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 U.S. citizen and has resided overseas for most of his life. His major research interests lie in the fields of Economics, Social Th ...

in 2007, is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

dedicated to constructing an institutional basis for

world peace World peace is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would come about. Various relig ...

, 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 Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, 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 the South Korean 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 film, television and theatre. Her career in the Hindi cinema, Hindi film industry has spanned Shabana Azmi filmography, over 160 films, mostly within independent and neorealist paral ...

, A. Balasubramaniam,

Roy Bhaskar Ram Roy Bhaskar (; 15 May 1944 – 19 November 2014) was an English philosopher of science who is best known as the initiator of the philosophical movement of critical realism (CR). Bhaskar argued that the task of science is "the production of ...

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 Robert William Jensen (born July 14, 1958) is a former professor of journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. From 1992 to 2018 he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in media law, ethics, and politics. He has focused much of his ...

Yinhe Li Li Yinhe ( zh, t=李銀河, s=李银河, p=Lǐ Yínhé; née Li Sanfan; born February 4, 1952) is a Chinese sociologist, sexologist, and activist for LGBT rights in China. Her main academic interests have been sexual norms in contemporary Chi ...

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

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 (, ; ; born 27 March 1933) is a Thai social activist, professor, writer and the founder and director of the Thai NGO " Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation", named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses (Phya Anuma ...

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 author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of hunter-gatherers as an inspirat ...

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