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Religions for Peace also referred as the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) is the largest international coalition of representatives from the world’s great religions dedicated to promoting peace.

Respecting religious differences while celebrating our common humanity, Religions for Peace is active on every continent and in some of the most troubled areas of the world, creating multi-religious partnerships to confront our most dire issues: stopping war, ending poverty and protecting the earth.

No form of cooperation has greater peace building potential than cooperation among the world’s religious communities. Of the world’s six and half billion people, more than five billion identify themselves as members of religious communities. Religious communities possess precious moral and spiritual assets and their networks reach from the smallest villages to national capitals and beyond.

Founded in 1970 as an international, non-sectarian organization, Religions for Peace is supported by foundations, governments, inter-governmental organizations, religious communities, religiously-affiliated development agencies and individuals.

The Religions for Peace network comprises a World Council of senior religious leaders from all regions of the world; more than seventy national and four regional inter-religious bodies; and affiliated networks of religious youth and women of faith.

Religions for Peace brings together hundreds of key religious leaders every five years to discuss the great issues of our time. In 2006, the Eighth Religions for Peace World Assembly in Kyoto, Japan, convened more than 800 senior religious leaders from every region of the world and all major faith traditions to address the power of religious communities to confront violence and advance a new concept of shared security.

Religions for Peace enables these communities to unleash their enormous potential for common action. Some of Religions for Peace’s recent successes include building a new climate of reconciliation in Iraq; mediating dialogue among warring factions in Sierra Leone; organizing an international network of religious women’s organizations; and establishing an extraordinary program to assist the millions of children affected by Africa’s AIDS pandemic, the Hope for African Children Initiative.

History
The World Conference of Religions for Peace convened for the first time in Kyoto, Japan, on 16-21 October 1970. However, the origins of Religions for Peace date to 1961, when a handful of senior leaders from the world's major faith traditions began exploring the possibilities for organizing a "religious summit" to address the need for believers around the world to take action toward achieving peace.

Fulfilling its mission to engage religious communities on the national and regional levels, Religions for Peace is today organized on several levels: the International Secretariat in New York, Regional Conferences in Europe and Asia, more than 75 affiliates at the national level, and a number of local units. Religions for Peace enjoys consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations, with UNESCO, and with UNICEF.

Religions for Peace recognizes that women of faith around the world have enormous capacities for leadership and effective action in all areas of human development.

Women of Faith Network
The Women’s Mobilization Program was established in 1998 to advance the role of religious women in international development, peace-making and post-conflict reconstruction. The two overarching aims of the program are to ensure that the concerns and perspectives of women are mainstreamed in all of Religions for Peace’s programming and to build the capacity of religious women of faith organizations to engage in peace building and sustainable development.

In 2001, the program launched the first-ever Global Network of Women of Faith. The growing network serves as an increasingly valuable resource for women of all faiths to communicate and learn from each other and to build bridges between faith-based organizations and major international agencies. At present, the Global Network includes more than 1,000 Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Indigenous, Sikh and Zoroastrian religious women’s organizations. Some organizations in the network have a membership as large as 5,000 groups, while others have less than five. More recently, the program inaugurated four regional women of faith sub-networks in Africa, South East Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.

Today, the Women’s Mobilization Program continues to convene and train women religious leaders and representatives at local, national, regional and global levels. True to its mission, Religions for Peace is building the capacity of women of faith to assume increasingly visible leadership roles in transforming conflict, promoting peace, and advancing sustainable development. At the Women’s Assembly in Kyoto, Japan, in August 2006, 400 participants from sixty-five countries adopted a Declaration, “Women of faith make available strength and hope when all seems hopeless.”

Global Youth Network
Religions for Peace Global Youth Network harnesses the energy and commitment of religious youth leaders all over the world to advance the mission of multi-religious cooperation for peace. The Global Youth Network gained full momentum in 2006 when the six regional inter-religious youth networks were launched in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean. Concrete success in mounting action programs among six regions has inspired donors to award funding to carry out similar projects around the globe. Today, the Global Youth Network is developing pilot programs to confront some of our most urgent challenges—building peace, addressing environmental issues, and coping with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Concurrently, the youth are working to mainstream youth and youth issues into Religions for Peace programming activities at the local, regional, and global levels. This important work is led by the International Youth Committee (IYC), composed of fifteen members representing the world’s faith traditions from six continents. The IYC was first established at the Sixth World Assembly in Riva del Garde, Italy, in 1994, and the current members were elected at the Religions for Peace VIII World Assembly in Kyoto, Japan in August 2006. Currently, the Religions for Peace Global Youth Network is led by its newly elected Youth Coordinator, Ms. Stellamaris Mulaeh, who also serves as Pax Romana’s national coordinator for peacebuilding in Kenya.

The Global Youth Network seeks to advance its work of mobilizing power of religious youth, building strategic partnerships with the United Nations, inter-governmental institutions, and civil society organization, and implementing action programs through national and regional inter-religious youth networks.