Princess Lalla Hasnaa, chairwoman of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment Protection, received on Friday in Tokyo the 2018 Goi Peace Award.
This prestigious distinction honors annually a personality or an organization that made outstanding contributions for a peaceful and harmonious world as stated in the Declaration for All Life on Earth.
The award was handed over to the Princess by Mr. Hiroo Sainji, chairman of the managing board of the Goi Peace Foundation, set up in 2000. The selection committee of this Japanese Foundation has chosen Princess Lalla Hasnaa for the Goi Peace Award for her leadership and role played in promoting the protection of the environment and improving people’s quality of life, particularly through education and advocacy for sustainable development.
The Goi Peace Foundation is dedicated to fostering a sustainable and harmonious global society by promoting consciousness, values and wisdom for creating peace, and by building cooperation among individuals and organizations through education, science, culture and arts.
The Foundation believes that humanity shall advance toward a world of harmony, a world in which all different races, ethnic groups, religions, cultures, traditions and customs are respected, a world free from discrimination or confrontation and wherein diversity is appreciated and while coexistence celebrated.
In an address she made on receiving the award Princess Lalla Hasnaa stressed the importance of developing “rules and regulations, even restrictions to protect our environment, and safeguard the remarkable diversity of the planet.”
“What is essential (…) is to contribute to the emergence of a different world – a world based on cooperation, in which the responsibility for environmental protection, is shared by all, requiring equal effort from all of us,” said Princess Lalla Hasnaa.
“Given the huge challenge posed by environment protection, a task which involves all citizens, education should come before all other means and considerations,” she noted, adding “it would be more beneficial and effective to give proper education to our children, instill in them another culture, and foster a different relationship with the world, and towards others.”
“I am a daughter of Al Maghrib, or the Kingdom of the Setting Sun, who has come to the land of the Rising Sun, to receive this Award. Between our two countries, the sun never goes down. I hope that eternal light will be the light of everlasting peace, which we dedicate along with this Award – to the children of our two countries,” she concluded saying.
