Peace Tour in Ukraine Supports Inter-religious Council at the UN

Michael Balcomb
March 19, 2009

Kiev, Ukraine - A conference on “One Family under God: A New Vision of Peace in the 21st Century” was held in Kiev, Ukraine, at the Premier Palace Hotel on March 19, 2009. It was organized by the Universal Peace Federation and the Ukrainian Peace Council, a Ukrainian NGO. Among the 350 participants were renowned public figures, writers, scientists, artists, and representatives of many Ukrainian and international NGOs.

This conference was part of the chain of events of the Global Peace Tour 2009 organized by UPF.

This year's World Peace Summit on January 29-31 in New York, USA, brought together UN representatives and public and religious figures from around the world. Ukraine was represented by the Ukrainian Peace Council headed by the first President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk.

The conference in Kiev was opened by Leonid Kravchuk, who mentioned that the Ukrainian people have the moral right to be in the vanguard of a global peacemaking process because their history is an example of peacemaking efforts, in particular as a country which voluntarily renounced its nuclear weapon. Dr. Katsumi Ohtsuka, Chair of UPF-Eurasia, spoke about UPF activities in various countries and the progress made by the Global Peace Festival around the world. He appealed to conference participants to join this international peacemakers’ movement.

Other speakers included a famous poet of Ukraine, Borys Oliynyk, the head of the State Department of Nationalities and Religion at the Oleksandr Sagan, and biochemistry research Institute director, academician Sergiy Komisarenko. They shared their opinions about peace, the relationship between religion and science, and the necessity of establishing an Inter-religious Peace Council at the United Nations.

Conference participants supported UPF's proposal to establish an Inter-religious Peace Council at UN, which will work to prevent conflicts and promote lasting peace. It is not a secret that most conflicts in the world have some religious basis. Conference participants also supported the proposal to hold a Global Peace Festival in Ukraine in 2010. This event will help to overcome the differentiation of society according to geographical or faith factors, revive family values, and develop the volunteer movement in Ukraine.

At the end of the conference, new Ambassadors for Peace were appointed: Poets Borys Oliynyk and Mykola Lukiv, Tchaikovsky National Music Academy Professor Diana Petrynenko, Olympic champion Iryna Merleni-Mikulchyn, and Doctor of Philosophy Yuriy Sedykh.