Tag: worldpeace

Colombia Attorney General visits WJA Madrid

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On September 20, 2019, the Attorney General of Colombia, Fernando Carrillo met with WJA Worldwide President Javier Cremades in Madrid.

During the meeting, topics as the Venezuelan crisis deeply affecting Colombia, the reactivation of the guerrilla in Colombia and how it could damage the peace process, and ways in which the WJA could cooperate to promote the Rule of Law in Colombia were dicussed. Additionally, the posibilities of organizing an event in Colombia were studied.

The meeting was attended by prestigious jurists and entrerpreneur from Spain and Colombia and was held at the Headquarters of Cremades & Calvo Sotelo in Madrid, Spain.

WJA’s Official visit to Vatican & Rome

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Last August 21 – 23, 2019, WJA Worldwide President Javier Cremades visited Italy for promoting the World Jurist Association. During his visit to Rome, on August 22 Javier Cremades held an audience with H.H. Pope Francis, accompanied by his wife, Arancha Calvo-Sotelo.

During this audience, WJA Worldwide President presented a WJA gold medal recognition to His Holiness for his “contribution to Peace through Law in the World, reaching far beyond what Justice demands”, and thanked him “for promoting a freer world”.

Likewise, on August 23, our Worldwide President recognized Lucio Ghia, WJA President 1995-1997, with the WJA gold medal for his “contribution to Peace through Law in the World” and for his “outstanding work as President of the World Jurist Association”.

WJA Worldwide President Javier Cremades & his wife Arancha Calvo-Sotelo awarding His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican

World Law Congress Madrid 2019

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The World Law Congress

On February 19 – 20, 2019, the World Jurist Association made Madrid the World Jurist Capital during its XXVI Biennial Congress at Teatro Real. Presided by Franklin Hoet-Linares for the period 2017-2019, the WJA organized the World Law Congress under a renovated format ideated by Javier Cremades-García, President of the Organizing Commission and WJA Vice-President for Europe. This edition gathered together different guilts within the legal profession, serving the WJA as umbrella organization for Human Rights, notaries, constitutionalists, registrars, and religious organizations, among others, to co-organize the World Law Congress (WLC).

The presentation of the WJA World Peace & Liberty Award to H.M. King Felipe VI of Spain, in presence of H.M. Queen Letizia of Spain and H.E. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal, represented one of the most iconic activities of the World Law Congress Madrid 2019.  On February 20, a 1750-pax plenary at the main room of Teatro Real recognized His Majesty for his unwavering commitment to the Rule of Law and his defense to Democracy and Freedom. During the Ceremony, congratulation videos sent by President of Colombia, H.E. Iván Duque, and former President of East Timor and Peace Nobel Prize Winner 1996, José Ramos Horta, were presented before His Majesty.

A total of 2,300 jurists and personalities from around the world attended the World Law Congress Madrid 2019 and its Side-Events. Nearly 230 speakers of the highest level participated during this event, most of them within the 21 panels carried out on February 19, in 7 simultaneous rooms at Teatro Real. The deliberations performed this day resulted in The Declation of Madrid 2019. Furthermore, during the event, the new logo of the World Jurist Association was presented, resulting in a totally innovative branding. 

The decision of holding the WJA XXVI Biennial Congress in Madrid was taken during the WJA Board meeting held on May 4, 2018 in Munich, Germany. The task was given to Dr. Javier Cremades García, President of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo Lawyers, who presided the Congress with Mr. Javier Solana Madariaga, former Secretary General of OTAN. The coordination of the program was performed by the Director of the WLC and former President of the Constitutional Court of Spain, Dr. Manuel Aragón Reyes. An Organizing Commision of prominent jurists from Spain and other countries, alone with the Co-Organizing institutions, made possible the execution of a magnificent event that made history within the WJA and, furthermore, in Spain.

For Spain, the Congress and the recognition to the democratic institutions through HM the King represented a reason of great pride and transcendence, as well as a unique opportunity to support the evolution of Spanish democracy and its stability, in the framework of the 40th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution. The event had great media impacts, heading all Spanish newspapers and TV news programs, as well as different media throughout the world.

Additional to the main activities at Teatro Real, the Congress included a Side-Event with the Presidents of the European Constitutional Courts on February 18 at the Madrid Bar Association, the celebration of an Ecumenic Act at the Almudena Cathedral with leaders of the main religions of the world on February 19, and the celebration of a WJA General Assambly and the World Law Day at the Malaga Bar Association on February 21.

Finally, and following the WJA tradition, during the WJA General Assembly in Malaga, Dr. Javier Cremades García (Spain), President of the Organizing Commision of the World Law Congress and WJA Vice President for Europe, was designated by the Elections Committee as the new Worldwide President of the World Jurist Association for the period 2019-2021. Additionally, Hon. Jus. Peter Umeadi (Nigeria) was elected as President of the World Association of Judges, Prof. Jesús Becerra (Venezuela-Spain) as President of the World Association of Law Professors, Dr. Javier Lara (Spain), as President of the World Association of Lawyers, and Sven Kohlmier (Germany) as President of the Business Associates Center.

