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Think Tank 2022
Peace Tour in Ukraine Supports Interreligious Council
Thursday, March 19, 2009
This conference was part of the chain of events of the Global Peace Tour 2009 organized by UPF.
This year's World Peace Summit on January 29-31 in New York, USA, brought together UN representatives and public and religious figures from around the world. Ukraine was represented by the Ukrainian Peace Council headed by the first President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk.
The conference in Kiev was opened by Mr. Kravchuk, who mentioned that the Ukrainian people have the moral right to be in the vanguard of a global peacemaking process because their history is an example of peacemaking efforts, in particular as a country that voluntarily renounced its nuclear weapons.
Dr. Katsumi Ohtsuka, Chair of UPF-Eurasia, spoke about UPF activities in various countries. He appealed to conference participants to join this international peacemakers’ movement.
Other speakers included a famous poet of Ukraine, Borys Oliynyk, the head of the State Department of Nationalities and Religion at the Oleksandr Sagan, and biochemistry research institute director, academician Sergiy Komisarenko. They shared their opinions about peace, the relationship between religion and science, and the necessity of establishing an interreligious peace council at the United Nations.
Conference participants supported UPF's proposal to establish an interreligious peace to prevent conflicts and promote lasting peace. It is not a secret that most conflicts in the world have some religious basis. Conference participants expressed interest in programs that overcome the differentiation of society according to geographical or faith factors, revive family values, and develop the volunteer movement in Ukraine.
At the end of the conference, new Ambassadors for Peace were appointed: Poets Borys Oliynyk and Mykola Lukiv, Tchaikovsky National Music Academy Professor Diana Petrynenko, Olympic champion Iryna Merleni-Mikulchyn, and Doctor of Philosophy Yuriy Sedykh.
For the keynote address and more information about the peace tour, click here.
For background materials on a proposal for an interreligious council at the UN, click here.