On 28th August, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) held “2021 MENA Webinar: Monitoring Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa” to present human rights violence cases throughout the region and find ways to a constant human rights watch. It especially highlighted cases of the vulnerable and minor social group falsely blamed on being a perpetrator of Covid 19.

Honorable. Essam Shiha, chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) shared human rights issues in the Middle East during the pandemic like inadequate healthcare to detainees, vaccination inequality to Palestinians, and suggested a role of all levels of society to build more resilient societies.

And Mr. Mogues Worku, Executive Director of Lem Ethiopia stressed the necessity of education to minimize the gap between the poor and the “Violation of human rights should be stopped be it at national or international level for peace and security of the planet. Education that coined respecting human dignity and human rights should be applied from the lower to the higher level of education system to let the coming generations enjoy peace and security”.

HWPL has stressed the role of states and civil society to ease the tension caused by the pandemic. To find solutions to protecting from violence, HWPL has endorsed international cooperation for sustainable development and raising awareness of peace building, including voluntary work, webinars on human rights in the Middle East, and peace education for students and citizens. Its recent joint statement on Myanmar’s human rights crisis advocated seeking peaceful solutions without armed conflict.

Following this event, there will be the 7th Anniversary of the September 18th HWPL World Peace Summit for peace and the cessation of war sharing results of a year that help emphasizing the role of civil society to build sustainable peace in a pandemic-hit new normal like this event.

Press-release of the HWPL

“Land of Changes” – After the Civilian Peace Agreement in Mindanao

On 24 January 2014, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) achieved peace to show as proof of their sincerity in their peace work to strive for sustainable peace through peace education and peace culture activities even after the peace agreement. This article will cover the process of HWPL’s civilian peace agreement and its aftermath.

A culture of peace is being fostered in Mindanao, Philippines, a land that has been group-led peace agreement that was signed on 24 January 2014 is being implemented and is raising awareness for peace among the residents. This agreement largely contributed to creating an atmosphere of peace for a peace agreement between the government of the Philippines and the Moro people.

HWPL and Peace in Mindanao

Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL, Chairman Lee Man-hee) has held various events and activities in the Philippines since June 2013, including bringing relief for the slums, holding conversations with religious leaders for interfaith harmony, and establishing a youth network for peace. Amid these efforts, Chairman Lee Man-hee was invited to Mindanao by H.E. Antonio J. Ledesma, Archbishop of Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.

At the time, Mindanao was a battleground of bullets. It was not an easy decision for Chairman Lee Man-hee, an 84-year-old man, to take his life. However, Chairman Lee thought, “I cannot deny this request when I was asked to come for peace as a peace activist,” and transcended national borders, ethnicities, and religions to travel to this region.

January 2014 in Mindanao, General Santos, Philippines. Over 1,000 people, including believers from both religions, students from of the International Peace Youth Group, participated. After the peace walk, Chairman Lee spoke about the necessity of peace to Catholic and Muslim leaders, youth groups, and university professors at a hotel in General Santos.

“God’s will is peace, not war.” He then asked the attendees, “Do you want peace or do you want war,” and had them raise their hand if they wanted peace. When all the attendees raised their hand, Chairman Lee called the Catholic and Islamic representatives to the stage while saying, “Then sign the peace agreement.”

H.E. Fernado Robles Capalla, D.D, Archbishop Emeritus of Archdiocese of Davao, and Esmael G. Mangudadatu, Governor of Maguindanao, signed an agreement for the creation of peace and the cessation of war as the representatives of Catholicism and Islam, respectively, during the spontaneous peace agreement signing ceremony.

The Mindanao peace agreement that was mediated by HWPL proposed a “civilian- centered awareness improvement and action”- based approach to peace. In line with this approach, HWPL began peace activities across the Philippines, including Mindanao, to raise public peace awareness on the universal peace principles of mutual understanding, respect, and harmony. HWPL is also carrying out peace initiatives centered around civil society, including education, religion, youth, and women, in order to eliminate the factors that are sources of conflict and also to strengthen the core values for peaceful development.

 Press-release of the HWPL

On 26^th June, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) organized “2021 Middle East webinar: Overcoming Human Rights Violence during Pandemic” to exchange ideas to ease social tensions and examine human rights issues during COVID-19 crisis.

HWPL has been working on human rights initiative through a series of webinars with personnel from civil society, dealing with various human right issues. After the webinar with Egypt in April, HWPL held an online discussion to further address the human rights violence in dealing with COVID-19 in the Middle East.

