Arbenita Sopaj, a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Peacebuilding Association, and External Relations Officer of the ACUNS Tokyo Liaison Office, highlights the pivotal role Japan can play at the Hiroshima G7 Summit. Please click here for her article in Japan Today on March 18, 2023.
UN University Rector David MALONE held a talk with GPAJ Special Advisor Yasushi AKASHI and President Sukehiro HASEGAWA at the International House of Japan in Tokyo before his retirement on 28 February, and his successor, Professor Tshilidzi MARWALA, commences his work on 1 March 2023.
Members of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan had a year-end lunch in Hiroo, Shibuya City in Tokyo on December 28 and visited a temple, Showin-Ji.
Sukehiro Hasegawa, President of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan, received the Foreign Minister’s Commendation on August 10th. As a former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (Timor-Leste), he was commended for his contribution to peacebuilding and political stability in the country, as well as his contribution to the academic development of peacebuilding and international cooperation. Congratulations to our association. (Takaaki MIZUNO, member of the Board of Directors, GPAJ)
In his interview with the Hokkaido Shinbun, Professor Takahiro SHINYO of Kwansei Gakuin University commented on the inability to deal with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and indicated his views on how to reform the United Nations Security Council. Please click here for the full text of his interview.
President Tadic started the presentation from his view on Kosovo. In his address as a president in 2008, at the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly, he warned that Kosovo is a crisis that threatens world peace. He underlined that Kosovo’s potential precedence represents a huge problem for international peace and stability. That addressing was in the context of seeking support for the Serbian resolution requesting an advisory opinion on Kosovo’s independence from the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mr. José Ramos-Horta, was sworn in as President of Timor-Leste on 19 May 2022, ahead of the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of independence for Asia’s newest country. The delegation led by Professor Sukehiro Hasegawa, former Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, included Professor Takaaki Mizuno of Kanda University of International Studies, Professor Mayumi Yamada of Ritsumeikan University, Professor Takeshi Sato Daimon of Waseda University, Professor Juichi Inada of Senshu University and Ms. Akiko Abe of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (GPAJ). (Photo and Reporter: Akiko ABE)
Ambassador Tsuneo stated that it is not the stage where we are just discussing very small details. Why? Because we should not be unrealistic. Are the US, Russia, and China so different? No, they are not different. For example, the democratic US government said that war criminals must be punished. At the same time, the US was not a member of the ICC. We need a special tribunal if we want to punish those who are responsible for these atrocities. Once you have already killed so many people, negotiations are always needed, but we should pursue justice. Do you place Mr. Putin and welcome new permanent members with nuclear power and veto in the next 10 years? This is not acceptable. How people can believe in a reform of the UN with Putin and nuclear weapons there? We are talking about the realistic approach, but these realistic options are not realistic at all. Only to make an extension of what we have agreed upon immediately after World War II. What we are experiencing is not a second Cold War, this is a hot war, a total invasion by a big country into the neighboring country. Are we supposed to agree on some small compromise and say thank you, welcome again? That is not a reform. We are not talking about the past, but the coming generations.
A group of GPAJ members: Ken INOUE, Fujiko AMANO, Elizabeth Gamarra, Naoko KUMAGAI and Sukehiro HASEGAWA, visited the Kairakuen Garden in Mito and National Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki on March 15 and 16, 2022.
