Program

Plenary speakers & performers include:

• Prof. Dr Chaiwat Satha-Anand, Thammasat University

• Jerry Norman, Past Rotary District Governor, member of the Maori People

• Dr. Michael Lickers, Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada

Plenary speakers & performers include:

• Rotary International President 2020-2021 Holger Knaack

• Hafsat Abiola-Costello; President of Women in Africa initiative

• Maestro Karim Wasfi; Conductor and Ambassador of Global Peace

• Will McInerney; Rotary Peace Fellow, Bradford, UK

• Ugochi Abazi, Manager, Coalition and Diplomacy for Every Woman Treaty

• Arnoldas Pranckevicius, Deputy Foreign Minister of Lithuania

• Maya Youssef; Speaker, composer and virtuoso of the qanun

Plenary speakers and performers include:

• Elder Casey Eaglespeaker; Blackfoot Elder

• Dr. Michael Lickers; Dr. Michael Lickers, Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada

• Peter Kyle; Rotary International Director

• Susan Carroll; Managing Director, Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Center

• Edward Wageni; Global Head, HeforShe Initiative, UN Women

• Syera Hernandez, Megan Augustine, and Jadan Pecome; Girl Be Heard

• Sara Curruchich, Guatemalan singer

Africa/Middle East - Skills-based Workshop

Speakers: Katherine Hughes-Fraitekh, Mariam Azeem, and Francis Sakwa

Both nonviolent action and peacebuilding approaches— direct action and conflict resolution— are necessary to transform violent conflict and increase the likelihood that groups will achieve their goals of positive peace. Workshop participants will leave this interactive skill building workshop with practical skills, knowledge and models that can be used immediately in their work including:

1) The Theory of Change for synergizing nonviolent action and peacebuilding.

2) How people use nonviolent action and peacebuilding approaches in tandem to transform conflict and achieve a more just peace.

3) How to utilize power analysis and tools to affect systemic and structural change.

4) How to combine skills like dialogue, mediation, and negotiation with nonviolent action tactics like mass protests and strikes to help balance power for negotiators to achieve a more just, rights-respecting peace agreement.

5) Why nonviolent conflict is often necessary and constructive to disrupt physical or structural violence leading to positive peace. Violent conflict is always destructive.

6) How we can use top-down, bottom-up strategies to build sustainable peace.

Europe - Skills-based Workshop

Host and moderator: Nino Lotishvili, an intercultural communication specialist, the founder of Peace Research Centre Tbilisi and Mindful Georgia (Georgia); Karin Augustat, a social anthropologist and psychologist (Germany); Helen Tanner, a peacebuilder, forgiveness guide, trainer, and qualified psychotherapist (UK)

When we imagine a peaceful world, our attention often focuses onto what we can change in the ‘outer world’ to build peace and prevent violence. But as a mighty oak grows from a tiny acorn, so seeds of peace must be planted within our hearts and minds before being gently nurtured into reality in the outer world. Rumi reminds us that “The wound is the place where the light enters.” Some of the richest ground in which to ‘grow peace’, therefore, are the most tender places within: our hurts, our pains, and inner conflicts. This workshop will explore the opportunities waiting for us within our wounds and inner conflicts, recognising the rich and fertile ground they provide in which to grow the seeds of peace.

This experiential workshop, led by Karin Augustat, Helen Tanner and Nino Lotishvili, three Rotary Peace Fellows from Germany, UK and Georgia, will explore and weave together four perspectives on cultivating inner peace, each with a practical, personal application:

1. Approaches of Social Healing: How to overcome trauma, mistrust and division (includes practical exercises) 2. Forgiveness: Transforming pain and suffering into Freedom, Peace and Love through the ancient practice of Self-Compassion and Forgiveness. 3. Personal Development: by acknowledging our own shadow parts and existential duality we start embracing and accepting and embracing ourselves as a whole.

Europe - Skills-based workshop

Hosts and moderators: Taylor O'Connor (Everyday Peacebuilding, Canada), Hanna Siarova (Everyday Peacebuilding, Lithuania), Tanya Hubbard (Everyday Peacebuilding, Canada), Krystal Wang (Everyday Peacebuilding, USA)

Rotary Peace Fellow: Henrique Garbino (Sweden)

It may seem that the options for how you make change on any issue you care about are quite limited, but you must know that you have more possibilities available to you than you can ever imagine. For years I’ve been obsessed with investigating the efforts of people building peace past and present, and mapping the unique approaches they have taken to make change.

