Following the 2nd Global Summit of Ministries & Departments of
Peace, delegates traveled together to Vancouver to attend the first
World Peace Forum, where the Global Alliance for Ministries and
Departments of Peace presented a half-day program on "Creating
National Departments of Peace." |
Peace Alliance in the United States, and included Dr. Arthur Chesterfield- Evans, member of the legislative
council of New South Wales, Australia; Fred Fakiri'i, undersecretary of the Ministry of Reconciliation, Unity,
and Peace of the Solomon Islands; Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich of the United States; Timothy Al Paulus,
assistant secretary for youth in the Ministry for Youth and Sports in Liberia; Franklin Quijano, of the Office of
the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process in the Philippines; and Paul van Tongeren (the Netherlands),
executive director of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict. In addition, statements were
read from Senator Shokichi Kina of Japan and Senator Douglas Roche (ret.) of Canada. |
Manish Thapa, Coordinator of the Nepal Peace Initiative Alliance, read the Victoria
Summit Communiqué. Then the panelists spoke eloquently and passionately of their
reasons for wanting a ministry or department of peace, the status in their own country of
such a governmental structure, and why partnership with governments and civil society is
so important in our time. |
Marianne Williamson made visible the interconnectedness and
implicit possibilities for cooperation leading to government and
civil society partnership in building an infrastructure for peace.
Fred Fakiri'i commented that, "All of you want a department of
peace, and we have one. Your challenge is to create it, our
challenge is to sustain it. We need to work together." |
