Niwano Peace Prize awarded to Sri Lankan Centre for peace and reconciliation
The Center for Peace Building and Reconciliation is a no profit organization that promotes the building of peace and non-violent conflict resolution. It gives support to personal and social development within and between ethnic, religious, linguistic and regional communities in the country.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) – Sri Lanka’s Center for Peace Building and Reconciliation (CPBR) is the winner of the Niwano Peace Prize this year.
The Niwano Peace Foundation reported the decision to award the prize to the Centre, founded in 2002 by Dishani Jayaweera and Jayantha Seneviratne (pictured), who have also belonged to the Sinhala Buddhists since its foundation.
The CPBR is a no profit organization that promotes the building of peace and non-violent conflict resolution. It gives support to personal and social development within and between ethnic, religious, linguistic and regional groups in Sri Lanka, engaging on all levels, local and national. To achieve the goal of national reconciliation, the CPBR focused on those considered to have greater influence and greater promise of transformation: religious leaders, women and young people.
The Prize is named after the founder and first president of the lay Buddhist organization Rissho Kosei-kai, Nikkyo Niwano. For Niwano, peace is not only the absence of conflicts between nations, but dynamic harmony in the interior life of the people, as well as in communities, nations and the world. Seeing peace as the goal of Buddhism, Niwano devoted much of the second half of his life to promoting peace in the world, especially through inter-religious dialogue and cooperation.
To avoid undue emphasis on any particular religion or region, every year the Foundation calls for nominations from people of recognized intellectual and religious stature internationally. In the nomination process they are then invited to propose candidates for about 600 people and organizations from 125 countries and many religions. Nominations are rigorously screened by the International Selection Committee of the Niwano Prize, currently composed of ten religious leaders from various parts of the world who are involved in movements for peace and interreligious cooperation.
The prize award ceremony will take place in Tokyo on May 12. The winner will receive a certificate, a medal and 20 million yen (about 164 thousand euro).
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01/03/2011