In this session, my team and I will 1) present a framework I am developing based on these findings, 2) share inspiring stories that illustrate different peacebuilder typologies, and 3) apply segments of the framework to help you to ‘think outside the box’ and find creative ways to make change on some social issue you are passionate about. Join us!

Americas - Skills-based Workshop

Speaker: Aleena Ithaly

Healing the legacies of war: Using the Sticky Rice Model to engage others and develop action plans to work for peace.

www.legaciesofwar.org

Americas - Skills-based workshop

Español

La diversidad de los pueblos latinoamericanos es fundamental para reconocer nuestras raíces y conservar nuestros territorios natureles.

Americas - Skills-based Workshop

Speakers: Jose Barzola, Gretchen Alther, Scott Nishimoto

Leaders are often called upon to facilitate meaningful, civil, and sometimes difficult conversations. Join us to learn about why such conversations are as important as ever, and experience how they can be structured. This highly interactive workshop will include a facilitated courageous conversation and tools for doing this in other spaces. This workshop is relevant for leaders working with teams and communities and anyone wanting to learn more about effective communication in challenging spaces.

Asia/Oceania - Skills-based Workshop

This workshop covers the basics of running a crowdfunding campaign, from start to finish, suitable for beginners and experienced fundraisers alike. We explore the ingredients of a campaign, the elements of storytelling, choosing your goals, creating rewards and incentives, and crafting your pitch. Numerous examples illuminate the pros and cons of different crowdfunding models.

Asia/Oceania - Skills-based Workshop

While there is a significant emphasis on data, too often their significance is incomprehensible, or even lost, in the absence of a narrative of why they matter. In this session, award-winning journalist, communications consultant, former Fulbright scholar, and current Rotary Peace Fellow Priyanka Borpujari will share the tools on how to tell better stories. The workshop will also cover tips on how to share stories effectively to a wider audience.

Participants are encouraged to bring in a 100-word summary of a specific project that they would like to develop into a story, that could be shared with news media and to develop traction on social media.

Asia/Oceania - Performance

Using arts as a global platform for peace will begin with an opening prayer and song pieces where the artist projects photographs of UNESCO Cultural Heritage Sites that will express the resonating values of the artist’s home country. The projection of these universal images will convey cultural heritage conservation, appreciation, or promotion as tools of peacebuilding. For the main performance itself, the artist will perform to Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Piece of Sky by Michel Legrand. Through these Broadway songs, the artist seeks to attribute emotions understood during the pandemic of uncertainty, grief, isolation and yearning for freedom. Art brings people together amidst changing and altering forces that redefine identities.

Asia/Oceania - Performance

This creative performance on “Mindful Eating” will introduce the Ayurvedic cooking approach in helping you to balance your physical and mental status for living a healthier lifestyle. The presentation is about excelling in the art of creating products from unknowns through kitchen tools and ingredients that tune our attention and care to balancing tri-doshas in the body, selecting seasonal and organic ingredients, taking care of good and bad combinations, managing heat and cold impressions, caring for acid and alkaline interactions inside our stomachs and achieving a proper combination of the main food with spices or herbs that boost immunity and manage bloating. Mindful cooking will leave you with the ability to remain calm and focused.

Plenary Performance

Girl Be Heard builds leaders, changemakers & activists by developing, amplifying and celebrating the voices of girls and young women through socially conscious theater-making, storytelling and performance. Two performers from Girl Be Heard Trinidad &Tobago will share their spoken word pieces during the 2021 Global Peace Conference.

Asia/Oceania - Performance

A performance piece devised on the techniques of Image theatre and Forum theatre by Augusto Boal explores the “pressure of performance/results’ and “pressure of being right all the time in order to be visible/approved” for a child. These expectations of a child from the systemic structures of Education and Society also cascade into his adulthood wherein there is “pressure of DOING and delivering just the right thing always”— in jobs, relationships and social interactions in order be called “successful”.

There is no room for failure! And if fails, no room for re-integration into the groups/systems.

The actors in this forum piece are Youth performers who have experienced Rangbhumi’s process work for quite sometime now. The rehearsals and process work has been intense involving and critically questioning the life experiences of these young actors, exploring the definitions of education and learning, involving critical and pertinent discourses on student-teacher relationship, sessions on Image work and how our bodies store memories of our experiences as learners.

