Speeches
- Written by: Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister (2006–2015), Canada
“From a repressed and brutally poor country after World War II, South Korea has become one of the wealthiest, most peaceful, and most progressive countries on earth. And I hold out a similar hope for the North.”
- Written by: H. E. Jerry Rawlings, Head of State and President (1981–2001), Ghana
“Peace will happen if we learn to speak up as a people. The time to stop hiding behind economic and political vulnerabilities is now. A select few cannot afford to cower the majority into submission if they rise up to speak to the truth and defend the ideals of true accountability to all the peoples of the world.”
- Written by: Ven. Dr. Khy Sovanratana, Acting Rector, Preahsihanoukraja Buddhist University, Cambodia
“Real peace has to be built on mutual trust, caring and love. It has to be acquired by a sincere and devoted struggle of truthfulness, honesty and dedication. Therefore, we all have to strive with even stronger determination for the sake of peace, development and prosperity in our region and in the world.”
- Written by: Dr. Mikulas Vymetal, Pastor, Evangelical Church of Czech Brethern, Czech Republic
“I believe that in all our roles we can follow these slogans, rising from the Czech Reformation and the Bible: Love, truth to everyone. Let everything spontaneously flow; let violence be distant to us. Truth and love must win over lies and hatred. Do not be indebted to anyone except to love one another.”
- Written by: Hon. Robert Cutajar, Member of Parliament, Malta
“Understandably, we base our policies on statistics and numbers, on sound economics and on realistic financial projections. But all of this will prove to be futile if, whatever our provenance is, we ignore universal values like solidarity, honesty, mutual respect, fairness, truthfulness, tolerance, equality, and respect for life from conception to natural death. All of us must make our voice heard in defense of strong value-based politics.”
- Written by: Hon. Nelson Marquezelli, Congressman, President, IAPP-Brazil
“There is a global network of Ambassadors for Peace today, sowing the good seeds of harmony and bringing peaceful solutions to problems. But, we need even more people to form a global task force for peace that can bring substantial results in the area of peace, including influencing education for peace in our schools because the biggest changes we can experience can come through education.”
- Written by: Hon. Sang Hyun Yoon, Chairman, Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, National Assembly of the Republic of Korea
“If the parliamentarians and religious leaders from 108 nations in attendance today unite their efforts under one voice for the unification of South and North Korea, I believe a united Korea will be more quickly advanced.”
- Written by: H.E. Karim Khalili, vice president, Afghanistan (2004-2014)
“Civilizations and religions that shape the beliefs of human beings must dialogue with each other to structure a peaceful world for the prosperity of human beings. The nation-states that act under international law should work together to promote a better international environment and use global resources more wisely.”
- Written by: Hon. Jose de Venecia Jr., Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Phillipines (1992-1998; 2001-2008)
“For we must focus today on the need for peace in Northeast Asia, most specifically in our immediate environs on the Korean Peninsula, and in the South and East China Seas, and onward to South Asia and in the Middle East areas and the danger zones of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf.”
- Written by: Professor Dr. Fatmir Sejdiu, President of the Republic of Kosovo (2006-2010)
“Respect for human rights and freedoms is not and should not be seen as the will of anyone but, as guaranteed by international conventions, must also apply everywhere.”
- Written by: H. E. Iakoba Italeli, Governor General, Tuvalu
“Conferences like this one offer vision and knowledge. These are tools of a most powerful empowerment—precisely because they help us to think, assess, make decisions and be inspired to act for ourselves and our children.”
- Written by: Hon. Alfred Moisiu: President of the Republic of Albania (2002-2007)
“I want to concentrate … on the Western Balkans region, where my country is. We know what happened in the past. Though it has been a long period of time, the concerns of that time can never be forgotten. It’s not just the part of the population that lives on the peninsula that has suffered from the past, but we must worry about the other part, which has exercised violence against others, which refuses to condemn the past. Rather, they call it strangely glorious and seek restitution.”