The virus intensified existing discrimination and violence towards social and religious minority groups. The webinar aimed at addressing the issues and sharing the perspectives from the in-depth analysis and Human Resoruces(HR) experts’ presentations.

President of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Hon. Essam Shiha called for the cooperation of the society, “Multilateralism is indispensable that these key players coordinate and collaborate to promote and integrate core values of human rights in all dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental).”

Mr. Asrawan Ibrahim Zrary, Zoroastrian from Iraqi Kurdistan stressed the necessity of respecting common grounds shared by each religion. “We must look for common points between religions for the purpose of increasing love and spreading peace. And tolerance, although there are some verses in a particular religion that are called abrogating and abrogated, and hatred must be renounced and the other accepted as he is and not as I want.”

Ms. Iman El Damarany, who also participated in the last webinar addressed the importance of ensuring human rights and safety of media to uncover the truth, “Journalists suffer from some problems in many countries of the region, and that there must be international legislation and binding laws imposed by the United Nations to protect journalists from any harassment.”

HWPL continues its webinar series to comprehensively tackles the social justice and human right issues worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. As an upcoming event, HWPL will hold a Youth Empowerment Peace Workshop(YEPW) online on 27th June in its commitment for the youth. HWPL peace education teachers' training will also take place in Iraq starting from this month.

 Press-release of the HWPL

On May 25, 2021, HWPL's 8th Annual Commemoration of the Declaration of World Peace was held online and attended by 3000 people from 150 countries around the world. This event is held annually by an international peace NGO named Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) in association with its affiliated groups, International Peace Youth Group (IPYG) and International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG).

With several cases of international partnership for peacebuilding projects endorsed by youth and women organizations categorized by each region – Africa, Europe, and Asia, this year’s event aimed to discuss a citizen-led peace movement and cooperation to promote coexistence and harmony in the global community, and to overcome global challenges that stem from hatred, conflicts, misunderstanding, and lack of communication in this current pandemic era.

The event commemorated the Declaration of World Peace, proclaimed on May 25^th in 2013, which contains not only the cooperation of each state to establish international law for peace and the role of the media in contribution to sharing information of peace but also the active peace movement of youth and women who seek to transform themselves from the greatest victims of war to the greatest actors for peace.

From this peace initiative, HWPL says that millions of global citizens for 8 years have participated in promoting peace projects locally fitted to creating a favorable environment of peace, including education, relief, and forums to offer public policies to meet the needs of the community.

Chairwoman Pascale Isho Warda of Hammurabi Human Rights Organization(HHRO) in Iraq, who was appointed as Minister of Migration and Displacement by the UN from 2004 to 2005, introduced a legislation project of law that prevents violence against women and children in cooperation with IWPG.

Regarding the importance of peace activities through education, she said, “We need to learn the mechanism of guiding everyone to become a tool of peace, strengthening from daily life, and sometimes throughout the simplest matter of life, starting with personal peace with oneself, in the family, and with others.”

Ven. Ashin Htavara, General Secretary of All Burmese Monks Representative Committee in Norway, who went through the Saffron Revolution in 2007, stated that 3 HWPL Peace Libraries were established in Payapon, Myanmar and that a fourth library is currently being prepared.

 “There are too few libraries for children in Myanmar. I wanted to give hope to these little children. In the future, the library will conduct peace education, peace activities, and peace campaigns, and we will do everything that can help achieve peace,” he said.

The event also advocated global participation in peace activities such as the peace tree planting campaign that began in Ukraine with 1,000 participants from 21 countries and peace policy proposal dialogue between citizens and policy experts in Mali where the recent coup triggered social unrest.

“It is we in this day who have to do all the necessary things to make peace and prevent our globe from being destroyed. War does not end with words, but it comes to an end with our practical actions. I believe that this can be achieved since no one in our global village is not willing to see peace,” highlighted Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL.

For more information, visit http://525dowp8th.org/ or hwpl.kr

On May 25, 2021, HWPL's 8th Annual Commemoration of the Declaration of World Peace was held online and attended by 3,000 people from 150 countries around the world. This event is held annually by an international peace NGO named Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) in association with its affiliated groups, International Peace Youth Group (IPYG) and International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG).

With several cases of international partnership for peacebuilding projects endorsed by youth and women organizations categorized by each region – Africa, Europe, and Asia, this year’s event aimed to discuss a citizen-led peace movement and cooperation to promote coexistence and harmony in the global community, and to overcome global challenges that stem from hatred, conflicts, misunderstanding, and lack of communication in this current pandemic era.

