The UN: Past, Present, Future
October 2005
Banner photo: ©SEKAI BUNKA
The Soka Gakkai Youth Peace Conference
The Soka Gakkai Youth Peace Conference (YPC) was launched in 1979 to serve as the axis for promoting a youth movement dedicated to building a peaceful society underpinned by the Buddhist philosophy of the sanctity of life. The Soka Gakkai youth division sees its peace activities essentially as an educational movement to awaken in individuals the spirit of global citizenship, a goal upheld by the Soka Gakkai ever since its founding.
Abolishing War
A Soka Gakkai youth delegation visits a refugee camp in Kenya, February 1993
[Photo ©Seikyo Shimbun]
The Soka Gakkai was founded as an educational reform study group in 1930 by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda, who became its first and second presidents. Both were educators. During World War II, Makiguchi and Toda were imprisoned for their opposition to the Japanese military government and its abuse of religion and education in support of its war of aggression in Asia. Makiguchi died in prison in 1944, but Toda, his closest follower, emerged from prison after the war to rebuild the Soka Gakkai as a lay Buddhist association. In 1957, in his "Declaration for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons" delivered at a gathering of 50,000 youth, he called on young people to take responsibility for establishing the principle of respect for the dignity of human life as a basic social standard. This declaration, one of the last instructions of Mr. Toda, who passed away the following year, became the starting point of the Soka Gakkai youth division's peace movement.
Youth in Hiroshima collect signatures for the Abolition 2000 campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons
In 1973, the youth members of the Soka Gakkai in Japan adopted the Youth Division Appeal for the Protection of the Right to Live. In this they confirmed their commitment to work toward lasting peace and the well-being of all people by persistently calling for the abolition of war, upholding environmental protection, and opposing all forms of oppression and violence. Today the Youth Peace Conference wages various campaigns based on the annual peace proposal issued by SGI President Ikeda. One of the basic directions that the proposal provides is support for UN initiatives. The goal of the YPC's activities in this regard is to raise public awareness around global issues also identified as key concerns of the UN. In this, the YPC adopts an educational approach.
Public Education
"Toward a Century of Humanity--Human Rights in Today's World" exhibition in The Hague, the Netherlands, 1998
Peace promotion initiatives include international exhibitions such as "Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World," first presented in 1982 during a special session on disarmament at the UN Headquarters in New York in cooperation with the UN Department of Public Information and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It has toured 39 cities in 24 countries. To preserve a record of people's experiences of World War II, Soka Gakkai youth also compiled 80 volumes of more than 1,000 individual accounts. Many of these accounts have also been recorded on video. In 1975 and 1998, anti-nuclear-weapon petition drives collected 10 million and 13 million signatures which were presented to the UN Headquarters and the Abolition 2000 movement respectively.
Secondhand radios were collected and donated to the people of Cambodia through UNTAC to help facilitatethe country's first democratic election, Tokyo, 1992-1993
Another focus of the Youth Peace Conference has been the promotion of human rights education in support of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) and the World Programme for Human Rights Education that started at the beginning of 2005. Initiatives include exhibitions such as "Toward a Century of Humanity-Human Rights in Today's World," which has toured some 40 cities in eight countries, an antiapartheid exhibition and lectures and seminars on peace issues. The YPC has also created exhibitions promoting education for sustainable development and campaigns aimed at stopping bullying in Japanese schools.
Humanitarian Relief
An Eco-Aid event to promote environmental protection, Kushiro, Japan, 1993
The Youth Peace Conference has also been actively engaged in humanitarian activities, including refugee relief and postwar restoration assistance overseas. It has undertaken annual awareness-raising and fund-raising campaigns in support of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and, between 1973 and 2001, it conducted 21 such campaigns to facilitate provision of medical care, food, education and other services administered by UNHCR and related organizations. In 1993, the YPC coordinated the collection of 300,000 secondhand radios and donated them through the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) to the people of Cambodia to help them stay informed about that country's first-ever democratic election.
Lecture by peace activist Jan Øberg, Nagoya, 2004
SGI President Daisaku Ikeda has written: "The empowerment of the people, by the people, for the people, to inspire and enlighten the spirit of each individual, will be the fundamental force for truly changing the world."
The purpose of our movement is to create a culture of peace; it is to plant a seed of peace in every person's heart and cultivate the spiritual soil in which peace can be built. Dialogue is the actual tool in this endeavor. It is our firm conviction that building a fortress of peace within the heart of each person through effective dialogue is the most unfailing path to peace.
