PEACE MAKER

Former Iranian Vice President Hassan Ghafouri Fard, a dear friend and a staunch stalwart in political party and parliamentary diplomacy passed away a few days ago in Tehran. He was 79.
Vice President Ghafouri Fard was a founding member of ICAPP, the International Conference of Asian Political Parties, which we founded and launched in Manila in September 2000 and is now composed of more than 350 political parties with diverse ideologies from 52 countries in Asia. He served in our organization’s governing body since its inaugural meeting some 23 years ago.
We will forever be grateful to him for believing in our modest cause from the very beginning – that is, making political parties a positive force for mutual understanding and cooperation in Asia and the global community. For at first, few people thought that it would be possible to bring together governing, opposition, and independent political parties from Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Asia. Indeed, the International Conference of Asian Political Parties has grown steadily in both membership and influence.
Vice President Fard thought too that political parties can and must complement the efforts of governments and parliaments in advancing common causes besetting the global community such as combating terrorism and violent extremism, battling climate change and environmental degradation, fighting poverty and diseases, reducing geopolitical tensions and conflicts, among others. And for some 23 years, he and his party, the Islamic Motalefeh Party, has contributed in advancing the causes of peace, security, and economic development in the international community through the channel of political parties.
Truly, he was a man of many achievements and served his country with great distinction. He was a veteran member of parliament and university professor for many years. He had a doctorate degree in nuclear physics. He founded the Foundation for Islamic Development and headed the Physical Education Organization, which promotes the development of athletics and sporting activities of Iran. He ran twice for president of Iran.
He also served as minister of energy and vice president under President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic of Iran and served as president from 1989 to 1997.
We wish to point out that in the United Nations, Iran and the Philippines were the closest allies in promoting the concept and practice of interfaith dialogue.
In partnership, the Philippines and Iran successfully sponsored a resolution in the UN General Assembly in November 2004, binding the UN to promote interfaith dialogue as a way of helping resolve politico-religious conflicts, strengthening the religious moderates, and isolating those who advocate terrorism in the name of religion.
We remember conferring with religious and political leaders of Iran, which represents the Shia Muslims, to promote inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilizational dialogue. In Tehran, we conferred with Presidents Mohammad Khatami, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Mahmoud Amadinejad, Speakers of Parliament Nategh Nouri, Haddad Adel, Ali Larijani, and Deputy Speaker Aboutorabi Fard, among others. We also wrote Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s fifth President, the respected statesman Mohammad Khatami, was also known for his proposal of “Dialogue Among Civilizations” which was recognized by the UN in 2001.
Tehran is home to the Secretariat of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, now composed of more than 40 parliaments in Asia, which, with all humility, we co-founded, to create the beginnings of an Asian Parliament. As our modest contribution in strengthening Iran in its parliamentary initiatives, we transferred the APA headquarters from Manila to Tehran, despite objections by some parliamentary leaders in the Philippines and in Asia.
Iran’s political parties are also members of our International Conference of Asian Political Parties.