Hyun Jin Moon Brings Message of Peace to Paraguay

More than 400 young leaders from around the world, including parliamentarians, entrepreneurs, and representatives of civil society and faith-based organizations, met in Asunción, Paraguay on July 2-6 to launch a broad-based coalition to address some of the world's most pressing conflicts and human needs. Hosted by the U.S.-based Global Peace Festival and Youth Federation for World Peace, the International Young Leaders Summit sought to develop a new paradigm for leadership that balances both spiritual and secular perspectives, and that works collaboratively with governments, inter-governmental organizations, faith-based organizations, business and industry, and civil society.

The conference attracted more than half of the newly elected senators and deputies of the new Paraguayan government and also met with outgoing President Nicanor Duarte at the Presidential Palace, congratulating him on the nation's first peaceful and democratic transition of power.

A key to the initiative is the mobilization of a new generation of young leaders from every sector who are not committed to dated strategies that have left so many hopes unfulfilled. The summit specifically advanced innovative approaches toward meeting the 2000 UN Millennium Development Goals, benchmarks in such areas as extreme poverty, basic health care and education, and gender equity to be met by the year 2015.

Following the summit, some ten thousand young professionals and peace workers gathered in Asunción for the first of a worldwide series of Global Peace Festivals. The festivals are recognizing the courageous and often unheralded work of men and women who have dedicated their lives to resolve conflict and provide critical support services.

Action, not words, is becoming the defining characteristic of the GPF-YFWP partnership. The ILC brought together more than 220 participants from 80 nations, including a significant group of Young Ambassadors for Peace convened by the Youth Federation. In his congratulatory remarks to the conference, Dr. Hyun Jin Moon spoke of his growing respect for Paraguay and its people.

"I want you to know that it was in the Chaco (the remote tropical North) that I first encountered the real spirit of the Paraguayan people," he said. "Out there in the wilderness I met people who were willing to offer us great hospitality when they had almost nothing, and I felt that despite the suffering of this nation in recent years, the time has come for Paraguay to shine. The eyes of the world will be upon this nation and the Global Peace Festival to see we can all do together."

The Paraguay summit followed a recent six-nation Latin American tour by Dr. Moon, who held high level meetings in Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Brazil. Moon emphasized the importance of drawing on spiritual values and traditions as an underutilized resource for governance. Looking to America's founding, he emphasized that freedom and human rights are grounded in transcendent principles, and that religious traditions have a significant role, not in advancing sectarian interests, but in guiding political and social change based on values and ethics shared by all faiths.

"To me the American dream was never merely a political or economic dream," Moon told an assembly of government and civil society leaders in Peru. "We all know that democracies without values, rooted in self-interest, can be just as ruthless and just as dictatorial as a totalitarian regime, and that capitalism not controlled by values can lead to a world of those who have and those who have not. The American dream uniquely recognized the sovereignty of God and through that realization was committed to uplifting the human family to the dignity that can only come from God. Thus the first document that marked the birth of that nation, the Declaration of Independence, directly recognized the sovereignty of God as the basis upon which the rights of any American are derived, and the basis on which the nation would be established."

Following plenaries and working groups on development and cooperation in the Americas, the international leaders spent a day in Texas and met with former U.S. President George H.W. Bush at the Bush Museum and Library, before returning to Washington for further briefings.

The six-nation tour, the Americas Summit in Washington, and the International Young Leaders Summit in Paraguay have engaged some of the most respected statesmen in the Americas, as well as growing numbers emerging young leaders. The prospect of bringing meaningful change, of providing for basic human needs, and of implementing an effective methodology for conflict resolution has generated excitement and hope. And the action agenda outlined in Asunción promises to translate this hope into an on-the-ground approach that can bring peace and prosperity in the twenty-first century and beyond. Liberal party candidate Justin Trudeau, son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, speaks to the conference. Delegates share their diverse perspectives at the 2008 International Young Leadership Conference. Paraguay Young Leaders Summit Builds Global Network for Peace Page.

About Global Peace Festival

Led by president Hyun Jin Moon, Global Peace Festival (GPF) promotes and celebrates persons and programs that contribute to reconciliation, mutual respect, harmony and cooperation among the members of the whole human family, as "One Family Under God." In partnership with a variety of faith-based organizations, NGOs, government agencies, educational institutions, and members of the private sector, GPF encourages programs that strengthen God-centered marriages and families, facilitate intercultural and interreligious cooperation, and foster a culture of peace and service. Ongoing programs are implemented throughout the year and culminate in a biennial Global Peace Festival that consists of an international leadership conference, a social impact program, and a public celebration.