Asia/Oceania - Performance

COVID-19 doesn’t stop violence from taking place. While the world seeks refuge in safe “homes” during the pandemic, 1 in 3 ever-partnered women in the world and 1 in 5 ever-partnered women in Cambodia reported having experienced physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetimes. “CHOMNORNG” or “Invisible Knot”, a ballad song written and sung by Cambodian star, Heang, is inspired by these women’s true stories. The song raises awareness of gender-based violence, amplified in these times of stress, lockdown, and isolation. After screening the song, Heang will offer a short reflection on these issues and discuss why gender-based violence is a crucial topic that all peace and conflict practitioners must consider.

Peace and Sports

Africa/Middle East - Panel Discussion

Moderators: Nora Didkowsky and Nil Delahaye

Speakers: Yvonne Henry, Dilek Üstünalan, Burcu Ayan, James Fortune, Megan Kelly, Saifullah Muhammad

This session presents a diversity of examples of sports projects from different contexts that all connect to each other around peace. We hear different voices that connect physical movement with the right to exist and to survive. We hear how global support towards local initiatives in humanitarian settings proposes sports as a way to empower girls, how survivors of genocide make their cause being heard through football, how refugee women gain public visibility and connect with local communities through biking, and struggles engaged where the term peace itself and actions for peace face political intimidation.

Sports can be a space to survive, to exercise rights, to claim a cause. This session will explore different opportunities throughout practice based on specific examples around the world.

Photo credit: Josephine Nanmu/ Girl Determined.

Africa/Middle East - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Farida Nabourema, Dr. Yeela Raanan and Rita Liyo Lopidia

Moderator: Susan Owiro

Women play an active and critical role in building and sustaining peace. The inclusion of women in a broad range of peace and security issues is not only important to ensuring a successful negotiation, but also for ensuring that women’s interests are being addressed. Three female peace activists will share their strategies for peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and reconciliation and the impact their leadership has in their communities. This will be a powerful panel with breakouts illustrating each women's unique story and how their struggles and activism resulted in peacebuilding efforts leading to significant changes for women and their families. In this process, participants will learn from these strategies how they can make an impact in their own communities.

Africa/Middle East - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Dr. Sellah King'oro, David Esinu Yao Normanyo and Master Dicks Mfune

Moderator: Dr. Ulrike Hopp Nishanka

Africa has experienced conflict in many of its countries for decades. Inter-state conflicts have reduced substantially while intra-state conflicts have increased exponentially. In response, several international, regional and local organizations sought to mediate these conflicts using various approaches. A lot of support has been received particularly from international organizations to reduce the negative effects of conflict on all aspects including on developmental programs. While this has been appreciated over the years, many African leaders have emphasized the need for African countries to embrace “African solutions to African problems,” by taking personal responsibility in addressing the mushrooming internal conflicts.

Increasing interest in ‘Infrastructures for Peace’ stems from the concerns about ownership and sustainability of peacebuilding approaches spearheaded by external actors. As a result, most African countries have adopted a hybrid of approaches interfacing indigenous knowledge and capacities for peace and the modern approaches to peacebuilding. This session unveils these national hybrid peace infrastructures in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi with a focus on their origins, composition and structures, level of intervention and their use of traditional knowledge. The session also shares the milestones, strengths and weaknesses of these practices on the existing conflict scenarios in the three counties. Finally, it highlights the lessons learnt and proffers recommendations for future engagement within and beyond the mentioned countries.

Youth Empowerment: Models of Ongoing Efforts at Conflict Transformation

Africa/Middle East - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Mohamed Kanneh, Solomon Odero,Israa Jomaa, Issa Jomaa

Moderator: Richelieu Allison

This session will discuss four cutting-edge programs aimed at youth empowerment and conflict transformation in challenging contexts in Sierra Leone, Kenya, Occupied Palestine and Lebanon. They all approach youth engagement differently--from a new media and conflict prevention model in Sierra Leone to employment and entrepreneurial training for marginalized populations of women and girls in Kenya's informal settlements to nonviolent resistance and organizing for community opportunity and security in Hebron/Khalil in Occupied Palestine to diverse work with women, youth and empowerment in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Each context and challenge is unique, yet each tackles the root causes of violent conflict--physical, structural, and cultural--leading to conflict transformation and positive peace. What ties them together is leadership from the grassroots, staff understanding and connection to local communities, and a fierce determination to create hope and a brighter future for the young generation. This will be an interactive session with input and ideas from the audience leaving attendees with new ideas, motivation, and knowledge to use in their own work and efforts at change.