You may visit www.worldlawcongress.com for further information on this fantastic event

Peace Starts in Korea

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By Franklin Hoet-Linares

Worldwide President of the World Jurist Association

 

When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”, among other Beatitudes, he did not specify whether that message was addressed to Jews, Samaritans, Romans or his own followers. Everyone, without distinction. And then, I would add, to ratify that they are concepts that march together: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven“.

That is the humble way in which here on Earth we have been working for 40 years at the World Peace Through Law Center, founded in 1965, today World Jurist Association (WJA); without distinctions, exclusions, privileged inclusions, or discriminations. The WJA seeks to strengthen and promote the rule of law and spread peace through law; a recognition of the inherent dignity and equality of inalienable rights of all the members of humanity, founded on freedom, justice and peace in the world, as established in the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations (Article III of the WJA Charter).

As WJA Worldwide President for third time, I have committed in the pursuit of our objectives, traveling to different places in the world to actively attend international and regional conferences, among other activities, organized by individuals, associations, corporations, non-governmental organizations and governmental institutions with similar leitmotiv. The cooperation extends to all branches of law: judges, academics and lawyers. We cannot become judges and discriminate those who work for peace, either co-religionists or not, because, in the end, our north is to maintain the inherent dignity of every human being in the process of achieving peace and justice.

Under that mandate and with deep conviction of pursuing a realistic world peace, I attended the invitation of the HWPL (Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light) in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 2015, to prepare a document that initially was meant to be an international treaty for the promotion of peace and disarmament, with a view to the cessation of wars. Considering the difficulties of achieving such purpose, legal complexity, multiple political interests in the international scenario, especially in the formation of instruments legally binding the community of United Nations States Members, the International Law Peace Committee (ILPC) was created.

I accepted to integrate this Committee, and, within our mission, we achieved our goal after multiple meetings and discussions. A consensus was reached in a document of 10 articles and 38 clauses, called “Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War” (DPCW). The fundamental spirit is the same one that the WJA shares, just governance based on law, not power. Exactly, the same basic concept devised by Sir Winston Churchill when he was presented with our project for a center for peace: “Contribute firmly, from civil society, to strengthen the rule of law“. We were convinced that the future of immediate world peace was being played in Korea.

Or in the words of the inspiring Dwight Eisenhower on our first conference in Washington, by supporting the creation of today’s WJA: “The world has no choice between force and law: if civilization tries to survive it must choose the force of the law“.

This year we attended for second time to Seoul, the peace of the world was centered in those precise moments and territories, between the two Korean countries, with the United States and Russia behind; more precisely, Trump and Putin. Those of us who share the experiences of the Americans and follow the daily news on the media, perceive the almost imminent spectrum of war and, with us and our family, tens of millions more. Imagine how the consequences would be like in North and South Korea. The ILPC finally signaled a laudable solution to the manifest impossibility to obtaining a consensus at the UN General Assembly, as the DPCW restricted the powers of the States and imposed them obligations, which is not realistic at this time of a new international cold war: “Recognize with merit the excellent progress of the President of HWPL in bringing together individual States and regional organizations around the DPCW. Also, recommend that this process will continue until sufficient support is obtained for the presentation of the DPCW before the UN GA with a view to its endorsement in the form of a resolution approved within it“. It is not small thing.

On September 18, I had the historic opportunity of visiting the demilitarized zone. Today, just a few weeks later, in the process of dismantling. Something similar happened in Berlin, when the WJA held a Congress promoting the disarmament and unification of the two Germanies. It is gratifying to contribute, even with a grain of sand.

The UDHR is not an international treaty, it is what it is, a statement of great weight accepted by the entire international community, and that was decided in 1944, when realist legislators realized that it was not possible to obtain a consensus of the main countries for a treaty on fundamental rights, hence decided to produce three instruments. First, the Declaration, not legally enforceable, even though today, after 70 years of validity in international doctrine, it is given a weight of customary law. Subsequently, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICCPR and ICESCR, respectively) were produced. Both were adopted by the UN GA through Resolution 2200 A (XXI) of December 16, 1966, entered into force on March 23, 1976, and have been ratified by 167 States. These two Covenants have a value and can be legally binding among the countries that signed and ratify them.

It is our purpose in the immediate future to extract some fundamental political rights from the DPCW and incorporate them as an amendment to the Covenants. Furthermore, a review of the 30 Clauses or rights of the UDHR. Likewise, we are going to support an initiative of Unite for Rights, a human rights association that is trying to produce a Bill of Rights, to unify the existing human rights legislation in the world, in a simple, accurate and integrative way.

Now, after being sure that the war in the Korean Peninsula is moving away by leaps and bounds, we want to dedicate ourselves to work for peace in Venezuela and continue with the preparation of the XXVI Congress of the WJA in Madrid, to be held from 18 to 20 February 2019

 

Bratislava, October 08, 2018.