Baba Ghai was awarded the 2006 UNESCO Gold Medal in Athens, Greece for peacefully resolving an international religious conflict in Athens, Greece and promoting peace dialogue.
The display was removed but, upon Baba Ghai’s arrival in Athens some days later, fresh controversy endangered the newly brokered peace. On the insistence of a British Hindu umbrella organization, the statue was burnt rather than immersed in water, as per Hindu scripture. Hundreds of Hindus and Sikhs in Athens gathered in the streets around Salon Oriental Bar, where Baba Ghai, Gurpaul Sagoo and Andrew Singh Bogan spent hours mediating and peacefully resolving the protest.
Joining distinguished former recipients such as the Presidents of Indonesia
and Bulgaria, Baba Ghai was appointed an Ambassador for Peace by the
Middle East Peace Initiative at a ceremony in Halifax, September 2006.
AAFS Operational Manager Kusam Vedhara and Legal Co-ordinator Andrew
Singh Bogan were awarded Ambassadorships in Jerusalem at the end of a 2007 peace tour.
A Southern Comfort whisky promotion in Athens provoked an international outcry in February 2006, when Hindus in Athens, India and around the world erupted in protest against a statue of the Goddess Durga shown with bottles of branded whisky.
Baba Ghai immediately established contact with Southern Comfort’s Senior Vice President in Louiseville, Kentucky and obtained an apology to defuse the potential conflict.
UNESCO 2006 Peace Gold Medal
Amnesty International Lifetime Achievement Award
Amnesty International Pakistan hailed Baba Ghai's peace dialogue advocacy by bestowing upon him a Lifetime Achivement Award. The award was presented by the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, at Prime Minister House and received on Baba Ghai's behalf by Andrew Singh Bogan.
Middle East Peace Initiative Ambassador for Peace
International Human Rights Commission Outstanding Achievement Award
The International Commission for Human Rights recognised humanitarian efforts of all four AAFS Peace Delegates (Baba Ghai, Kusam Vedhara, Kiran Bali MBE JP & Andrew Singh Bogan).
In particular, they praised the delegation's lobbying on womens rights in Pakistan and Britain.
