The Ukrainian Peace Council (UPC) (formerly: Ukrainian Republican Peace Chamioning Committee) was founded in September 1951 on the initiative of prominent representatives of the Ukrainian artistic and scientific intelligentsia; among them: V.Komisarenko, O.Palladin, B.Paton, L.Pervomayskiy, N.Rybak, M.Rylskiy, P.Tychyna, M.Semenenko, N.Uzhviy and other well-known Ukrainian citizens.
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In 1997, the UPC was headed by the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, the person who initiated Ukraine’s scrapping of its nuclear arms arsenal. Ukraine showed its desire to champion peace. The Ukrainian nation aimed at strengthening the world peace and its moves to scrap its nuclear weapons was being an example for other nations to follow.
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A considerable contribution to the UPC activities was made by Boris Zverintsev, Oles’ Honchar’s first deputy.
Among the members of the Presidium and the Advisory Council at the UPC’s Presidium there have always been public and political figures, scientists, artists, educationists, renowned professionals, well-known both in Ukraine and beyond its borders. Since its foundation, the UPC has gained international recognition, and has been awarded prizes by the World Peace Council, UNESCO, UNO and other international organizations.
The UPC, which considers its activity to be an integral part of the global peace process, proclaims openness and constant readiness, on the people’s diplomacy basis, for partnership and participation in various forms and structures of international cooperation, in accordance with the policies pursued by the UNO, UNESCO and other non-governmental organizations, national peace movements and foundations.
The UPC is an important factor in Ukraine’s peace maintaining policy as well as in raising of Ukraine’s international prestige.
The main goal of the Ukrainian Peace Council is to consolidate public efforts in order to proclaim peace and harmony in Ukraine and in the rest of the world, spiritual unification of the nation, to foster the spirit of peace, patriotism in the youth in, and to form non-aggressive peace-loving psychology.
Working on a voluntary basis, the UPC, in conjunction with state and private structures, puts into effect its programs, based on statutory documents and international agreements.
The UPC aims at providing for the needs of the civil society in Ukraine such as:
- preservation of peace and harmony in Ukraine;
- promoting consolidation of the constitutional principles and laws of a peaceful, civilized and democratic state in Ukraine;
- preservation of the Ukrainian cultural heritage;
- help to the socially challenged strata of society;
- education of the youth in the spirit of peace and friendship;
- health-improvement measures for Ukrainian children and youth;
- raising the prestige of Ukraine at the international arena;
- other activirties.
The UPC was the co-founder of the International Renaissance Fund, the Medicine-Ecology Association, the International Charity Foundation Peace for Children, the Association Nature, the Association Ukrainian Green Peace,, the Institute of Conflict Situations Management, and other public organizations.
The UPC has collective members.
Regional departments:
- Vinnitsa Oblast UPC;
- Volyn’ Oblast UPC;
- Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Peace Championing Committee;
- Donetsk Oblast UPC;
- Zhytomyr Oblast UPC;
- Zaporizhzhya Peace Championing Committee;
- Lviv Oblast UPC;
- Odessa Oblast UPC;
- Poltava Oblast UPC;
- Ternopil’ Oblast UPC;
- Kharkiv Peace Championing Committee;
- Kherson Oblast UPC;
- Khmelnitsk Peace Championing Committee;
- Cherkassy Oblast UPC.
The Ukrainian Peace Council has its Associated Members
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