The event commemorated the Declaration of World Peace, proclaimed on May 25^th in 2013, which contains not only the cooperation of each state to establish international law for peace and the role of the media in contribution to sharing information of peace but also the active peace movement of youth and women who seek to transform themselves from the greatest victims of war to the greatest actors for peace.

From this peace initiative, HWPL says that millions of global citizens for 8 years have participated in promoting peace projects locally fitted to creating a favorable environment of peace, including education, relief, and forums to offer public policies to meet the needs of the community.

Chairwoman Pascale Isho Warda of Hammurabi Human Rights Organization(HHRO) in Iraq, who was appointed as Minister of Migration and Displacement by the UN from 2004 to 2005, introduced a legislation project of law that prevents violence against women and children in cooperation with IWPG.

Regarding the importance of peace activities through education, she said, “We need to learn the mechanism of guiding everyone to become a tool of peace, strengthening from daily life, and sometimes throughout the simplest matter of life, starting with personal peace with oneself, in the family, and with others.”

Ven. Ashin Htavara, General Secretary of All Burmese Monks Representative Committee in Norway, who went through the Saffron Revolution in 2007, stated that 3 HWPL Peace Libraries were established in Payapon, Myanmar and that a fourth library is currently being prepared.

“There are too few libraries for children in Myanmar. I wanted to give hope to these little children. In the future, the library will conduct peace education, peace activities, and peace campaigns, and we will do everything that can help achieve peace,” he said.

The event also advocated global participation in peace activities such as the peace tree planting campaign that began in Ukraine with 1,000 participants from 21 countries and peace policy proposal dialogue between citizens and policy experts in Mali where the recent coup triggered social unrest.

“It is we in this day who have to do all the necessary things to make peace and prevent our globe from being destroyed. War does not end with words, but it comes to an end with our practical actions. I believe that this can be achieved since no one in our global village is not willing to see peace,” highlighted Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL.

252 youth organizations with 1.7 million members from 65 countries joined in joint statement advocating peaceful solutions to the human rights crisis in Myanmar. Through this “Joint Statement of World’s Civil Society and Youth on Myanmar’s Human Rights Crisis,” youth organizations take into account international cooperation to increase the collective voice for seeking solutions through talks among the stakeholders of the country.

In the statement, it said, “We urge the head of state of each country and the international community to actively pursue peaceful measures to safeguard the lives of Myanmar’s citizens.” It added, “We urge people and media worldwide to raise their voices in support of finding peaceful resolutions to the current crisis.”

The statement highlighted that global youth’s “commitment to work toward ceasing conflicts, countering violence and establishing sustainable peace through the 2018’s UN Youth Declaration.” Mr. Mainza M Hiyamwa, Chairperson of Chosen Generation Youth Club Solwezi (CGYC) of Zambia, said, “The UN and international society are being the main pillars of peace and security, human rights, and development. It's more vital that we gain access and disseminate information on the range of issues affecting the people of Myanmar. By so doing it would carry more impact and help in the restoration of peace, human rights promotion, and development of the country.”

Mr. Alemayehu Menta, President of Gato Development Association said that the peace of youth should be protected. Also, Mr. Shirwan, Chairman of Peace Generations Iraqi Network told, "I really appreciate that I can do something for world peace."

Facing the current deadlock of counteractions against the humanitarian crisis from the deaths and injuries continually occurring in Myanmar, this global movement by youth organizations has been led by the International Peace Youth Group, an affiliated organization of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light registered in the UN ECOSOC.

This joint statement was sent to the UN Secretary General, international organizations, governments and civil society organizations.

Press-release of the HWPL

HWPL, an international NGO under the United Nations ECOSOC based in South Korea, issued a statement expressing deep concern about the crisis of human rights arising from the recent military coup and mass protests in Myanmar. They are calling for the international community to join in efforts to support peaceful approach to resolve the current conflict in the country.

On the “HWPL Statement on Human Rights Crisis in Myanmar”, the organization urged the International community to express their support for conflict resolution through the channel of dialogue between the military and civil society activists.

In the statement it said hundreds of deaths and injuries were caused by “the recent efforts of the Myanmar military to suppress nonviolent protests” and highlights that “no conflict of interest can justify violence against civilians, and no interest of any group can prevail over human life.”

HWPL asked all parties in Myanmar to “resolve the crisis through consensus based on mutual respect and understanding” and “engage in dialogue to seek a peaceful resolution.” HWPL also asked people around the world to “to issue statements urging authorities and civilians in Myanmar to pursue dialogue and seek a peaceful solution in order to restore peace to the country.”

