A Joint Appeal to Youth Calling for Resilience and Hope Issued by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Daisaku
On June 5, in Rome, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and SGI President Daisaku Ikeda released a joint appeal titled “To the Youth of the World: An Appeal for Resilience and Hope,” calling for a new world built on justice and solidarity.
In the appeal, they stress the critical role of empowered young people in transforming history. They also mentioned the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017 as a significant advance, stating: “In pursuing the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, we must eliminate not only the threat these weapons pose, but also the urge to power and the desire to realize security for one’s own country even at the expense of the lives and the dignity of other peoples. There is an urgent need to disarm our ways of thinking.”
This initiative builds on a dialogue titled “The Power of Hope” between Pérez Esquivel and Daisaku Ikeda. The appeal states: “The two of us have lived through the storms of war and violence of the twentieth century. These experiences drive our insistent efforts to expand the bonds of friendship among peoples across ethnic and religious differences.”
Dr. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentinian sculptor and architect, became director of SERPAJ, the Latin American Peace and Justice Foundation based on Christianity and non-violence, in 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his human rights advocacy and activism.
The joint appeal is presented in Rome on June 6, by Dr. Pérez Esquivel and Hiromasa Ikeda, Daisaku Ikeda’s son and Vice President of SGI