Tirana, Albania—UPF held a European Leadership Conference under the theme “Mutual Understanding and Cooperation for Peace, Security and Human Development in the Balkans.”
The event, co-hosted by the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) in Europe, also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the visit to Tirana of Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, the founders of UPF and WFWP. The purpose of their 2005 visit was to inaugurate the Albanian chapter of UPF, and they also launched the Ambassadors for Peace movement and the UPF Balkans Peace Initiative.
About 130 participants attended the event, which took place on November 21 and 22, 2015, in the Tirana International Hotel. Speakers came from 12 nations, including seven Balkan countries: Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Greece. Ambassadors for Peace from UPF-Albania also used the opportunity to convene their yearly General Assembly.
The Balkans were the last area of conflict in Europe in the 20th century, and their ethnic and religious diversity makes the region a training ground for peace in the 21st century. In the context of international conflict in the Middle East and the rise of terrorism, the event began a new cycle of the UPF Balkan Peace Initiative.