Sunday, 10th December 2006

Morning Session

            Morning session of second plenary session began with a very warm welcome accorded by Mrs. Bonita Joel, Principal of CMS Indira Nagar Branch, to all the dignitaries and attending guests. She refreshed everyone’s memory with a brief resume of conduct of First Plenary Session.

            Then the students of CMS Kanpur Road Branch presented Prayer and Song to start the proceedings, invoking the blessings of the Almighty God.  They offered the school prayer, “I bear witness O my God…” After that they sang the song, “Building Bridges”, thereby spreading the message of love, unity and peace.

            The ball was then set rolling by a group of children, who inspired everyone in the audience with stimulating and very strong presentation of Children’s Appeal to World Judiciary. The children, one by one, emphatically conveyed messages on love, peace, harmony and unity. Excerpts of views of few of the speakers are given below:-

In his Keynote Address Hon’ble Mr Justice, B. J. Odoki, Chief Justice, Supreme Court, Uganda expressed his gratitude to CMS for honouring him with the Lucknow Peace Prize. He dedicated the award to all attending Chief Justices who have accepted the unique movement initiated by CMS to promote world unity and world peace. He exhorted the legal luminaries to create national environment in their respective countries for attaining global peace with regional and international union. Citing examples of ghastly terrorist acts conducted in India, Middle East and other parts of the world, he opined that effective decisive measures would have to be taken to prevent such acts. He opined that concrete steps were needed to be taken to transform the idea of a new world order into reality. He urged the Judges to draw up action plans and activate the planning process and elect working committees to implement action plan in areas of their jurisdiction. He suggested a detailed terms of reference for drawing up the action. Few of the various measures suggested by him are as follows:-

            He further called upon the world judiciary to work concretely for implementation of declarations of conference, spell out decisions, define objectives of action plans, be proactive and move forward with conviction and commitment to achieve result of objectives of the program. He expressed hope that working together would lead to success of movement generated by CMS.

In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Vincent A.De. Gaetano, Chief Justiice, Supreme Court, Malta, at the very outset greeted everyone with “Salaam Walekkum” and then explained the meaning of the same as wish of well being of entire human race. He then gave a brief historical background of his country Malta which was ruled for 164 years by British. He informed how the country which was with France, was ceeded to Britain not by conquest but by convention. He strongly advocated for enforceable International law for eradication of conflict, poverty, social exploitation and injustice. He opined that it was collective responsibilities of all the nations of the world to implement international laws and promote world peace.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Jacobus P Anandale, Chief Justice (Acting) High Court, Swaziland conveyed that God has created the world, and gave man dominance of brain. With passage of time the man became industrious and man’s creative brain invented the wheel and then TV, Internet etc to make his life comfortable. However man’s desire, ambitions and greed made him selfish and he started plundering the Earth’s resources and fought different wars and battles to establish supremacy within the human race. Man developed nuclear fusion capability and developed dangerous powers of destruction. This struggle of primacy of a man pitted against another man led to weak serving the strong and poor serving the rich. Thus man plundered the mother Earth in search of virtual happiness. He forgot that God, the Creator of the universe is within man and true happiness is within oneself.  He called upon the human race to emulate wisdom of our Creator and unite others, do what you want others to do for you. Love one another as Jesus loves you. He called upon the world of judiciary to rise above the confines of the court and to use the power of law to recreate a new world order for safeguarding the future of world’s children and future generations.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Abderahim Bireme Hamid, President Supreme Court of Tchad conveyed that his country was committed  to implement various international laws. He further said that his country was already taking various welfare measures for children. He however expressed his concern about the children of his country who have been taken refugee and many of children are being used as child solders by other countries. He called upon world judiciary to take necessary measures to protect the future of children of the world without any kind of discrimination as child mortality, HIV, death due to malnutrition and lack of medical facilities were rampant in various parts of the world.