Early Warning and Early Response: Arab and African, Community Based and Regional Approaches

Africa/Middle East - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Hope T. Chichaya/Chula 2017, Dr. Martha Mutisi, Manal El Tayar

Moderator: Regina Mutiru

Early Warning/Early Response (EWER) systems play a vital role in the Africa/MENA region in building and sustaining positive peace. From their regional perspectives across the continent, presenters will share how these systems alert the community to potential outbreaks and escalation of violence and develop initiatives that manage, resolve, or prevent the conflict. Participants will learn about the opportunities and challenges presenters have experienced in implementing these systems and the gaps that still exist. Furthermore, participants will learn practical community approaches at the grassroots level and how policy supports these efforts to avert violent conflict.

Europe - Panel Discussion

Hosts and moderators: Rafal Pankowski, researcher of racism and popular culture, co-founder of Music Against Racism, NEVER AGAIN; Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska, Rotary Peace Fellow, Chulalongkorn 2018, genocide scholar and educator (Poland)

Speakers:

Chris Salewicz, a London-based renowned music journalist and author of ‘Bob Marley: The Untold Story’, ‘Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer’, ‘Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography’, and more;

Kyaw Kyaw, the founder and leader of ‘Rebel Riot’, a punk band from Yangon, Myanmar, who was featured in the acclaimed documentary ‘My Buddha is Punk’. In the aftermath of the recent military coup in Myanmar, Rebel Riot released a new song One Day inspiring the protesters to stand against oppression;

Julien Poulson, co-founder (with the internationally recognised singer Srey Channthy) of Cambodian Space Project, a freewheeling, psychedelic Cambodian rock group which led a revival of the Cambodian music scene;

Riz Farooqi, founder of King Ly Chee, one of the first groups to introduce hardcore punk to China, editor of Unite Asia website (Hong Kong);

Maqsoodul Haque a.k.a. Mac Haque, the leader of Maqsood O Dhaka, the leading jazz-rock fusion band from Bangladesh, featuring strong environmental and social messages of peace, harmony and cohesion;

Pawel Gumola, the leader of Moskwa, a legendary Polish punk band established in 1983, he also played reggae with 5000 Lat and folk with R.U.T.A., a band using historical revolutionary lyrics from the region of Eastern Europe.

Join our event to explore the relationship between rebel rock music and social movements, anti-racism, and peacebuilding. Learn how the legendary Woodstock Festival of 1969, featuring Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, influenced cultural history as a symbol of the peace movement. Learn about the Rock Against Racism campaign which emerged in reaction to the rise of violent racist attacks in the 1970s in the UK. It has also inspired Music Against Racism in Poland, as well as other similar initiatives tackling the challenges of racism, xenophobia, oppression, dictatorships, and human rights abuses across the world including in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. Can music really change the world? This interactive session will provide an opportunity to engage in discussion with issues of human rights, peace, protest, and reconciliation with high-profile rock and punk musicians as well as renowned intellectuals from Myanmar, Cambodia, Poland, UK, and other countries.

Europe - Panel Discussion

Host and moderator: Host and moderator: Phill Gittins, Rotary Peace Fellow, Chulalongkorn 2012, Education Director, World BEYOND War (UK)

Speakers:

• Giorgi Gabedava: Regional Coordinator- UNOY Europe (Georgia);

• Allwell Akhigbe: UNESCO Youth-led Research Team Lead | International Youth Advocate | Local Peacebuilder at Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (Nigeria);

• Tareq Layka: Dentist, activist, peacebuilder, and member of the World BEYOND War Youth Network (Syria);

• Manuela Córdoba: Rotaract for Peace and member of the World BEYOND War Youth Network (Colombia)

The continuing emphasis on youth, peace, and security in policy, practice, and research worldwide raises questions about how individuals and groups in different settings are working to strengthen youth participation in peacebuilding and policy , practice, and scholarship. The purpose of the Youth, Peace, and Security session is to explore creative and effective approaches being used to support youth’s meaningful participation in peace and security decision-making, planning, and peacebuilding processes at all levels.

