The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Mere absence of war is not peace'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006
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New Delhi

`Mere absence of war is not peace'

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: A celebration of "spirited volunteering", the XIX International Association for Volunteer Efforts (IAVE) was inaugurated by Union Minister of Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes at the India Habitat Centre here over the week end.

The five-day conference is being held in association with IAVE India, United Nations Volunteers (UNV), People Institute for Development and Training (PIDT) and Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS).

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Fernandes said: "Mere absence of war is not peace. Peace is something that we feel from inside our heart. In today's era, peace is only possible when nobody is poor, nobody is unemployed and nobody is oppressed. The huge gap between poor and rich has to be narrowed if not wiped out totally."

The theme of the conference is "Volunteering for Peace in Multicultural Societies". The five-day meet will focus on the fact that most countries in the world are multicultural in one way or the other and so there is a need to build bridges of understanding.

The meet will also discuss important issues such as human rights, disaster management, information communication technologies and civil society intervention.

The conference is being attended by about 1,000 delegates from 80 countries. These include representatives of United Nations, foreign universities, embassies, voluntary centres and government representatives.

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