Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury has devoted many years as an inspirational champion for sustainable peace and development and ardently advancing the cause of the global movement for the culture of peace that has energized civil society all over the world. As a career diplomat he has been Permanent Representative to United Nations, President of the UN Security Council, President of UNICEF Board, UN Under-Secretary-General, the Senior Special Advisor to the UN General Assembly President, and recipient of many awards including the 2015 Gandhi-King-Ikeda Community Builders Prize of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Morehouse College, the U Thant Peace Award, UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal for Culture of Peace and Spirit of the UN Award and University of Massachusetts Boston Chancellor’s Medal for Global Leadership for Peace. Ambassador Chowdhury has a wealth of experience in the critical issues of our time - peace, sustainable development, and human rights. He served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 2001 and as the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations, responsible for the most vulnerable countries of the world from 2002 to 2007. Ambassador Chowdhury is a member of the Advisory Council of IMPACT Leadership 21 and is the first recipient of the IMPACT Leadership 21’s Global Summit Frederick Douglass Award Honoring Men Who Are Champions For Women's Advancement in October 2013. He is a founding co-chair of the International Ecological Safety Collaborative Organisation (IESCO) with headquarters in China and is a member of the Advisory Council of the National Peace Academy in US. He is the honorary chair of the International Day of Peace NGO Committee at the UN, New York and chairman of the Global Forum on Human Settlements, both since 2008. He has also been the chair of the International Drafting Committee on the Human Right to Peace, an initiative coordinated from Geneva and was a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the New York City Peace Museum.

Nancy Roof,PhD is founder of award winning Kosmos Journal: For World Citizens Creating the New Civilization. She is in consultative status with the UN where she co-founded both the Values and Spiritual Caucuses. She is involved in founding the Global Commons Movement and the Global Citizens Movement with an international team. Earlier in her career she was a Co-Founder of Transpersonal Psychology and was a spiritual guide to hundreds of individuals. Her work today is involved with social transformation on a global scale, where she identifies leaders of the emerging new planetary civilization and new consciousness movements to work with Kosmos Associates.

Rev. Deborah Moldow is an ordained interfaith minister committed to assisting in the transformation of human consciousness that will lead to a culture of peace. She is the Representative to the United Nations of the World Peace Prayer Society, which promotes the universal prayer, “May Peace Prevail on Earth.” At the United Nations, she co-chairs the International Day of Peace NGO Committee and facilitates the United Religions Initiative multi-faith cooperation circle. Deborah is Co-Director with Diane Williams of the Evolutionary Leaders circle, a project of the Source of Synergy Foundation that brings together visionaries committed to the acceleration of the conscious evolution of humanity in these critical times. Rev. Deborah also leads monthly Interfaith Sundays at the Chapel at Croton Falls, NY. Her newest project, the Garden of Light, provides an online platform for the emerging global spirituality. www.revdeborah.com http://worldpeace.org www.gardenoflight.org

 

Baso Sangqu, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, presented his credentials to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 16 March 2009. Prior to his appointment as Permanent Representative, Mr. Baso Sangqu joined the South African Mission to the United Nations in December 2006 as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to reinforce the delegation during South Africa’s tenure as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, focusing on African issues on the Security Council Agenda and strengthening the AU-UN relationship.

Immediately before that, Mr. Sangqu served as South Africa’s Permanent Representative to the African Union from November 2002 to December 2006 and also represented South Africa during its membership to the African Union Peace and Security Council. During the same period, he was also Ambassador to Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti and was Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).