Inter Religious and International Federation for World Peace

10.08.2004

Mancham awarded highest honour

Former President James R. Mancham has been awarded the highest honour of the Inter Religious and International Federation for World Peace: the Leadership and Good Governance Award.


Mr Mancham (inset) addressing a gathering of over twenty thousand people at the opening of the 10th World Culture and Sports Festival in Seoul, Korea

Mr Mancham has also been appointed a Senior Advisor to the worldwide programs for peace of the IIFWP. These programs provide the growing network of Peace Embassies with the tools and programs needed to enable Interreligious and International Peace Councils to take shape and start their work in each nation and region of the World.

The programs include: The Ambassadors for Peace Initiative; Human Development: HIV/ Aids education;  Interreligious Peace Sports festival; Religious Youth Service; and The Middle East Peace Initiative.

In a special dispatch to Mr Mancham on the island of Majorca on the eve of his 65th birthday, Doctor Thomas G. Walsh, Secretary General of the IIFWP wrote: “At a time when self-interest and even corruption undermine the core values and public purpose of basic human institutions, The Leadership and Good Governance Award recognises persons who exemplify the core values, actions and principles of the IIFWP, that is, to live for the sake of others; to promote harmony and cooperation beyond barriers of race, religion, nationality and culture; to contribute to interreligious and international cooperations; to strengthen marriages and the family as a school of love; affirm the centrality of God and universal spiritual values.

“In recognition of his life long service to the ideal of world peace, and for his active support for the core values, principles and practices of the IIFWP, we are very proud to present The Leadership and Good Governance Award to Sir James R. Mancham, the founding President of the Republic of Seychelles and a Senior Advisor to the IIFWP.”

In a statement issued in Majorca on Monday, Mr Mancham said he felt deeply touched and humbled with the award.

“In today's global village problems such as terrorism, HIV/Aids and poverty have acquired transnational dimensions and cannot therefore be solved by nations States alone. I am therefore proud to be associated with such an active transnational institution as the IIFWP,” Mr Mancham said in the statement.

Those who have already received the IIFWP Leadership and Good Governance Award include H.E. Staneslaw Shuskevitch, President of Belarus (1991/1994); H.E. Abdurrahamn Wahid, President of Indonesia (1999-2001);  Professor Oleg Mironov, Human Rights Commissioner of the Russian Federation; Dr Francisco Reyes Gonzales, President of the Electoral Court of Justice of Colombia; Lord Nazir Ahmed, Member of the House of Lords of the U.K.; Dr Yvonne Stedignt, Director of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva Switzerland; Rt. Hon. Hamilton Green, former Prime Minister of Guayana – now Mayor of George Town and Dr LM Singhvi, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India – former Member of the Locksabha (1962-1967) in Rajyasabha (1988-2004) – former India’s High Commissioner in UK (1991-1998) – Member Executive Board of UNESCO (Paris) – President of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Trust – Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague and Chairman High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora.

It is to be noted that Mr Mancham was recently in Seoul, Korea where he addressed a gathering of over twenty thousand people from one hundred and ninety one nations on the opening of the 10th World Culture and Sports Festival - Assembly.

From Korea, Mr Mancham flew to Nagoya, Japan to discuss the potential of Japanese tourism to Seychelles.