Princess Lalla Hasnaa Handed the 2018 Goi Peace Award in Tokyo

Princess Lalla Hasnaa, the youngest sister of King Mohammed VI, has received the 2018 Goi Peace award at a ceremony during the Goi Peace Foundation Forum 2018, held in Tokyo this Friday (Nov. 23).

The award was presented to Princess Lalla Hasnaa by Mr. Hiroo Saionji, Chair of the GOI Peace Foundation Board of Trustees.

The GOI Peace Foundation, set up in 1999, seeks to promote dialogue and initiatives for peace. Its philosophy and action are based in particular on Mount Fuji’s “Declaration for All Life on Earth”, which lays down the principles of global responsibility for building a peaceful and sustainable world in the 21st century.

Established by the Goi Peace Foundation in 2000, the Goi Peace Award is an international award presented annually to honor individuals and organizations in various fields that have made outstanding contributions toward the realization of a peaceful and harmonious world as envisioned in the Declaration for All Life on Earth. Among the prominent recipients of the award since 2000, there are Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Gates, Oscar Arias Sánchez and environmentalist Lester Brown.

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.

When announcing the Goi Peace Award winner, the selection committee had said it choose Princess Lalla Hasnaa for her leadership in promoting the protection of the environment and improving people’s quality of life, particularly through education and advocacy for sustainable development.

As the head of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, Princess Lalla Hasnaa has been promoting environmental education, coastal preservation, sustainable tourism, air and climate change awareness, restoration of historical parks and gardens, and the safeguarding of palm groves.

In particular, she has focused on preparing mounting generations to take charge of preserving their living environment, and to engage themselves permanently on the path of sustainable development. Under the motto, “All for the Environment,” she has elevated the environment to a national agenda involving all potential change agents, including governments, businesses, schools, local communities, civil society, youth and children.

As a global advocate for environmental awareness and education for sustainable development (ESD), Princess Lalla Hasnaa is regularly invited to high-level meetings, notably the UNESCO World Conference on ESD held in Japan in 2014, the COP22, held in Marrakesh in 2016, and the COP23, held in Bonn in 2017. She was designated as Goodwill Ambassador of the Congo Basin Climate Commission and the Congo Basin Blue Fund in April 2018.

The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection and the Goi Peace Foundation started cooperating in 2014. Part of this cooperation, Moroccan and Japanese schools were twinned, and the two foundations shared experience for the protection of the environment, particularly through the involvement of pupils as in eco-schools (Rabat Green Belt and Tokyo Omori School).