The Sunhak Peace Prize was established in February 2013 by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon to honor — and continue — the peacemaking leadership of her late husband, Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, who passed in September 2012.
Together, the couple tirelessly promoted the vision of “One Family, Under God” and a world in which people live together as a global family, transcending differences of race, religion, nationality and culture.
The annual Sunhak Peace Prize, which is drawn from both of their names, carries a $1 million prize and is awarded to individuals and organizations who have made enduring contributions to the noble ideal of peace by living for the sake of others.
Under the motto, “Making the World Better for Future Generations,” the prize seeks to encourage significant and enduring efforts to resolve human suffering, poverty, conflict and environmental threats.
Nominees for the prize will have contributed significantly to one or more tenets of peace in three categories. These include:
—Respect for human development, including poverty relief, disease eradication, and education and welfare;
—Resolution of conflict, including human relationships, religious harmony, and unification of North and South Korea;
—Ecological conservation, including climate change, threats to biodiversity, and energy depletion.
The theme for the first Sunhak Peace Prize was that “the ocean is essential to the future peace of humanity.”
The first two Sunhak Peace Prize laureates, announced in June 2015, were Kiribati President Anote Tong, who has raised international awareness of how island nations, such as Kiribati, are affected by rising sea levels, and Dr. M. Vijay Gupta, who has developed fish-farming techniques for rural poor. The laureates split the $1 million prize and were honored in a ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2015.
The 14-member Sunhak Peace Prize Committee and its chairman, Dr. Hong Il-sik, a former chancellor of Korea University, review the more than 1,000 nominees and select the laureates. The committee also coordinates follow-up programs with the laureates that are aimed at continuing their work to promote peace and human development.
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