Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 268
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 6: The Role of Women in Creating the Ideal World
Speech 13: Keynote Speech at the Inauguration of the Abel Women’s UN, pg 976-979
Keynote Speech at the Inauguration of the Abel Women’s UN
July 16, 2012
Cheongshim Peace World Center, Korea
Inauguration of the Abel Women’s UN
I would like to extend my warmest welcome to the woman leaders, peace leaders and members of the Women’s Federation of World Peace (WFWP) from one hundred ninety-four nations, who have come to the Cheongshim Peace World Center in Korea to take part in the historic Abel Women’s UN Inauguration Assembly.
From our early days, my wife and I have upheld Heaven’s will and proclaimed the vision of the peaceful world originally envisioned at the time of the Creation. We have come here today, having returned from America after completing our busy providential schedule there, in order to establish the Abel Women’s UN. It has the mission of realizing the providential goal of creating, on earth, a world of lasting peace, without conflict or war.
As my wife and I have already proclaimed, Korea is God’s homeland.
Therefore, this inaugural assembly for the Abel Women’s UN, which will play the providential role of leading the establishment of a new world of peace, had to take place here in Korea in accordance with God’s will.
Beloved woman leaders from around the world, as you are well aware, representatives of all the world’s peoples, who had been suffering from the aftermath of the Second World War, founded the United Nations according to God’s will and with a yearning for peace. In June 1945, representatives from fifty nations met in San Francisco in the United States of America to sign the United Nations Charter. Today, with one hundred ninety three member nations, the United Nations has developed into a unique organization in the world with the purpose of maintaining global peace.
Respected peace-seeking leaders from around the world, what is today’s reality? During the sixty years of the United Nations’ existence, it has been unable to prevent wars from breaking out, including the Korean War. Even though the Cold War has ended, the world is not free from wars, both large and small, that originate from conflicts between rich and poor, between races, and between people of different faiths. Hasn’t the UN experienced repeated breakdowns of its efforts to fulfill its original purpose and mission to maintain global peace?
At the time of its inauguration, the UN was shaped by a compromise between the United States and the former Soviet Union produced under the confrontational structure of the Cold War. From the outset, its ability to transcend individual nations’ interests and to bring about lasting world peace was limited. For this reason I have proclaimed that in terms of God’s will, the UN has been unable to emerge from the position of Cain. Therefore, we emphasize that the renewal of the UN is absolutely critical to building a world of lasting peace as originally envisioned at the time of the Creation. To realize this renewal in a concrete form, I maintain that an Abel-type interreligious and international peace council needs to be organized within the United Nations. I propose a reorganization of the UN into a bicameral system within the present UN General Assembly. The arena of individual nations with their competing interests can serve as the lower house, and the interreligious and international peace council consisting of global religious leaders can serve as the upper house. I already have presented this proposal of renewal to the UN, and the Philippines, as a co-sponsoring nation, has done so as well.
Respected peace leaders, the UN has run into a brick wall. It is unable to move beyond balancing the various interests of individual nations. Isn’t that the case? In history up to now, we have depended on governmental organizations mostly managed by men to bring about global peace. Now, however, to surmount the limitations they have demonstrated, I believe that a women’s peace movement based on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) needs to take root as a new system to resolve problems that arise in the field. One individual or one NGO alone cannot carry out this women’s peace movement; rather, it is only possible through a global organization exercising global solidarity. For this reason today’s inauguration of the Abel Women’s UN is absolutely necessary.
Today’s historic, inaugural assembly of the Abel Women’s UN was made possible by the foundation of the declaration of the coming of the global era of women. Twenty years ago, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon and I declared this era, when we founded the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) in April 1992 as a central organization of the women’s peace movement, in accordance with Heaven’s decree. The event took place at the Seoul Olympic Stadium in Jamshil, and female representatives from more than seventy nations and one hundred fifty thousand Korean women leaders attended. Since then, WFWP, which this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary, has established local chapters and has been active in more than one hundred sixty nations. It has continuously participated in the global peace movement by creating networks that carry out peace efforts.
Furthermore, the Women’s Federation for World Peace does not intend to be an ordinary women’s organization. It does not aim to be an external, political and aggressive women’s rights movement mainly targeting men, which advocates the expansion of women’s rights, gender equality and reform of the workplace. Rather, it is a global peace movement on a whole new level with the providential significance of realizing the ideal world as God envisioned it at the Creation.
In the context of such providential significance, during the past twenty years, WFWP has carried out service projects and education programs based on true motherly love. It has been active in all parts of the globe, establishing families that embody true love and elevate the status of mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. It has achieved amazing growth and development throughout the world.
From the moment of its inauguration, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon and I have worked together as co-founders to prepare the ground for WFWP’s global organization and the foundation for WFWP activities. WFWP members, including the sixteen hundred Japanese members who went to one hundred sixty nations as volunteer workers in its early days, have carried forth a peace movement around the world.
At WFWP’s inaugural assembly, my wife said in her inaugural message that, under True Mother as the victorious representative of the world’s women, women can now establish the model of a true mother and true wife and form ideal families through a true love movement. Furthermore, women can carry out a campaign to exemplify the practice of true love by living for the sake of others in all walks of life, including politics, economics, culture and social work.
Accordingly, we have carried out a variety of volunteer projects and educational programs, as well as campaigns to bring about the resolution and reconciliation of international conflicts, transcending the barriers of race, religion, language and nationality.
In addition, after the special address my wife gave at the UN headquarters in New York in September 1993, and based on three years of hard work, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) approved the Women’s Federation for World Peace as an NGO in general consultative status, which is the highest status given to an NGO. Since then, every four years after our approval, our status has been re-approved. This ECOSOC re-evaluation entails a strict assessment of activities and achievements. It is safe to say that ECOSOC recognizes our true value, because among the more than three thousand nine hundred NGOs affiliated with the United Nations, only one hundred forty have this highest status.
FFWPU, USA