Chairwoman Hyun Sook Yoon, "Designating Jan 24 as National Peace Day will play a very important role in spreading and establishing peace in the Philippines"

- Participate as speaker in the '1st Philippine National Peace Conference'
- Urged for the support of 'DPCW' and the designation of Jan 24 as National Peace Day in the Philippines

International Women's Peace Group(IWPG) Chairwoman Hyun Sook Yoon participated in the '1st Philippines National Peace Conference' at the Philippines International Convention Center(PICC) and gave a speech saying that "Designating January 24 as National Peace Day will play a very important role in spreading and establishing peace in the Philippines."

This year's '1st Philippine National Peace Conference' was hosted by Volunteer Individuals for Peace(VIP, representative Dr. Ronald Adamat). The first part was a plenary session filled with 1,500 people including lawmakers, university presidents, teachers, youth and women leaders, religious leaders, press officials, and more. After that, the participants broke up into different sessions. The Women's Session was a panel discussion on the theme of 'The Important Role of Women as Partners for Sustainable Peace', moderated by Maria Timbol, the President of Kapalong Council of Women. Hyun Sook Yoon, Chairwoman of IWPG, Myrna Yao, President of the Philippine Federation of Local Council of Women, and Cecilia Gascon, President of Bulacan State University, participated as panelists.

The host of the event explained that the purpose of designating the 'National Peace Day' is to commemorate the end of the 40-year-war between the Philippine government and the people of Moro in Mindanao-which caused 120,000 deaths-through a 'Civil Peace Treaty' led by Man Hee Lee, the Chairman of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light(HWPL) on Jan 24, 2014, and continue on with the spirit of peace.

Since the Peace Treaty was signed in Jan 2014, IWPG has also established IWPG Branches in 5 regions in the Philippines (Manilla, Maguindanao, del Norte, Pasig, Quezon), and has been conducting various activities such as training women peace leaders and appointing IWPG Publicity Ambassadors. Last September, the '1st IWPG Peace Activity Monument' as erected in the Davao de Oro area.

In the Women's Session, Chairwoman Yoon said, "Peace is not made by someone else, it must be made by the efforts of influential women leaders." She urged women leaders to raise their voices in support of the National Peace Day and the Declaration of Peace and the Cessation of War(DPCW).

Myrna Yao, President of the Philippine Federation of Local Council of Women, said, "The first Philippine female president legislated a law for women, so women should also enjoy freedom through economic activity. Women have a job within the household, but they must also go out and act as members of society."

Cecilia Gascon, President of Bulacan State University, gave a speech saying, "Peace Education is needed for sustainable peace, and women must first receive education. Next, our children, the future, should receive education. Peace that starts within the family spreads to the community and country. Peace and economy are connected, and Philippines is not far behind when it comes to the peace index in Asia. In terms of GDP, countries that have peace also sustained their GDP. So economy and peace are connected."

Through this event, Philippines was able to draw out a nationally unified roadmap based on peace through debates with leaders of various fields and backgrounds. IWPG believes that this will be the start of Philippines going one step further to become the country that leads peace all around the world.

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IWPG is an international NGO in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and registered under the Department of Global Communications and is striving to gather the support of 3.9 billion women around the world to achieve sustainable peace. IWPG is working actively with 105 branches located in 132 countries and 500 partner organizations through peace initiatives including DPCW campaigns and PLTE.

This release was published on openPR.