The session will feature young peacebuilders from Africa, Europe, and Middle East - broadly mirroring the regions featured in our part of Global Peace Conference. The session will also introduce the World BEYOND War Youth Network, along with a new collaborative effort that aims to engage youth and communities in 10+ countries in processes of peace education and peace action. The session will be a place for sharing, learning, and envisioning new possibilities. This will be done via breakout discussions and Q & A.

Europe - Panel Discussion

Organisers and moderators: Dirk Lustig (RC Kyiv Multinational, Chair District Peacebuilding Committee, D2232 Belarus/Ukraine), Eva Czermak, Rotary Peace Fellow, Chulalongkorn 2017 (Austria)

Speakers:

• Violetta Alekseeva, President, Rotaract Club Rybinsk, Coordinator of International Affairs Committee, D2223 Russia

• Iryna Bushmina, Country Representative in ERIC, District Rotaract Representative Elect D2232 (Ukraine-Belarus), Rotaract Club Kyiv-City. Trainer of business etiquette and communication.

• Anna Slavinskaya, Rotary Peace Fellow, ICU 2016, intergroup conflict mediator with experience of dialogue work with conflicting groups in various parts in Ukraine (Germany/Russia/Ukraine).

• Natia Chankvetadze, a PhD student at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, researcher and consultant for the Levan Mikeladze Foundation, Heinrich Boell Foundation Tbilisi office, and PMC Research Center (Georgia).

• Sabina Kaqinary, current Rotary Peace Fellow at ICU, facilitator on the Balkans and in Colombia; thematic focus on reconciliation and memoralization.

Join this session to explore ways to build bridges across conflict-divided communities by engaging young people in dialogue. Youth are our future, and investing in their positive connections holds the potential to lead to good relations and cooperation in the long run.

Join dialogue facilitators and young people from across Eastern Europe and beyond as together we examine ways to re-establish broken dialogue and trust, specifically between young people from countries currently in conflict. Experts will share their experiences while highlighting various aspects of dialogue, such as ‘dealing with the past and memoralization’, ‘dialogue as a safe space', ‘personal transformation’, and ‘social boundaries’. Participants will then have the opportunity to discuss these topics in breakout rooms.

This session is also the kick-off event for a dialogue project "Let’s Talk Again!" which involves young people from Russia and Ukraine, planned as an online dialogue series followed by a physical meeting on-site in Georgia and culminating in a joint project. Come join us in this exciting initiative!

Europe - Panel Discussion

Hosts and moderators: Dr. Joachim "Yogi" Reppmann (RC Flensburg, Germany); Anthony Conn, (RC Keokuk, Iowa, USA); Grace van Zyl, (RC Johannesburg, South Africa); Dieter Ziulkowski (RC Jerusalem, Israel), and Edvard Škodič, (RC Ljubljana, Slovenia).

Today we sense once again that the fundamental values of our communal life are under threat, in the form of nationalism, populism, homophobia. The commitment to peace and mutual understanding among peoples remains a constant challenge—and a perpetual task for all of us.

In 1932, US Jewett Fulton, Rotary Club Keokuk, Iowa, grew concerned about rising nationalism and the danger of its leading to war. He sent peace letters to all 504 Rotary clubs outside the US.

Jewett had attended the Rotary International Convention in Vienna, Austria. There, he and other delegates grew concerned about rising nationalism and the danger of its leading to war. At the time, in Germany, Rotary was not able to stand up to the Nazis forever and eventually the Jewish members were expelled.

www.peaceconference.us

Europe - Panel Discussion

Host and moderator: Muyi Yang (Sweden)

Smart city has been an increasingly hot topic of the day. More and more countries - both developed and less developed - have joined the club to connect (part of) themselves with others through smart city networks. While such innovative urban design surely is eye opening and economic promising, it has also tremendous potential to solve many of the underlying administrative problems in the urban governance, such as inequality, social segregation, and in some countries, refugee crisis. This session invites top-tier experts and practitioners who pioneer the cutting edge spheres of smart city using various new technologies, including but not limited to green power, digitized economic and educational system, and so on, to discuss the promises and also possible pitfalls that deserve caution and deliberation from spheres of both academic, private, and policy making.

