Annual Peace Proposal Welcomes Entry Into Force of Nuclear Ban Treaty, Urges International Cooperation to Combat Pandemic
SGI President Daisaku Ikeda
On January 26, 2021, the 39th annual peace proposal
by Daisaku Ikeda, president of the Soka Gakkai
International (SGI), titled “Value Creation in a Time of Crisis” was released,
marking the anniversary of the founding of the SGI.
President Ikeda calls for further global cooperation to address the key issues of our time: the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons. These issues are not constrained by national borders and cannot be solved by any one government or organization alone.
He comments, “Our shared efforts to respond to the pandemic can serve as
a foundation for generating global awareness of the essential role of human
solidarity in transforming crises.”
Regarding the pandemic, he welcomes the COVAX facility that aims to
ensure the global procurement and availability of COVID-19 vaccines. He
proposes the holding of a high-level meeting at the UN to address COVID-19 and
the convening of an online “beyond COVID-19” youth summit to discuss the kind
of world young people want to see in the aftermath of this crisis.
President Ikeda also highlights the economic devastation brought about
by the pandemic, estimated to be threatening the livelihoods of 1.6 billion
people—half the world’s workforce—and emphasizes the need to promote global
social protection initiatives. He calls on the OECD to play a leading role here
and in a transition to a green economy, where resources saved on military
expenditure can be allocated to expanding healthcare and social services.
Consistent with his decades of action toward the abolition of nuclear
weapons, President Ikeda welcomes the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force on January 22, 2021, as a
“pivotal event ushering in a new era” that will spur a paradigm shift in
approaches to security. He calls on Japan to participate in the first meeting
of the States Parties to the TPNW, to begin to create the conditions in which
future ratification can become possible.
He proposes that a forum for discussing the relationship between nuclear
weapons and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be held during the
first meeting of States Parties to the TPNW.
At the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference
scheduled for August 2021, President Ikeda also urges discussion on the true
meaning of security in the light of crises such as the climate emergency and
the pandemic.
He calls for the final document of the Review Conference to include a pledge of non-use of nuclear weapons and the freezing of all nuclear weapon development until 2025.
(Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada issued a statement welcoming the entry into force of the TPNW on January 22. The SGI has also cosigned an interfaith statement together with more than 170 other religious groups.)
