Former Deputy Secretary General, Religions for Peace (RfP)

Rev. Kyoichi Sugino has served as the Deputy Secretary General of Religions for Peace (RfP). He coordinated RfP’s affiliated interreligious councils, women and youth networks in more than 90 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Rev. Sugino has been directly engaged in multi-religious diplomacy and track-II negotiations in Iraq, Sri Lanka, and other conflict zones—most recently, he co-authored the “Yogyakarta Statement” (March 2015), which aimed at overcoming violent religious extremism and interreligious tensions in South and Southeast Asia. Rev. Sugino joined the RfP International Secretariat in 1999, and was appointed to his current position at the International Executive Committee meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2011. Earlier in his career, he served as policy research officer at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland. Rev. Sugino received his LL.B from Chuo University in Tokyo (1989) and an M.L.I. in International Law and International Human Rights Law from the University of Wisconsin (1993). He is an ordained Dharma Teacher in Rissho Kosei-kai--a major Japanese Buddhist denomination--having graduated from Gakurin Buddhist Seminary in Tokyo (1991). Rev. Sugino has written on the subjects of humanitarian and peace-building issues in many international journals and publications. Rev. Sugino is a member of the U.S. State Department Working Group on Religion and Foreign Policy, a member of the Non-Official Group of Friends of Sri Lanka, as well as a trustee at the RKK International New York Center for Engaged Buddhism.