GENEVA: Thousand of Tibetans in Switzerland greeted and welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama in front of Hotel President Wilson in Geneva where he arrived to engaged in panel discussion with fellow Nobel laureate Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman of Yemen and Dr. Leila Alikarami, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist representing Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, on the theme ‘Nobel Laureates on Human Rights – A view from civil society’ at the Graduate Institute of Geneva.
In the morning of 11th March 2016, His Holiness has met with exclusive journalists and explained his three main commitments. He recommended that education should emphasize more towards the inner values such as warm heartedness, tolerance and forgiveness. He observed that although religion has been a source of happiness for thousands of years, sadly, today, it is becoming a source of hatred in the world.
At around 10:15 am His Holiness left the Hotel President Wilson to attend working lunch with diplomats being exclusively arranged by the US Permanent Mission.
Event of the day starts around 12:30 pm where His Holiness the Dalai Lama and fellow Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman and Leila Alikarami, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist representing Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, engaged in discussions on the theme ‘Nobel Laureates on Human Rights – A view from civil society’ at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Mrs. Kate Gilmore, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights moderated the event hosted by the Permanent Missions of the United States and Canada to the United Nations in parallel to ongoing 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council.
His Holiness expressed his gratitude to the US and Canadian Permanent Missions to the UN for hosting this event. He also acknowledged the moving words of the two speakers who preceded him.
Here we are talking about the future of humanity, His Holiness said. “No matter how small our voice may be but it is essential to speak up. Sometimes people say all is well with what is going on in the world, but it is wrong. In fact we are facing many problems. During my lifetime I have experienced lots of conflict and bloodshed such as second world war, Korean, Vietnam and many civil wars in the course of which millions of people have been killed. We need to ask and think seriously where we went wrong – causes of such conflicts, what qualities we lack and why violations of human rights are taking place. Answering these questions and creating peace will require wisdom and compassion. Therefore, if we have to create a more peaceful world for our future generation, we need to introduce warm-heartedness and secular ethics into our present general education system which focuses more on material oriented educational system.
He stressed that if we remember the oneness of humanity and think of each other as brothers and sisters we can overcome that potential for violence.
Following the panel discussion, His Holiness drove to the Palais des Nations where he addressed about 3000 Tibetans. He assured them that he was in good health and thanked them for their prayers for his well-being.
On 12th March early morning His Holiness the Dalai Lama left Geneva to begin his further journey to India.
– Report filed by Office of Tibet, Geneva –
