2. Description

Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) has been advocating for the implementation of multidimensional strategies involving governments, intergovernmental organizations, and civil society to resolve conflicts and establish sustainable peace globally. In 2014, HWPL hosted the September 18th HWPL World Peace Summit with leaders of politics, religion, women’s groups, youth groups, and the media invited. With these leaders, HWPL discussed conflict resolution, establishment of peace, and mutual cooperation; signed landmark agreements focused on implementing legal instruments for peace, fostering religious harmony, and having peace activities by state actors and citizens; and laid the foundation for collaboration to this end. Since then, further discussions among signatories have taken place every 18 September to exchange strategies for establishing lasting peace.

The Agreement to Propose the Enactment of International Law for the Cessation of Wars and World Peace signed in 2014 led to the proclamation of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) in 2016. The DPCW reaffirms the major international conventions for peace, and outlines the means to resolve modernized conflicts and the roles of nations and civil society in achieving peace. With the support for the declaration growing at an international level, a global peace campaign called Legislate Peace (LP) was launched. This civilian-led global initiative for peace aims to incorporate peace in the legal order to build a global community of coexistence and harmony. Pursuing to achieve peace in daily life, the LP is expanding and systemizing in the form of public-private collaboration to ensure that peace becomes cultural and social rules that are shared by all citizens. Currently, approximately 700,000 HWPL members are engaging in the LP, and the scope of the program is widening to include climate change, relief efforts, education, and empowerment of women and youth, among others.

At a time when crises from wars and conflicts escalate, case examples of peace projects where governments and civilians worked together prove that the answer for peace lies in everyone becoming a messenger of peace. Hence, the participants of the annual commemoration will share examples of peace projects carried out via public private collaboration across the globe, and engage in the discussions for each project’s establishment and implementation of strategies