Peace, Nonviolence and Empowerment - Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century was a conference held in New Delhi January 29–30, 2007. The conference was held to commemorate the centenary of Mohandas Gandhi's satyagraha movement.[1] It was organized by the Indian National Congress.[2] 122 organizations from 90 countries participated in the conference.[1] A number of Nobel Prize laureates attended the event, including Desmond Tutu, Lech Walesa and Professor Mohammed Yunus.[3] Nelson Mandela addressed the meeting via satellite link.[4]
Congress President Sonia Gandhi attended all four panel sessions of the conference.[1] The conference appealed to the United Nations to declare Gandhi's birthday (October 2) as the International Day of Non-Violence.[1] Subsequently, on June 15, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted October 2 as International Day of Non-Violence, a motion tabled by the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma.[5][6] The conference appealed to create an international civil society forum to institutionalize Gandhian approach of non-violence.[1]
Domestically, the conference received criticism for being used to promote the political ascendancy of Rahul Gandhi. However, Rahul Gandhi held a fairly low profile at the event.[1]
Participants[edit | edit source]
The following people (among other people not listed in the following list) attended this conference:[7]
David Holly
Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk
Marta Suplicy
Liu Hongcai- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Abune Paulos
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Abune Paulos
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Berhanu Adello
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Gerima W. Kirkos
Shaista Shameem- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Jan-Erik Enestam
Philippe Humbert- Error creating thumbnail: File missing George Khutsishvili
Sebastian Edathy- Christian Bartolf
- Willy Wimmer
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Asiedu Nketia
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Adams Iddie Kofi
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Barbara Serwaa Asamoah
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Shirley A. Botchwey
George Papandreou- George Papandreou
- Tzannis Tzannetakis
- Katerina Georgopoulou
- Lia Papafilippou
- Paulina Lampsa
Radha Kumar
Jusuf Kalla
Francesco Rutelli
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Pawel Zalewski
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Janez Drnovsek
Ahmed Kathrada
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 DNA. Gandhi’s birthday, non-violence day?
- ↑ Daily News. Commemorating the Gandhian Satyagraha centenary
- ↑ The Island. The Satyagraha Centenary celebrations and the relevance of Gandhian philosphy [sic] to Sri Lanka
- ↑ Reuters. Mandela calls for Gandhi's non-violence approach
- ↑ UN News. UN declares 2 October, Gandhi’s birthday, as International Day of Non-Violence
- ↑ Mainstream Weekly. Impact of Gandhiji’s ‘Non-Violence’ on UN Agenda
- ↑ Anand Sharma (2007). Gandhian Way: Peace, Non-violence, and Empowerment. Academic Foundation. pp. 300–310. ISBN 978-81-7188-648-7.