[HWPL]

[HWPL] Mahatma M.K. Gandhi Foundation for Nonviolent Peace Awards 'Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace’

(Above) Participants sign a peace agreement and take a commemorative photo prior to the Mahatma M.K. Gandhi Foundation for Nonviolent Peace awards ceremony held at the auditorium of the HWPL Peace Institute in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi province on July 19th 2016. (Bottom, left-right) HWPL Peace Institute, Mahatma M.K. Gandhi Foundation for Nonviolent Peace Medal, Plaque and Award

Man-hee Lee, Chairman of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), was awarded the Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace on July 19th 2016 in recognition of his contribution to world peace. The awards ceremony was held at the HWPL Peace Institute in Gapyeong with representatives of Mahatma M.K. Gandhi Foundation for Nonviolent Peace in India, including its chairman Dr. Prasanna Kumar Patasani (Parliament member of the House of the People, India).

The core text of the Foundation Peace prize plaque reads, “In recognition of the altruistic efforts of Chairman Lee to create a society that is spiritually beautiful, materially rich and rewarding for humanity.” Chairman Lee was recognized for his significant contribution to the reconstruction of human society and world peace by spreading the noble spirits of “Non-Violence, Universal Brotherhood, Service, and Unity of all Religions and Excellence in the field of all related peace work.”

At the awards ceremony, Dr. Patasani said, "Chairman Man-hee Lee contributed to the end of the bloody 40-year conflict in Mindanao, Philippines, as well as contributing to the peace of mankind by enacting an international law to cease wars and presenting the groundbreaking concept of   religious unity." He continued, “Chairman Man-hee Lee is a truly peace-loving individual who has accomplished so much for world peace.”

Among the Gandhi Peace Prizes, there is the International ‘Gandhi Peace Prize’ awarded by the Government of India and the ‘Indira Gandhi Peace Prize’ awarded by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. In addition, many organizations have established and awarded their own peace prizes named after Gandhi in an effort to promote international peace.

The 27-year Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace is officially registered as an international award on the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict. The Mahatma M.K. Gandhi Foundation for Nonviolent Peace was established in 1989 by Dr. Mohapatra, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India, and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. When the foundation was established, two former presidents of India, Giani Zail Singh and Sri R Venkataraman, participated as advisors.

This award is given to those who conform to Gandhi's philosophy and ideology of peace. It is awarded to peace activists, peace researchers, and world leaders who have contributed to the restoration of democracy and social or interreligious harmony, or to those who have further developed peace by continuously spreading peace.

Renowned laureates include Nelson Mandela (Former President of South Africa), Jimmy Carter (Former President of the United States), Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of the Soviet Union), Margaret Thatcher (Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), Shankar Dayal Sharma (Former President of India) and others awarded for their contribution to the peace of humanity. Most are country leaders, and they are significant figures who have left a mark of peace in human history. Recipients are selected through a rigorous process.

It was a splendid achievement for a Korean to receive the Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace 18 years after the late Dr. Young-sik Joh. The fact that the representative of a private peace NGO in Korea has won this international peace prize, alongside such figureheads, will go down in history for having raised the status of the Republic of Korea as a nation beyond one's individual honor.

Chairman Patasani, who delivered the award in person, expressed its value saying, “The fact that a Korean won the Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace proves that Korea is a peace-loving country.”

From the 12th to the 16th Lok Sabha, Dr. Patasani served as the Speaker of the House of the People in India on five occasions. He served as Minister of Public Complaints and Pensions Administration from 1990 to 1995. Besides serving in a major political capacity, he has gained public trust by serving in numerous fields including education, culture, and foreign policy.

A commemorative photo is taken with Chairman Man-hee Lee after he was awarded the Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace at an awards ceremony held in the HWPL Peace Institute auditorium in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi province on July 19th 2016. Notable recipients of this award include Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of the Soviet Union), among others

Alongside Chairman Lee, Dr. Alexander Kim, a fourth-generation of Goryeo-in (Korean diaspora in Eastern Europe) and Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Sakha, Republic of the Russian Federation, also received the Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace. On the same day, Chairman Man-hee Lee was also given the 'peace achievement award' by the Constitutional Court of Sakha, Republic of the Russian Federation.

Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), led by Chairman Man-hee Lee, is a non-governmental organization (NGO) under the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI), which has opened a new horizon in the global peace movement with the slogan, ‘Let’s leave a world of peace without war as a legacy to future generations.’ As a solution for peace, Chairman Lee signed on the 'Agreement to Propose for the Enactment of International Law for the Cessation of Wars' and the 'World Alliance of Religions Agreement,' and has completed 31 peace tours since 2012 where he visited former and current presidents, political, religious, female and youth leaders, and journalists. Numerous peace agreements were signed in the process.

On January 24th 2014, a civilian peace agreement was reached to resolve the 40-year conflict in Mindanao, The Philippines, which was considered one of the largest conflict zones in Asia. In September of the same year, the 1st World Peace Summit was hosted with the participation of people from 170 countries. In line with the promise made at the World Peace Summit, Chairman Lee and a group of international law scholars drafted the 'Declaration of Peace and the Cessation of War (DPCW, 10 Articles and 38 Clauses)' and published it on March 14th 2016.

In this way, Chairman Lee set a precedent through his passionate and sincere efforts for global peace without governmental support. However, what is regrettable is the slanderous behavior of the Korean church and the Christian media with its skewed perspective resulting from religious bias.

Regarding the Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace, which Chairman Lee was awarded, CBS (Christian Broadcasting System) was deplorable in its biased slandering of the Foundation without confirming the facts. CBS said, "The true intent of the organization that gave the award is unclear. It cannot be held to the same degree of authority as the awards given to former US President Jimmy Carter and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev."

There is no doubt that these presidents received this award in the past, and this can be confirmed by the letters the Foundation sent to the presidents after receiving the award. It is difficult to confirm this on the Internet because the Foundation has not established a website, but CBS and the like could have confirmed this if they had inquired directly with the Foundation. An official from the Foundation explained that the website was intentionally not created for the purpose of fairness in selecting the recipients of the awards.

Following the CBS report, Dr. Jyoti Mohapatra, Secretary-General of the Foundation, sent a letter of protest to the chairman and editor-in-chief of CBS, expressing displeasure at their attitude denigrating the Peace Prize worthless, pointing out that it was an "irresponsible press attitude." Following CBS' intent to denigrate not only HWPL, but also global figures who share the group's common purpose, HWPL in response strongly condemned CBS, saying, “What prevents the peace movement from happening is that they desire war.”

Peace!