A three-day conference on Article 9 of Japan's Constitution ended May 6 after issuing a declaration in which the participants pledged to build an international campaign to support the war-renouncing constitutional provision "as a shared property of the world."

"Article 9 is not just a provision of Japanese law; it can also act as an international peace mechanism that can be adopted by other states to maintain peace throughout the world," the declaration noted at the conclusion of the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War at a conference center in Chiba Prefecture.

More than 22,000 people, including 150 from 31 countries, took part in the meeting.

The declaration also calls on governments around the world to "promote and protect all human rights, recognize and consecrate the inherent human right to live in peace, and strengthen accountability and reparation mechanisms for cases of human rights violations."