Europe - Panel Discussion

Hosts and moderators: Ambassador Walter B. Gyger, a retired Swiss Ambassador, Primary Representative of Rotary international to UN and other international organizations in Geneva who has initiated the first Rotarian Peace Projects Incubator bringing together Rotarians, international experts, and Peace Fellows (Switzerland); Natalia Sineaeva, Rotary Peace Fellow, Chulalongkorn 2018 (Poland); Wale Adeboye, Rotary Peace Fellow, Chulalongkorn 2019 (Nigeria), Phill Gittins Rotary Peace Fellow, Chulalongkorn 2012 (UK)

Speakers:

• Urs Klemm, Rotary International Director 2021-23 (Switzerland)

• Jan Lucas Ket, Rotary International Director 2019-2021 (Netherlands)

• Elizabeth Usovicz, Rotary International Director, 2021-2023, Zones 30 and 31 and Rotary International Women of Action Honoree (USA)

Want to explore the impact of cooperation between Rotarians and Peace Fellows in such a way that leads to an increased number of peacebuilding initiatives and therefore to a more peaceful society? This interactive session will provide a space for dialogue between Rotarians and Peace Fellows on how to deepen cooperation in the area of peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Peace Fellows possess in-depth knowledge, skills, and experience in various fields, supplemented by profound peace training during their peace fellowship, as well as knowledge of the strengths, needs, and assets of communities through their networks. More efficient cooperation can increase the number of peace projects, resulting in a positive impact on project development and implementation and leading to better sustainability of peace projects. What could the board of Rotary International Directors do to encourage clubs to work with peace fellows? From a Peace Centre perspective, should the training be more project-oriented? From a field perspective, what are the needs? From the bottom, what can Peace Fellows offer to Clubs? Through the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association and its European Chapter, Peace Fellows in the region bring the issue to the fore and invite Rotary International Directors to share their perspectives and experiences with peace projects and cooperation through dialogue.

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

Hibakushas are survivors of the Nagasaki bombing. In this session they will share their testimonies of the atomic bomb impacts on their lives and their message of peace. The online format opens up the opportunity for new audiences to hear their message of courage, humanity and hope.

Europe - Panel Discussion

Host and moderator: Serena Clark, Post-doctoral Researcher Maynooth University, PhD in International Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, Rotary Global Grant Scholar, Session Chair (Ireland), co-hosts: Frederic Vincent, Secretary of the RAGFP French Chapter, Jean-Marie Poinsard, President of the Rotary Inter-Country Committees France USA, 12:30-14:00 CEST (Strasbourg/Geneva)

Speakers: Dr. Roger MacGinty, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manchester; Dr. Peter Dixon, Research Scientist in the Conflict Resolution and Coexistence Program at the Heller School for Social Policy at Brandeis University; Serge Stroobants, the Director of Europe & MENA Region at the Institute for Economics & Peace

Do you want to learn if and how peace and conflict are measurable and how this can be helpful in your peacebuilding work? Join the session to explore two methodological approaches in measuring peace proposed by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) and the Everyday Peace Indicators Project (EPI) by Dr Roger Macginty and Dr Peter Dixon. The Everyday Peace Indicators Project informs peacebuilding through everyday lived experiences. EPI conducts participatory research and evaluation in partnership with communities affected by conflict while building bridges between diverse actors working on peace and conflict issues to inform peacebuilding practice, policy and scholarship. The IEP has developed an innovative methodology to calculate the economic impact of violence on the economy. Each year the IEP produces the Global Peace Index, the world’s leading measure of national peacefulness, ranking 163 countries according to their levels of peace. A series of national peace indices have also been developed to explore the fabric of peace at the sub-national level.

Following this discussion, please join Frederic Vincent and Jean-Marie Poinsard as they discuss using a positive peace approach to facilitate community-based Rotary projects and teach workshops on positive peace to help create the next generation of peace-makers.