            In his address Mr Arjun Kingdon, peace promoter from UK conveyed that the world judiciary has enormous powers to serve the cause of humankind. He cited very burning examples of hallmark judgements given by the Supreme Court of India and noted that these judgements were implemented by the Government of India. He cited examples of the acceptance of petitions by Supreme Court regarding right to food of human beings who suffered due to continuous drought for 6 years. He went on to add that people were suffering  starvation deaths even as huge stockpiles of grain existed in the warehouses, rotting and being eaten away by rats. Knowledge of such current affairs, he opined, was very important for judges to give landmark judgements. He also made a mention of immense benefits brought in our country with introduction of mid-day meal scheme at schools, which tremendously boosted new admissions in school. This, he said was possible because of rightful actions of few visionary judges. He concluded his speech by urging world judiciary to take measures to safeguard the future of children.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice M Karpaga Vinayagam, Chief Justice, Jharkhand, High Court, India pointed out that the Indian mythology involved praying to God for peace. We pray for peace of entire mankind, nature, Earth, plants, animals and for peace everywhere. He went on to say that entire humanity was one big family and all men were children of one God. Therefore, he propagated that our law should also be one, governing the entire human race.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Kamleshwar Nath, Former Judge, Allahabad High Court, India opined that freedom from fear is what we need today and nationalism is the stumbling block in world peace. He further said that this conference is not confined to children but for each human being on this Earth. He suggested activist role for various countries and deliberations for world peace and universal acceptance of the same.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Cheick Dimkinsedo Ouedraogo, Premier President de la Cour de Cassation, Burkinafaso recommended ratification and implementation of all existing International laws pertaining to human rights and child welfare. He cited example of 1924 Geneva Convention and the 1959, UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights. He wished luck to the CMS endeavour for world peace and “Enforceable International Law.”

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, Attorney General of Malaysia strongly propounded implementation of various treaties on human rights and child protection and opined that willingness for same is essential for member countries for effective implementation. Hence, he said, the need for Enforceable International Law which is the only way to safeguard the future of world’s children abd generations yet unborn.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Top Bahadur Magar, Judge Supreme Court, Nepal spoke on child labour and juvenile delinquency. He extended his full support for enacting enforceable International law.

            In his address Hon’ble Justice Arsene K. Capo-Chichi, Judge and Charge de Mission in the Cabinet of Benin Court, Supreme President, Benin, extended full support to the idea of a world parliament to tackle problems of malnutrition and diseases in children.

            In his address Mr. Ashok Nigam, Additional Solicitor General of India opined that Article 51(c) is the result of constitutional and social ethos drawn from our ancient civilization.  He said that for humanity to survive, peace, harmony and mutual respect across the world is a must.  He wished CMS children to become light of humanity in future.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Zaza Meishvili, Deputy Chairman, Supreme Court, Georgia gave important inputs to ways of curbing International terrorism and lent a strong support for formation of World Parliament.

            In her address Madam Justice R. Makarau, Judge, Supreme Court, Zimbabwe conveyed that her country was the fastest declining economy and she very well understood what peace means. She opined that the idea of world parliament was great and it would benefit people specifically the woman in facing up to discrimination. She expressed her immense happiness to see judges meet annually and appealed to other judges to keep in mind the rights and welfare of women and children appearing in their court seeking justice.

            In his address Hon’ble Mr Justice Vytutas Piesliakas, Judge Supreme Court, Lithuania expressed his honour and respect for Enforceable International Law. He voiced concern for high infant mortality and destitution of children born out of marital lock.

            In his presidential address Hon’ble Mr Justice Renner-Thomas A R Desmond, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Sierra Leone, said he would divide his address in three parts, viz to CMS management, to students and to fellow judges. He profusely thanked CMS for taking on the responsibility of representing world’s two billion children and for bringing their cry for justice to world judiciary for safeguarding their right to peaceful future. He deeply appreciated and commended the efforts and performance of children while addressing them. Finally he conveyed to his fellow judges, “Rome was not built in a day”, thereby exhorting them to pursue with perseverance the objective of world peace through world parliament. He concluded by saying, “United we stand and win and divided we fall and loose”. 

            The address of Hon’be Madam Justice Pillay of the International Criminal Court, Netherlands, was read out by her Assistant Legal Officer, Ms Natasha Naidoo, as the Judge had to cancel her participation at the last minute due to health problems.  In her speech Judge Pillay delved into the progress made in the process of international criminal justice. She said that at present there are 102 states which are member of ICC and other states are free to join ICC. She said that international courts can function effectively with cooperation of states. Civil Societies can also help. She lauded the efforts of CMS and lent her support to the movement pursued by CMS.

            The Vote of Thanks was proposed by Dr Sunita Gandhi, Director, The Council for Global Education who summed up the session’s proceeding and briefly reiterated the salient features and viewpoints of the speakers.