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SGI-USA has opened Culture of Peace Resource Centers in New York, Santa Monica, Chicago and Honolulu as part of its effort to promote a culture of peace. The centers in New York and Santa Monica launched the Culture of Peace Distinguished Speaker Series in 2007, and a similar Culture of Peace Resource Center has now been set up in the new SGI-USA Washington DC center. Speakers have included Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN; Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University; Betty Reardon of Teachers College Peace Education Center, former child soldier Ishmael Beah and Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams.
In 2005, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Young Women’s Peace Committee carried out a survey on attitudes to war and peace among different age groups in Japan. In July an Intergenerational Culture of Peace Forum sponsored by the Women’s Peace Committee of the Soka Gakkai was held in Yokohama where young people could hear experiences from those affected by war. Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, spoke on “The Status of Human Security: 60 Years After the Atomic Bombs” at the Hiroshima Ikeda Peace Center. A World Youth Peace Music Festival was held in Hiroshima’s Central Park, and a peace rally for Japanese and international students also took place.
The exhibition “Building a Culture of Peace for the Children of the World” was launched at the UN Headquarters in February 2004 where it was seen by 10,000 people, including many local schoolchildren. It has also been shown at Columbia and Harvard Universities, the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC., as well as in Canada, Switzerland, Spain, India, Malaysia, Jordan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Philippines, Luxembourg, Bolivia, and Panama. The exhibition illustrates the importance of building a culture of peace at all levels of society, highlighting the work of peace activists and showcasing essays and artwork of children, the inheritors of this task.
Initiated during the International Year for a Culture of Peace in the year 2000, Manifesto 2000 was a grassroots international signature-collecting and awareness-raising campaign endorsed by all the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and UNESCO. It contained six pledges: Respect All Life, Reject Violence, Share with Others, Listen to Understand, Preserve the Planet and Rediscover Solidarity. SGI members in several countries actively participated in this campaign in gathering signatures for the petition.
Started in 1998 in San Francisco, an exhibition introducing the life and achievements of this tireless campaigner for peace toured seven cities in the United States including Washington D.C. and five cities in Japan. In 2003, the exhibit was displayed at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and at the Palais des Nations in Geneva during the NPT PrepCom under the auspices of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). To date, it has been viewed by more than one million people.
The exhibition featured the stories of women and wartime materials from the Pacific War with the message that such stories contain precious lessons for future generation that should not be forgotten if we are to construct peace. It was first shown in Tokyo in 1981, then toured Okinawa, Yokohama, and other locations in Japan, and was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people until 1987.
SGI participates in committees and networks and contributes to joint endeavors together with likeminded groups and individuals such as:
NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, New York
SGI has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2002.
NGO Committee for Disarmament, Geneva
SGI has been a member of the Committee over the years and a member of the International Bureau of the Committee since 2007.
NGO Committee on Peace, Vienna
SGI has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2007.
Global Action to Prevent War
The SGI is a member of the International Steering Committee of Global Action to Prevent War.
Geneva Forum
The Geneva Forum is a Geneva-based international network on disarmament facilitated by the Quaker UN Office, the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, and the Programme for Strategic and International Security Studies of the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, which also involves the academic sector and governmental delegates. SGI has been participating in the NGO network of the Geneva Forum.
