July 2009

International Youth Committee of WCRP Holds Fourth Meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal

The International Youth Committee (IYC) of the World Conference of Religions for Peace held its fourth meeting July 12-13 in a hotel in a suburb of Kathmandu, Nepal. Nineteen people, including IYC delegates; Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, assistant secretary-general of the international secretariat; and Rev. Koichi Matsumoto, a special advisor to the secretary-general for youth affairs, took part.

The participants discussed the results of the International Summit of Religious Youth Leaders on Disarmament for Shared Security and its Kathmandu Declaration, held July 10. They also made concrete plans for a global youth network campaign for the abolition of nuclear and conventional weapons and for reductions in military spending. The yearlong campaign is to be launched at an international summit of religious youth leaders in Costa Rica in November.

The campaign will include educational programs for religious young people and the general public and circulate petitions for disarmament. The IYC also planned to advocate disarmament to political leaders on such occasions as the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at UN Headquarters in New York in 2010.

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