“The number of deaths from protests exceeded 200, and more than 2,000 people have been arrested by the military.” Kasauh Mon, CEO of Mon News Agency, a Myanmar-based journalist, said in a statement. “We are very pleased with HWPL and the Korean’s support for our democracy and peace movement. Currently, we are calling on the international community to call for an end against the military regime, in order to stop their brutality against peaceful demonstrators,” he continued.

For the past five years, this international civil society advocacy for peacebuilding led by HWPL has shown support and initiatives at the national and international levels. The organization has collected over 730,000 letters written by citizens in 176 countries to call for development of peace in each country, expressing support and participation by governments and social leaders.

Press-release of the HWPL

On March 14, HWPL’s 5th Annual Commemoration of the DPCW was held as a live webinar, joined by over 1,200 people in 132 countries from all sectors of the society including government, international organizations, heads of women and youth groups, religious leaders, press, and members of civic society.

Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), organized this year’s commemorative event, “Marching on Toward Sustainable Peace in a Pandemic Era”, as a platform to share direction for the future and case studies of different sectors cooperating across the world as peace messengers, responding to the pandemic and bringing peace in this new socially distanced world.

The host organization, HWPL, is a peace NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC and associated with UN DGC. For the purpose of ceasing all wars and creating a peaceful world as a legacy for future generations, HWPL has been carrying out 3 main peace initiatives - international law for peace, interfaith dialogue meeting, and peace education.

The Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) includes principles of peacebuilding such as the prohibition of the use of force, development of friendly relations, and peaceful dispute settlement. It emphasizes international cooperation based on interfaith dialogue and civic participation to create a culture of peace. Since its proclamation on March 14^th, 2016, the DPCW-based peacebuilding model went on to receive government recognition and support for inter-religious dialogue, peace education, youth and women’s peace activities.

As a member of the International Law Peace Committee (ILPC) who drafted the DPCW, Professor Ciaran Burke explained the background of how the DPCW was founded on “the conviction that judicial and other dispute resolution measure can replace the role of war with the rule of law.”

He also stressed the kernel of the DPCW by borrowing words from Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL, is that “the envisioned effect of the DPCW is cumulative to scale up the moral and political responsibility of world leaders by crystallizing the legal obligations of their government thereby bridging the gap between law and politics.”

Efforts to institutionalize peace based on the DPCW are underway. Countries in Southeast Asia and Central America have begun to rebuild their national legal infrastructure based on the DPCW, and the local governments are officially declaring their support for the DPCW in order to implement peace principles. In South Asia, the DPCW was introduced into the university curriculum as an academic research course on the role of law for a peaceful society.

According to UNESCO, over 190 countries closed down educational facilities, and over 1.6 billion students lost their opportunity for sustainable education. As a part of the online campaign, “Teaching goes on”, HWPL’s peace education is now taught at 214 locations in 34 countries, providing online peace education for over 5,000 students 224 times in 15 countries.

Stressing the importance of strengthening partnership for sustainable education, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Mali to UNESCO, S.E Monsieur Oumar KEITA, said, “We must unite in a spirit of cooperation to ensure peace at the national and international levels. We must consider the need for a comprehensive legal approach that will lead citizens in their everyday lives, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or religion. The preamble to DPCW with 10 articles and 38 clauses speaks of that very well.”

Regarding the importance of religion in spreading hope and peace during the pandemic crisis, Allama Syed Abdullah Tariq, President of the World Organisation of Religion & Knowledge, said, “Whenever humanity faces a difficult time era, there has been a religion which gives them hope and courage to overcome crises. Religion has its power to narrow down differences among us and unite us to be strong enough to break through obstacles. Such efforts will fertilize the culture of peace when the current generation is in desperate need for hope.”

Since it began in 2014, HWPL’s interfaith dialogue meeting also known as the WARP Office meeting is now expanded to 129 countries, seeing an increase in online meetings because of the pandemic. The religious communities in the WARP Office meeting also have held several pan-religious prayer meetings, meditation, and peace camps to reach out to people of the world who are facing hardship due to the pandemic.

International Peace Youth Group (IPYG), an affiliate of HWPL, is building a peace network of youth around the world with the Youth Empowerment Peace Workshop (YEPW), which was inspired by the DPCW’s peace realization process, to achieve youth empowerment proposed in the UN SDGs and Youth 2030.

