of the dictatorial regimes and thwart their plans and crimes against their peoples -- not to remain silent or stand by hesitating to move against these bloody and unjust regimes.

Dr. Hamdi Murad, Professor at the World Islamic Sciences and Education University, Amman

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

• Let us work together to build ideal families and nations, and let us join together as nations, as religions, as members of civil society to create one family under God.

Dr. Hyung Jin Moon, Chairman. Universal Peace Federation

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

• Reunification should take place through peace; it takes time.

• There should be a de facto reunification before the legal reunification; this would reduce expenditures and help transform the ceasefire to a peace treaty.Gen. Dong Won Lim,

Minister of Unification during the administration of Korean President Kim Dae-jung, 1998 to 2003

KOSOVO

• I insisted on reconciliation and normalization of relations with Serbia.

• I am proud that my son and all our children will never again live in fear, will never again be taught of hate.

Hon. Hashim Thaci, Prime Minister

MALI

• In the name of our common human family, in the name of humanity, I appeal for your help for my country, OUR country, Mali, to come out of its dangerous impasse.

Mme Mintou Doucoure Traore, First Lady

MONGOLIA

• A pattern of thinking more about society than one's own family, more about the nation than one's society, and more about the world than one's own nation has been cultivated in the Mongolian mind-set.

• In the 21st century, with its overwhelming moral decline, the Mongolians' merit of morality passed on through their lineage should be awakened.

H.E. Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat, President, 1990 to 1997

NEPAL

• There needs to be an innovative strategy for steady economic growth, and this must be based on an inclusive, cooperative mindset.

• Cooperation is the only way out of the current economic and political crisis.

Hon. Ek Nath Dhakal, Minister of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation

THE NETHERLANDS

• Peace is hard work; at the end of the day, we keep peace only if we keep our commitment.

• Are we prepared to keep our commitment, even when it becomes difficult?

Dr. Willem van Eekelen, Former Defense Minister, Former Deputy Foreign Minister

NICARAGUA

• We must overcome poverty and underdevelopment creating more jobs, sustainable and in an appropriate number, to slow the migration of millions of Latin Americans who leave their homes in search of employment and a better future.

H.E. Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo, President, 1997 to 2002

NIGERIA

• What is needed is an integrated and comprehensive yet coherent approach that includes, in addition to political and military activities, transparent and urgent improvements in the areas of environmental protection, human rights, good governance, democratization, economic growth, and poverty eradication.

Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, former Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur

PANAMA

• From my experience at an NGO aimed at promoting development opportunities for families in extreme poverty and eliminate hazardous child labor, we realized that for a country to achieve real peace, freedom, and democracy we must eradicate poverty and the lack of education.

Hon. Roxana Mendez Obarrio, Mayor, Panama City

NEW ZEALAND

• We need to ask ourselves, are we prepared and ready to help others?

• Will we defend not only our own liberty and freedom but that of those who are strangers to us?

• Will we keep helping until people can stand on their own?

Mr. Colin Craig, Founding Leader of the Conservative Party

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

• The world has the prospect of creating a single global ethics on the basis of norms of behavior that are actually being practiced in modern societies.

• Economics, science, politics, and other spheres of activity have reached such a degree of complexity that they can operate successfully only in single social systems.

Hon. Elena Drapeko, First Vice Chair of the Committee of Culture, State Parliament

SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE

• We have to overcome differences between cultures and establish harmony between all kinds of people.

• Each of us can contribute to peace, human rights, and a stable society.

Hon. Alcino Martinho de Barros Pinto, President of the National Assembly

SOLOMON ISLANDS

• During a time of conflict between the people of the two largest islands, the women of the islands banded together to help defuse the conflict.

Mme Bronwyn Noda Lilo, wife of the Prime Minister

SRI LANKA

• I attempted to create in my constituency a center for all religions to be respected and honored; I wanted people to be able to visualize the ideals of religious harmony, to actually see it, feel it and touch it.

• In this interfaith peace park there is a Buddhist temple, a Christian church, a Hindu kovil, and a Muslim mosque.

Hon. D. M. Jayaratne,Prime Minister

TANZANIA

• Peaceful and stable neighboring countries open the way for economic integration and promotion of investment and trade.

• As brothers and sisters, as mothers and fathers, as a young generation, we should uphold the sanctity of humanity before our ambitions and desires.

Mme Tunu Rehani Pinda, wife of the Prime Minister

TIMOR-LESTE

• The New Deal brings a new hope for the sustainable development of fragile States, enabling better leadership by the recipient countries and better coordination of international assistance. Hon. Xanana Gusmao,

Prime Minister

UNITED KINGDOM

• The struggle today is between true religion, which is life-enhancing, and false religion, which is death-dealing. A crime in the name of God is a crime against God.

• The task of trying to persuade extremists to abandon their point of view has to be taken up by the interfaith community.

Rev. Dr. Marcus Braybrooke, Chairman. World Congress of Faiths

UNITED STATES

• Only when nations are prosperous can we begin to use our knowledge and our talents to help the less fortunate.

• And only when free nations can continue to build strong families with a God centered value system can we hope to become a better world.

Hon. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1999 to 2007

UNITED STATES

• Peace at any price guarantees defeat, servitude, and ultimately a peace that no one who loves freedom would want.

• In the world and in the Americas, peace and freedom can only come to a people who are strong enough and willing enough to defend these freedoms.

Hon. Dan Burton, Member of Congress, 1983 to 2013

ZIMBABWE

• More than 30 African states have embraced a new thinking that puts “people” first in their national agenda.

• These countries, under the guidance of young leaders, are steering the continent towards a positive era of Afro-optimism.

Hon. Morgan R. Tsvangirai, Prime Minister

The path to peace, prosperity, and human development involves cooperation amonggovernments, civil society, the private sector, the media, and people of faith..