WFWPI PRESIDENT PROFESSOR MOON INSPIRES AUDIENCE WITH OPENING REMARKS AT WFWPI SIDE EVENT
Your excellencies, distinguished speakers, and honored guests, I am pleased to be with you here today and it is an honor for WFWPI to be co-sponsoring this side event with Mr. Ashraf El Nour, Director of the New York Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the United Nations. IOM was established in 1951 to aid those displaced by World War II and recently became a UN entity in 2016.
It is fitting that this event coincides with the negotiations on the Global Compact for Migration which is currently being held here in New York. This intergovernmental solidarity establishes a milestone rooted in compassionate and therefore sustainable solutions for global migration.
Mr. El Nour, we are grateful to find mutual support for our concern of the world family during these trying times. In addition, we Iook forward to listening and learning from our esteemed speakers;
Dr Sakena Yacoobi, founder and CEO of the Afghan Institute of Learning,
Dr. Catherine Panter-Brick, professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs at Yale University
Mrs. Moriko Hori, President of WFWP Japan
The current global estimate is that 65 million people have been forced to flee their countries, remaining in very vulnerable circumstances. They often encounter unnecessary and tragic deaths as well as countless human rights violations of which women and girls are disproportionately affected.
While problems related to migration are daunting, creative solutions are emerging as never before. United Nations agencies such as IOM, the UN High Commission on Refugees, UN Women, and UNICEF, as well as governments, and many institutions are united in common resolve.
This mutual endeavor reminds us of our common humanity. Actions which push us beyond our comfort zone and stem from compassionate concern toward those weary, homeless travelers, offers tremendous hope in this age of individualism. These innumerable acts of kindness and empathy need to be communicated and replicated.
It is only through partnering together with like minded people and organizations that we can significantly move the attention of the world community to the needs of underserved members of the world family: rural women and girls, refugees, and migrants. Those living in this daily reality of poverty, segregation, and hopelessness can be dramatically affected through benevolent outreach.
WFWPI members have spontaneously created educational and service programs when confronted with the reality of those vulnerable displaced persons in their communities. This response to the suffering of others is natural and something that civil society is called on to do. To make this compact really work, we need to form trusting partnerships among UN, governments, and civil society bodies, which is why we are gathered here today.
As we strive together for interdependence, mutual prosperity, and universally shared values, it is love and responsibility between people which can bring us closer to a more balanced and harmonious world. We cannot lose sight of the fact that “peace begins with me.”
