At the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Nanjing, China, GPAJ President explained that the UN had pursued retributive justice while Timor-Leste preferred restorative justice and reconciliation and friendship following establishment of truth.
Mizuno considers China and Japan have managed potential risk of getting into the Thucydides trap so far and at least have taken tangible steps to build a minimum trust and mutual understanding by agreeing the resumption of visits by the leaders of both countries after a long hiatus.
Takakazu Ito, Senior Programme Officer, Department for Field Support, United Nations made a presentation “Triangular Partnership to strengthen UN Peacekeeping Operations” and Herman Salton, Associate Professor of ICU on “Dangerous Diplomacy: Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda.” (Reported by Maja Liechti)
Platform on Global Security, Justice & Governance Reform suggested finding solutions to armed conflict, climate change, cyber threats, and cross-border economic shocks requires bold and innovative approaches to global leadership.
Sharei and Hasegawa engaged in debate on how the Charter review process can be started, while Francisco Plancarte, a Mexican lawyer and long-time promoter of UN transformation according to Art. 109 called for the creation of a global parliament.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau along with several other heads of state and government listened as Merkel, Macron and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres spoke about the importance of the U.N. and other multilateral institutions to address global problems.
To commemorate the end of the War, Ambassadors of Germany and France, Dr Hans Carl von Werthern and Dr. Laurent PIC held a symposium on 5th November 2018 to discuss the war and its lessons for today’s politics.
This is the second meeting of the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum following its inauguration in 2018. It is organized by the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (GPAJ) in cooperation with the ACUNS Tokyo Liaison Office. The purpose of the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum is to enable the members of GPAJ and interested scholars and practitioners of UN peace operations to engage in dialogue concerning the relevance of theories, concepts, policies and practices. This year, the overall theme of the meeting is “Peacebuilding and Global Governance in a Turbulent Age.” The participants will have opportunities to present and comment on papers that are relevant to peacebuilding and global governance. The meeting will consist of a plenary session in the morning and several group discussion sessions in the afternoon. The subject matters for discussion are indicated in the program outline below. If there is a need for additional group discussions, it is possible to add one more discussion session in the afternoon as meetings rooms have been secured. The Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum is open to participation by interested persons from not only Japan but other countries in order to enable free exchange of divergent views. For this purpose, the plenary session in the morning and two of the group discussion sessions in the afternoon will be held in English. Summary records of the proceeding will be kept by the secretariat and posted on the website of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (http://www.gpaj.org/) and the ACUNS Tokyo Liaison Office (http://www.acuns.tokyo/). You are welcome to participate in the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum. Please note that the participants are expected to meet themselves the costs of their travel and accommodation as GPAJ has no funds to make available for this purpose. If you are interested in participating in the meeting, please send your message to secretariat[@]gpaj.org. Your message will be sent to the organizers/moderators of respective sessions.
Key points made during the discussion included the importance for UNDEF to sustain universal value, efficiency in execution of its programs and activities; to assist the institution building; to encourage local, national and regional ownership in democratization process. There was a consensus that Japan should support financially and technically the democratization process and sustaining democratic principles of governance.
Guest Speaker Professor Sukehiro Hasegawa interacted with a group of about 35 students and scholars of the ICU in Mitaka City, a northern part of the metropolitan Tokyo. Please click here for a summary of his presentation.