Huntsville, Alabama in the United States, September 2002
In September 2002, Woo Myung visited UN headquarters in New York, where he met the then President of UN General Assembly, Han Seung-soo and discussed the way to reach world peace. Afterwards, he visited the headquarters of UN-NGO, International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP) in Huntsville, Alabama. There, the IAEWP awarded the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to Woo Myung for his contributions for reconciliation and peace through human introspection and recovery of one’s original nature, and appointed him as a World Peace Ambassador.
“I awarded the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to Mr. Woo Myung in Huntsville, Alabama. He was conducting a series of peaceful activities there and I happened to have participated in all of them. He impressed everyone present and I myself presented him with such a prize”.
– Dr. Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., President of IAEWP, UN-NGO
About the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize
The Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize began to be awarded by the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP) beginning more than 30 years ago, commemorating Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of peace. Dr. Charles Mercieca stated the prize was named after Mahatma Gandhi because “he established an international reputation of being a very peaceful man in virtually everything he did”. Due to Mahatma Gandhi’s contributions to peace, there are many awards named after him worldwide, which can often create some confusion in properly recognizing them.
The IAEWP is known for its strict adherence to not listing its awardees publicly on its websites. The IAEWP organization states, “Instead of paying attention to the awardees, it is our hope that more attention is paid to the awardees’ activities of peace and being grateful for such service. Due to this reason, we do not publicly list awardees names on publications such as the internet”.
“The Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize given by our organization may not be a well-known award and many people are not familiar with it; but to us, this prize is extremely meaningful. It is gratefully given to the most courageous of people who work for peace of the world. Not just anyone can be awarded this prize”.
– Dr. Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., President of IAEWP, UN-NGO
About the International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dr. Charles Mercieca was a former professor of political science and philosophy at Alabama A&M University. He is also the president of the International Association of Educators for World Peace. He traveled the world lecturing on peace and authored many articles and books.
In 1967, Dr. Mercieca started conversations in Central and South American Universities on collaborating between North and South America. One year later, he set to out traveling throughout continents of the world to help others realize the need for world peace through conversation between nations and education. With the start of the 1969 World Meeting of educators in Huntsville, Alabama; the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP) was established in Oslo, Norway the following year.
The IAEWP is a non-profit organization established to realize peace through education of its citizens. Its purpose includes an educative strategy to accomplish world peace. The goals of this organization for world peace includes the mutual understanding of international countries through education, promotion of world peace, protection of the environment, protection of human rights, promotion of positive development of human resources, and disarmament.
The contributions of IAEWP to the UN are as follows:
1. Promotion of world peace and international relations between nations
2. Protection of the environment from air and water pollution
3. Preservation of justice through its commitment to the UN declaration of human rights
In 1970, the US taxation agency (IRS) provided a tax-exempt status to the IAEWP. In 1973, the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI),the United Nations Educational, and the Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the IAEWP as one of their non-government organizations (NGO). In 1990, it was officially connected to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). In 1987, the UN officially declared the IAEWP as a messenger of world peace in recognizing its important contributions towards peace.
The IAEWP has a consultative role with the UN and is established in over 80 countries worldwide with over 105 regional offices and headquarters. The organization operates with these rules of 3 Z’s: Zero Politics, Zero Bureaucracy, and Zero Budget.
http://www.iaewp.asia/http://iaewp2u.blogspot.kr/http://www.peacefromharmony.org/
Source: http://woomyung.com