Link to full description

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

An analysis of the indigenous perspectives of conflict caused by, or exacerbated by, environmental change and peacebuilding within this same context. Community resilience and conflict management in the face of drastic environmental changes requires a deeper understanding of the struggles being felt most dramatically, at a local level. Indigenous peoples have a vital role to play in environmental conservation yet face human rights abuses, civil conflict, land stakeholder issues, and many other things due to environmental disruption. They comprise roughly one third of the world’s poor and due to socioeconomic circumstance, and many are often disproportionately affected by environmental change. Many indigenous communities live in some of the most biodiverse geographical regions globally and are front line agents of change for biodiversity conservation. Moreover, the strengths of indigenous communities as agents in conflict management and development partners include their diversity, self- organizing abilities, knowledge, their internal accountability, and their locally-adapted cultures. We attempt to examine this further by interviewing members of indigenous communities around the world in order to hear their perspectives and further understand how to integrate indigenous, local, and marginalized communities into the environmental peacebuilding discourse

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

With increased use of digital technologies, how can we be more mindful in the cyberworld with regards to privacy, consent, respect and tolerance. Being aware of how technology and policy can be enablers of peace and prosperity is critical. We have no choice but to be comfortable with technology, digital spaces, understand our rights in cyber space and bridge the digital divide. Our panel will bring experts from various domains of cyber to help us navigate these spaces..

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

Why are ethnic, religious, or cultural minority girls fundamental to achieving positive peace? In Cambodia, minority girls identify facing a “triple burden”; being a minority, being young, and being a female. Even within gender mainstreaming programmes and initiatives to promote women and girls’ empowerment, minority girls are often left behind. In spite of societal marginalization, minority girls have a lot to say when provided the space and opportunity.

This discussion explores intersectionality through presenting “Making the Space,” a Cambodian initiative to use listening, art, and advocacy in order to bring the needs and dreams of minority girls to the center stage. We introduce our work that focuses on the adolescent girls of six minority communities that have been working together to elaborate their own issues and make them heard to the rest of the country. We will share some key findings, our creative approaches, and our future plans for national advocacy.

There will also be a breakout session where participants can share about themselves, what challenges that they have seen or heard of working with groups from diverse backgrounds, and what approach they use into their work.

After the breakout sessions, we will ask the participants to share about their discussions and explore synergies and connections on themes of intersectionality, marginalization, and working with groups that often fall through the cracks.

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

"What is the reality of not ensuring a gender-sensitive approach in mediation? Rural women in Cambodia, for example, who try to leave their abusive partners often cannot get a divorce when they go to the responsible authorities. In practice, they are often referred to alternative dispute resolution that frequently encourages them to reconcile with their partners or husbands. In the hope to preserve harmony, perpetrators are often not reported by local ADR or authorities if victims will agree to trying once again to stay in their relationship.

Our recent research on local access to justice has revealed that most alternative dispute resolution processes involving conciliation or reconciliation, and not standardized mediation, do not serve the best interest of women and frequently fail to protect them. What are the ways we can bring in a gender-sensitive approach? How can we ensure that everyone, from victims, to local service providers, to policymakers are aware and supportive of protecting women in alternative dispute resolution, particularly in cases of intimate partners violence? Join this panel to learn more on initiatives working to bring a stronger gender lens into the practice of mediation.

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), a non-violent resistance against the Myanmar military coup which took place on February 1st, 2021, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The movement has been led by inspirational and courageous Generation Z activists, backed by their Generation ’88 seniors who were part of the pro-democracy movement student-led uprising in 1988. Hear the voices of Gen Z and Gen 88 activists who are currently living in Australia as they reflect on their role in the current CDM, tools of non-violent protests and their aspirations for freedom in Myanmar.

Americas - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Ignacio Asis, Elohim Monard

The panel seeks to highlight the urgent need for a change of scope and approach to tackle crime and violence in Latin America. Crime and violence in Latin America is a peacebuilding issue, even though most of the peacebuilding community does not consider it within its scope.

Americas - Panel Discussion

(Español/Português/English)

Speakers: Manuel Fernandez Morales, Amanda Castrequini Simao

The objective is to spread respect and knowledge of the different cultures of our planet, as a way of promoting world peace through the indigenous system.

Americas - Panel Discussion

Español

Discussion with members of RAGAS and slavery survivors from Latin America to identify opportunities to prevent slavery in the region.

Americas - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Sinead McGrath, Helga Flamtermesky, Fernando Lopez

This panel discussion/performance will explore the concept of memory in transitional societies through the lens of music, art, poetry, and food. Our three panel presenters will share their visions on the role of the arts in deconstructing concepts of justice and memory, through reflections and performances. Guatemalan anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, and singer-songwriter Fernando Lopez will take us through a journey exploring the intersection of music and social justice in Guatemala and will speak of the role of music in the groundbreaking domestic trial for the genocide of the Ixil people.

