Master Woo Myung Is Awarded IAEWP Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize
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 realize the world peace. After that, he visited the headquarters of UN-NGO, International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP) in Huntsville, Alabama. There, the IAEWP awarded Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to Woo Myung for his contributions to reconciliation and peace through human introspection and recovery of the 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) starting 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 distinguishing 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 hoped that more attention is paid to the awardees’ activities of peace and be grateful for them. Due to this reason, we do not publicly list awardees on publications such as 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 meaningful. It is gratefully given to courageous persons who work for peace of the world. Not everyone 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 is a former professor of political science and philosophy at Alabama A&M University, United States; and he is also the president of International Association of Educators for World Peace. He traveled the worldwide lecturing on peace and authored many articles and books.
In 1967, Dr. Mercieca started conversations in the Central and South American universities on collaborations between North and South America. One year later, he set to work traveling throughout continents of the world to realize the world peace through mutual understanding between nations and education. With the start of 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 the world peace. The goals of this organization for the world peace include the mutual understanding of international countries through education, promotion of the 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 the 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) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the IAEWP as one of their non-government organization (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 the world peace in recognizing its important contribution toward 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 Zs: Zero Politics, Zero Bureaucracy, and Zero Budget.
WEB SITE+
http://www.iaewp.asia/
http://iaewp2u.blogspot.kr/
http://peacefromharmony.org/
