From the UPI:
The Parliament of Nepal, constituted one year ago on Jan. 15, 2007, made history Wednesday. Cooperation between civil society and the government broke new ground as the first-ever function organized by a non-government organization was held in the Parliament Secretariat Hall of the Sighhadurbar.
The Universal Peace Federation partnered with the Ex-MP’s Club to hold a conference on the theme, “Toward a New Paradigm of Leadership and Good Governance for Peace in the 21st Century.”
Of course, the UPI and the Universal Peace Federation have something in common: the person behind it. This individual was praised by Nepalese PM Girija P. Koirala, who sent a message due to ill-health:
…he thanked the UPF founder, Dr. Sun Myung Moon of Korea, for his “stupendous work” in Nepal over the last several years.
…UPF-Nepal has held a series of six conferences, called the “South Asia Peace Initiatives,” that have brought together monarchists, Maoists and members of the Seven Party Alliance to dialogue on issues and modalities of Nepal’s ongoing peace process. Elections are scheduled for April 10.
Further plaudits are reported in The Rising Nepal:
Minister for Foreign Affairs Sahana Pradhan…hailed the role of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), the organiser of the programme in promoting peace in different parts of the country and hoped that the discussions and inputs at the conference would be able to encourage all to bring about lasting peace.
Addressing the programme former Minister for Education and President of the Ex-MPs Club Ram Hari Joshi said that the UPF believes in the ideal of “One World One Family” and the Club too supports such form of organic unity of mankind.
“The need today is to have leaders having respect for religion so that peace would prevail,” Joshi said.
World & I (a Moon publication) has some more background:
Over the past two years, the Universal Peace Federation of Nepal (UPF-Nepal) has held a series of high-level discussions and public events that have engaged representatives of the royal government, leadership and membership from the main opposition parties, and even Maoist rebel leaders.
Today UPF-Nepal is the only NGO that has active ties with the leadership of all the political parties, representatives in all seventy-five districts of the country through its Ambassador for Peace program, a student organization with offices in ten cities working on at least a thousand campuses (including vocational training centers, two-year colleges, and universities), and, since the end of last year, its own newspaper. The Universal Times, an English and Nepalese biweekly, is published expressly “to contribute to building a peaceful Nepal,” according to UPF-Nepal’s national leader, Ek Nath Dhakal…
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