THIRUVANANTHPURAM: Mr Daisaku Ikeda, president of the lay Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International, has been submitting peace proposals to the United Nations every year since 1983. There will be a symposium on this year’s proposal titled ‘Universal Respect for Human Dignity: The Great Path to Peace’ at Ikeda Centre for Value Creation, Plavode, here on September 24. Among the suggestions that he has put forward this time is a call to the eight countries yet to ratify the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty to do so.
The United States is one such country and India is a non-signatory state. What makes the proposals significant is the fact that each of it views the macro-problems of the world from the level of an individual. Even the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is re-read from this point of view. The first SDG goal – “End poverty in all its forms everywhere” – is translated as a “determination to leave no one behind”.
The suggestions rooted in Buddhist ideals have been widely discussed by world leaders, and some have been taken forward by the UN, though Mr Ikeda is not a political leader. Former diplomat T.P. Sreenivasan will inaugurate the symposium to be held from 2.30 p.m. to 4. 30 p.m. Gandhian N. Radhakrishnan will chair the event. Among the speakers are SGI representative to India Akash Ouchi, Bharat Soka Gakkai chairman Visesh Gupta and former PSC member V.S. Hareendranath.
