Peace Bell arrives in Guyana for World Leader Summit on Love and Peace

Last Updated on Monday, 14 October 2024, 18:10 by Writer

Guyana has become the 113th country that the Federation of World Peace and Love (FOWPAL) is visiting, in its quest to promote a culture of peace with love and conscience.

The California-headquartered organisation would be hosting a World Leader Summit on Love and Peace at the Pegasus on Tuesday and hopes that President Irfaan Ali will be there to ring the Peace Bell which has been rung by leaders and other prominent persons in the 112 countries visited so far. Before arriving here, the FOWPAL team was in neighbouring Suriname where President Chandrikapersad Santokhi rung the Peace Bell.

The team is due to meet with City Mayor, Alfred Mentore and Councillors on Monday.

Speaking through an interpreter, FOWPAL President, Dr Hong, Tao-Tze said the aim is to push for an end to fighting “because conscience is the key to creating peace around the world”. “The world is in serious turmoil right now and Guyana plays a crucial role for bringing peace in the CARICOM Community,” he said.

FOWPAL is also promoting September 23 as the Declaration of World Day of Hope which has already been endorsed by 174 countries. “This is also very important because with hope, there will be action and when there is concerted action, there will be success,” Dr Hong said.

Former President of Trinidad and Tobago, Retired Justice Anthony Carmona hailed FOWPAL’s work as “very impacting” during the past seven years in promoting a type of governance that would be fair, just and reasonable to all. He credited that organisation’s leader with convincing the United Nations General Assembly to declare April 5 as the “International Day of Conscience”. “We felt, when we look at the world at large, that there was a need for conscience-driven governance that will result in less corruption, that would more, in fact, engage a moral compass that would ensure that no one is left behind in real terms,” he said.

Mr Carmona said the intent is for such an approach to trigger a culture of peace. As a former United Nations prosecutor and an International Criminal Court judge, he has seen the impacts of a lack of peace and zones of conflict on human personalities. He said Tuesday’s summit and FOWPAL’s visit to several countries is an operationalisation of this year’s United Nations General Assembly theme of “Leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations.”

Mr Carmona cited climate change as a disruptor of peace, causing people to move in search of food and arable lands and in some instances massive conflict that leads to devastation in all forms.

The former Trinidad and Tobago President noted that President Irfaan Ali’s address to the United Nations General Assembly partly focussed on the need for peace in Ukraine and Afghanistan. “We are not in the business of playing ‘footsie’ with peace. We ought not to because if, in fact, we do not encourage and engage a culture of peace, we will have a world of sheer devastation,” he said.

Mr Carmona said CARICOM should push for the region to be declared as a zone of peace rather than merely a zone of nuclear peace.

Monica Sanchez, founder of Miss CARICOM International Foundation, said the Caribbean is a fertile ground for peace, despite its many challenges. “Our region has always been a peaceful region so where else can you continue to resonate and continue to promote and market and showcase peace than in our region,” she said.