Report from the congress held in Madrid

Peace Times 12

Lama Gangchen with Asdrubal Salsamendi in background

The eighth annual Lama Gangchen World Peace Foundation congress, held from the 7th to the 9th of May in Madrid, created a forum for an extraordinary meeting between United Nations and UNESCO representatives, doctors and therapists, environmentalists and representatives of various inter-religious and peace organisations. The participants of the Congress came together not only from different European countries, but also from America, Asia, Africa...

Health, peace education, environmental care and non-violence were among the subjects presented and discussed by the participants during the three day meeting.

Among the numerous lively speeches, of particular interest was that of Astrubal Salsamendi who worked for thirty years as a UN and UNESCO representative. In his speech he underlined the importance of the «Manifesto for a Culture of Peace» presented by UNESCO: «The very purpose of UNESCO is to prevent war through non-violent education, through increasing understanding and tolerance. This must begin in the minds of individuals, therefore peace must start with the individual and so must a culture of peace». He continued: «Thanks to Federico Mayor, Director General of UNESCO, the year 2000 has been declared the International Year for a Culture of Peace. We should all commit ourselves to the development of a culture of peace as proposed by UNESCO to eliminate the roots of violence, poverty and war...».

While the Manifesto for a Culture of Peace was read out, Lama Gangchen presented UNESCO’s peace culture flag (prepared by Mr Salsamendi) to all participants to remind them of their personal commitment to this aim.

The International Association of Educators for World Peace were represented at the congress by their President, Charles Mercieca; Secretary General, Prof. Surya Nath Prasad; as well as the Chancellors for South Africa and South Asia.

The Association has been actively promoting peace education over the past thirty years in more than one hundred and twenty countries and every year presents two gold medals to outstanding peace advocates. This year one medal was awarded to Lama Gangchen, whilst the other will be presented later this year to the United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, during the International Conference of NGOs to be held in Korea from the 10th to 16th October.

Cosy Back