The World Peace Congress, founded by Professor

Rajani Kannepalli Kanth Rajani Kannepalli Kanth is a professor, economist, philosopher, and social thinker. Though born in India, he is a US citizen and has resided overseas for most of his life. His major research interests lie in the fields of Economics, Social Theo ...

in 2007, is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

dedicated to constructing an institutional basis for world peace, unmediated by state, government or politics. The Congress holds conferences and dialogues, regularly, attended by people with various backgrounds. These dialogues produced resolutions adopted initially at the first Congress in Salt Lake City, to ultimately achieve the goal of the Congress - to renounce war as a means of social and political policy. Later on, the World Peace Congress asked the United Nations to declare war as illegal by sending the Renunciation of War Resolution, resolutions adopted at the third World Peace Thai Congress in 2010, to UN Secretary-General,

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...

, requesting him to ask all Heads of States of the UN to adopt the resolutions by suitably amending their individual Constitutions, or by enacting a special law by their legislatures. Since its foundation, the World Peace Congress has a wide range of participants, including Martin Almada,

Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...

, A. Balasubramaniam,

Roy Bhaskar Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

Oliver DeMille Oliver DeMille is an American author, educator and public speaker. He is the founder of an educational model known as TJEd, and the co-author of ''LeaderShift: A Call for Americans to Finally Stand Up and Lead'', which was published in 2013 and ...

, Robert Jensen, Yinhe Li,

Rajiv Malhotra Rajiv Malhotra (born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-born American Hindutva ideologue, author and founder of Infinity Foundation, which focuses on Indic studies, and also funds projects such as Columbia University's project to translate the Ti ...

Ruth Manorama Ruth Manorama (born 30 May 1952) is a Dalit social activist from Bangalore, India who fights for Dalit women's rights, the rights of domestic workers and those in the unorganized labour sector, as well as urban slum dwellers. In 2006, she was aw ...

, N. Radhakrishnan,

Sulak Sivaraksa Sulak Sivaraksa ( th, สุลักษณ์ ศิวรักษ์; ; pronounced ; born 27 March 1933 in Siam) is a Thai social activist, professor, writer and the founder and director of the Thai NGO " Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation", ...

Tenzin Tethong Tethong Tenzin Namgyal ( born 1947) is a Tibetan politician and a former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of Central Tibetan Administration. Naming practice Traditionally, ordinary Tibetan people carry a first personal name and may or may not ca ...

, and

John Zerzan John Edward Zerzan ( ; born August 10, 1943) is an American anarchist and primitivist ecophilosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocates drawing upon the ways of life of hunter-gathe ...

History

The First Congress

The World Peace Congress was instituted in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2007. The first Congress was held in Salt Lake City, the United States from August 24 to 26, 2007. Participants, including social activists, scholars, artists, politicians, and lay people, gathered together to discuss ways for the realization of world peace and drafted the Congress 2007 Resolutions as the basis for the future quest for peace.

The Second Congress

The Second Congress was held in Bangalore, India from February 27 to March 1, 2009. It sought to build upon the Resolutions of Congress 2007 and, in particular, to devise peace-oriented grassroots projects worldwide.

The Third Congress

The Third Congress was held in Thailand from July 9 to 11, 2010. Panelists participated in further discussions about the quest for world peace and, collectively, constructed the Congress 2010 Resolutions.

World Peace Congress Sponsored Events

The WPC Health/Medicine Workshop

The World Peace Congress held a three-day Medicine Workshop from June 2 to 4, 2012 in Thailand. The workshop's purpose was to educate the public in non-allopathic methods of healing. The workshop was facilitated by Morkeaw (Jaipetch Klajon), a natural medicine practitioner, and was attended by 130 participants.

Important Documents

Resolution Renouncing War

This key Resolution of the World Peace Congress, emanating from the Third Congress in Thailand in 2010, points out the ubiquity of war after the signing of UN Charter (in the City of San Francisco on 26 June 1945), the Preamble to which states that members of the United Nations are "determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” To re-focus attention to world peace and help accomplish this goal set by UN Charter, the World Peace Congress unanimously approved this Resolution and asked the United Nations, via a communication to its Secretary General, to similarly endorse the declaration renouncing “War as an instrument of State Policy.” This objective is to be further advanced by positive policies and practices in the form of educational aids, media events, and other promotions organized by the World Peace Congress collaborators worldwide.

The Congress 2007 Resolutions

Participants of the World Peace Congress assembled in Salt Lake City, Utah in August 2007, and formulated Resolutions for a global action plan to ensure world peace. These Resolutions derived from the labors of twelve panels covering varied topics such as gender, culture, kinship /community, et al.

The Congress 2010 Resolutions

The Congress 2012 Resolutions followed the lead established by the 2007 Resolutions: however, they proposed even more detailed action plans geared towards world peace. These Resolutions, produced in similar fashion to the 2007 Resolutions, were submitted by 10 panels with different themes, with one panel specifically focused on the then extant Thai Crisis.

References

External links

*http://worldpeacecongress.info * {{DEFAULTSORT:World Peace Congress Peace organizations Organizations established in 2007