Mr. Reuben Sapetulu, Deputy Secretary Agent for the United Nations Youth Association of Zambia (YUNA Zambia), said, “I participated in the delivery of 3,000 peace letters to the minister of justice in Zambia for the DPCW proposal. My commitments are simply because I agree that the DPCW is an effective way to bring a cessation of war and world peace. The YEPW was also inspired by the DPCW’s peace realization process. Spreading peace culture based on the DPCW is certainly the way to achieve peace. World leaders, please pay attention and support what the DPCW is stating about the peace realization process.”

Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL urged cooperation and unity for achieving peace by saying “No property or anything can become a legacy in the future. We must create a world of freedom, peace, and love without war, and make it an eternal legacy for our descendants. This is what we need to do in this era. Although the process of submitting the DPCW to the UN was paused for a while due to the corona pandemic, as much as this desire to achieve peace, there is no change.”

Department of Public Relations (International)

Heavenly Culture, World Peace, and the Restoration of Light

On March 6^th, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) organized a webinar in Egypt to exchange ideas to address rampant human rights violations resulting from discrimination of minority religious groups during the pandemic.

Prolonged corona crisis and the internal disputes left the Egypt vulnerable to abuse and human rights violations. UN and EU also stressed the necessity of interventions to provide humanitarian assistance. The webinar invited lawyers and the heads of human rights and youth organizations to discuss the work of peace even in the pandemic situation and pave the ways to ease the tense atmosphere of the country.

"Since religious discrimination and conflict are heightened as the global crisis, causing pain and death, it should be changed so that people don’t consider these human rights issues as a personal matter and can make a society where individuals could enjoy human dignity and equality with their own identity." Hon. Adly Hussein, President of the Court of Appeal of Cairo stressed the necessity of peace activities in protecting human rights.

Mr. Tharwat Gaid Salama Gaballa, President from Horus foundation also stressed the necessity of peace activities for the protection of human rights and decrease the hatred crimes, “Thus, all activities performed last year focused on quarantine measures to carry out various activities in the post-corona era in the future, but in 2021 and all the future to come, we hope all physical and emotional obstacles posed by Corona are resolved and we can do practical activities to get closer to peace.”

When the basic human rights are violated, it deters individuals from playing contributing roles in a society. It further pushes people to neglect the importance of national or global peace which, in return, could put their future at greater risks. Growing a number of socially wounded people in a society and ignoring human rights abuse normally hinder the country from building a peaceful and sound society.

HWPL promotes the respect for human rights through a series of webinars with personnel from civil society and advances toward realizing sustainable peace development. Hence, after the webinar, HWPL plans to regularly hold online discussions to further address the human rights issues in the Middle East.

Press-release of the HWPL

On February 6th, Heavenly Culture World Peace, Restoration of Light(HWPL) hosted a HWPL Peace Education Development Forum in Africa. 500 people from 24 countries in the sectors of African national education ministries, UNESCO national committee, MOU-signed schools and organizations participated to discuss ‘the Roles and Cooperation of Educations in the Post-COVID-19 Era.’

The host organization, HWPL, is promoting international projects in 25 countries to develop long-term peacebuilding in Africa based on the its initiative ‘Spreading a Culture of Peace’ also proposed by the United Nations resolution.

The forum highlighted the necessity of developing and applying a new educational policy to stop the disparities in education and human right violations such as sexual exploitation of children and women rampant in Africa during COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, speakers shared the examples of implementing HWPL Peace education curricula in their classrooms and reaffirmed the solidarity in promoting peace as educators in Africa.

A member of the University of Zambia Youths of United Nations Association(UNZAYUNA) as well as the case presenter of HWPL Peace Education, Grace Mutale highlighted the importance of HWPL Peace Education, “Through HWPL Peace Education, I realized that I am the answer to realizing peace and determined to take part in peace work.”

Deputy Director of Ministry of Education Kenya, Science and Technology, Bartholomew Lumbasi Wanikina said “Peace Education is important since through the teachers, children able to build and sustainable peace in their respective families, friends, community, workplace, and country.  Therefore, as educators, we must disseminate the message of peace so that children can have peace and have a sustainable peace,” emphasizing the responsibility and the role of educators in building sustainable peace.

General Secretary, Cote d’lvoire National Commission for UNESCO, SORO N’ golo Aboudo said, “We would like to have an associated school so that this culture of peace program is taught in these schools, and that the children are really aware about the issue of peace and especially the issue of nonviolence.”

During the forum, HWPL signed a MOA(‘Memorandum of Agreement’) with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in Kenya, and signed Peace Academy MOUs(‘Memorandum of Understanding) with 13 schools. The department of peace education will work closely with peace academies to appoint and train on-and offline peace educators and conduct pilot classes on the value of peace.

Press-release of the HWPL