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United Nations, 6th December (PTI) Four senior diplomats and a US lawmaker received this year’s annual Diwali-Power of One award here for their contributions to building a peaceful and secure world. hard work.
Dubbed the “Oscars of diplomacy”, the award is given to former permanent representatives or former senior members of the UN Secretariat or Member States, or soon-to-be “predecessors”, who have “selflessly worked to help form a Create a more perfect, peaceful and secure world.”
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Kaha Imnadze, former permanent representative of Georgia to the United Nations and current ambassador to Canada, and Keisha McGuire, former permanent representative of Grenada to the United Nations, were among those honored on Monday.
The other three recipients are Georgy Velikov Panayotov, former interim defense minister and permanent representative of Bulgaria to the United Nations and current ambassador to the United States, and former permanent representative of Benin to the United Nations and current ambassador to the United States. Jean-Claude Dorrego and Eliot Lance Engel, former chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Engel was honored with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony at United Nations Headquarters, established in 2017 by the American Diwali Foundation.
The Global Envoy highlighted the importance of the Indian festival of lights and its message of good over evil.
Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations and chair of the Security Council for December, said Diwali marks the victory of good over evil and the return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya.
“It’s a time to not only celebrate, but to pause and reflect … above all, to celebrate the timeless values that go hand in hand with the work we do at the United Nations — kindness, caring and compassion,” Camboy said.
She spoke to a rally that included ambassadors, diplomats, United Nations leaders and the Indian-American diaspora.
Chowba Korosi, president of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, said Diwali marks the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance, “as we intend to achieve here at the UN.”
“This holiday, which dates back five thousand years, carries countless lessons that are still relevant even today and are relevant to all of us — justice, truth, integrity, humility and freedom,” Colossi said, adding Said that these values were absorbed in the ethos of the United Nations.
“The essence of Diwali transcends culture and inspires us all to strive for a better world. The desire for goodness and enlightenment over evil and destruction has accompanied humanity in all nations for thousands of years, and I hope it wins for us all,” He says.
He pointed out that the world today is full of crises and urgently needs to be changed.
“We must — and I strongly believe we can — reinvigorate multilateralism and make progress on our shared goals. I believe we also have the power to create light and spread it around the world,” he said.
Ranju Batra, chairman of the American Diwali Foundation, spearheaded efforts for more than seven years before he was awarded the “Forever Diwali” commemorative stamp issued by the US Postal Service in 2016. He said at the award ceremony that the Diwali stamp’s The celebration is not a religion or a religious nation, but a spirit of harmony, tolerance and cross-cultural understanding that all religions should have.
“While my journey has taken seven years, the Diwali Stamp will always be here. It will be the pride of generations to come as it was made with the help of every faith – because we are all entitled to a better , peaceful tomorrow, no matter where we are born, no matter how we pray!” she said.
Batra has sent tens of thousands of paper petitions to the Citizens’ Advisory Committee, and William Givker, director of stamp development for the US Postal Service (USPS), said: “It’s been the biggest push”.
“Most people wrote letters, and it was the number of petitions, not high-profile support, that influenced the committee,” Givker said.
She personally sold more than 170,000 stamps in 10 days, becoming the number one selling stamp in USPS history.
Ravi Batra, a prominent Indian-American lawyer and chair of South Asia at the National Advisory Council, said the UN was “the Vatican of human hope”.
“Diplomats are archangels, and when they do good, they can stop a war from starting, or even a war that is raging, as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did to Turkey, Russia and Ukraine As promised, the ‘Black Sea Food Agreement’ will save 50 million men, women and children from starvation,” he said.
“Diplomacy then tilts between life and death, good and evil,” Batra said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, “This is not an age of war. Therefore, we must help create an era of peace.”
The ideals of Diwali, he said, are the ideals of the Charter of the United Nations.
Korosi recognized Ranju Batra’s efforts over the years to create Diwali stamps and said she worked with politics and business to elevate Diwali to the federal level.
“It’s an inspiring testament to how people with real commitment can change everything,” said Korosi, citing Mahatma Gandhi’s quote: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
In recognition of Batra’s role, Korosi presented her with a copy of the Charter of the United Nations signed and dedicated to her.
The 2022 award ceremony is co-hosted by the American Diwali Foundation and the EU Mission to the United Nations, as well as the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Chile, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Morocco, Oman and Sri Lanka.
Previous winners of the award include Lakshmi Puri, former deputy executive director of UN Women, Matthew Rycroft, former British ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Sergeyev, former U.N. Nguyen Phuong Ngai, Representative to the United Nations.
The awards are suspended for 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The importance of Diwali was recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in a 2014 resolution. Thereafter, Diwali Foundation USA Inc. was established in 2017 to promote peace and consensus – the process of achieving social “goodness” in keeping with the noble hopes and ideals of humanity enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
The foundation has established the “Diwali Stamp – Power of One” award to celebrate and highlight important work done peacefully, especially at the United Nations.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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