At the conference held on “the Future of the United Nations” at JGU, GPAJ President Hasegawa made a keynote speech on the implications of the Meiji Restoration for the future of the United Nations.
Virendra Dayal, former Chef de Cabinet to the UN Secretary General said, “The UN must address many challenges faced by the world, including forced displacement, hunger, inequality, trade disputes, increasing debt burden and danger to media freedom,” while former UN Special Representative Hasegawa spoke about the significance of Gandhian non-violence and Meiji Revolution in Japan and recommended the re-composition of the Security Council.
Chef de Cabinet David Chikvaidze of United Nations Office in Geneva discussed and agreed to hold the second Geneva Dialogue between Asian Scholars and senior officials of UN and International Organizations on September 2-4, 2019 in a meeting held with Executive Director for Academic Exchange of UN Association of Japan and Director of ACUNS Liaison Office in Tokyo Sukehiro Hasegawa. Please click here to see the report of the Geneva Dialogue held last year.
Professor Vesselin Popovski, Vice Dean, Law School of the O.P. Jindal Global University and Former UN Official, moderated a lively discussion participated by Dr. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor of the O.P. Jindal Global University who explained geopolitical change and the importance of rule of law in realizing sustainable peace and development.
A year-end party was held at the French restaurant, Les Cristalline in Aoyama, Tokyo. In addition to the memories of the events that took place this year, the participants talked about how to move forward next year in the meeting of the Board of Directors on February 9.
HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Generations for Peace met with GPAJ President Sukehiro Hasegawa, Vice President Mio Sato and Secretary General Masakuni Tanimoto and explained the activities of the Generation for Peace (GFP) since it was founded as a peace-through-sport initiative of the Jordan Olympic Committee in 2007.
Four principles of co-existence, namely non-violence, respect for diversity, sharing and caring, and mutual cooperation were presented by Mr. Ken Inoue of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan.
Naoko Kumagai, Associate Professor of International University of Japan, found fact-finding is indispensable for the reinforcement of confidence building and useful for preventive diplomacy measures, in particular early warning and mediation.
At the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Nanjing, China, GPAJ President explained that the UN had pursued retributive justice while Timor-Leste preferred restorative justice and reconciliation and friendship following establishment of truth.
Mizuno considers China and Japan have managed potential risk of getting into the Thucydides trap so far and at least have taken tangible steps to build a minimum trust and mutual understanding by agreeing the resumption of visits by the leaders of both countries after a long hiatus.