Americas - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Charles Allen, Susan Hartley

The project "Growing Together", more familiarly known as "Trini-Veni", will be discussed to illustrate the strength of bringing together the expertise of partner organizations when designing and implementing a project. With the objective of creating social cohesion and collective economic security within the Trinidadian host and Venezuelan migrant community, panelists will discuss how their organization's contribution to the project is enhanced through these partnerships. Panelists represent the Institute of Economics and Peace, Mediators Beyond Borders, and the Trinidadian NGO Cashew Gardens.

Americas - Panel Discussion

Speaker: Trey Sheridan

Youth leaders in action: Improving community decisions by building diversity and racial tolerance

Youth leadership is important because when we invest in youth we are investing in the the future. Promoting youth leadership not only facilitates generational competency in leadership roles, but strengthens young people's understanding of how to be inspiring leaders. Critically, to empower youth voices we must be willing to listen.

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

From climate action to peacebuilding, youth are pioneering the way forward on many issues. This session features youth activists in Asia and Oceania who have taken action on plastic waste, sustainability and everyday peacebuilding. Small group discussions will also be led by teenage facilitators. Come join us for an engaging and dynamic discussion of youth leading the charge!

Asia/Oceania - Panel Discussion

Panelists: Vivian Obed - Further Arts, Vanuatu; Loretta Taika - PA.TE.LA Legacy, Solomon Islands; Primitivo III Cabanes Ragandang, the Philippines; Erica Rose Jeffrey- PaCSIA

Drawing on her background focusing on dance and peacebuilding, Dr Jeffrey will facilitate an interactive panel on creative approaches to peacebuilding featuring colleagues from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines and their projects including painting, songs and pandanus weaving connected to peace. Dr Jeffrey will discuss the Creative Peace: Our living culture project - an arts and peacebuilding project in Bougainville, PNG. This session will include participatory activities.

Americas - Panel Discussion

Speakers: Teresa Zorrilla, Karen Bernstein Pinto

A discussion on the first Rotary Peace Project Incubator. Bringing together Rotarians, international experts and peace fellows.

https://www.rppi.ch/

A Talk with Frank Schwalba-Hoth, Founding Member of German Green Party and European Parliament, on Peace, the role of the European Parliament, and more

Hosts and moderators: Henrique Garbino, Rotary Peace Fellow, Uppsala 2019, Doctoral Student at the Swedish Defense University (Sweden), Muyi Yang, Rotary Peace Fellow, Uppsala 2021 (Sweden)

What is the role of the European Parliament in the area of peace, conflict prevention, and mediation? What do high-level government politicians think of the works of peacebuilders from non-governmental sectors? How can peace-making practitioners and public sectors collaborate to achieve a better outcome for the humanitarian projects on the ground? In this informal but informative lunch session, we will have a talk with Frank Schwalba-Hoth, Founding Member of the German Green Party and European Parliament. He will share with us his valuable insights regarding these questions, as well as what kind of partners the European Parliament has been working with (and potentially looking for). Frank Schwalba-Hoth will also share with us what are the opportunities to work with/for the European Parliament to bring about more peace.

This is a session you would not see anywhere else!

June 19th is designated as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Despite several United Nations Security Resolutions on the matter (see, e.g., UN Sec Res 1820, 1880, 1960 and 1325) that seek to put a stop to sexual violence in conflict, it has remained in use as a weapon of war and a means of controlling its victims.

Human trafficking has been linked to sexual violence both in conflict and non-conflict settings in that victims of sexual violence are more vulnerable to human trafficking. Despite the evidence to the context in which human trafficking happens and its link to sexual violence, there is limited effort to address this as a global issue, and as such it is dealt with in silos.

Through this session we will explore the issues of sexual violence in conflict and trafficking, using country case studies to illustrate differences in conflict and non-conflict settings, and lead a discussion on approaches to eliminating sexual violence in conflict as well as its link to human trafficking.

Session speakers:

• Juliet Adoch, from Uganda, is undertaking an MA International Relations and Security Studies. She has a long history working with community based organisations in conflict and post-conflict settings, and has a strong interest in refugee issues, transitional justice, and governance.

• Shannon Carter from the United States is undertaking a Masters of Project Planning. Shannon spent 31 months in Ukraine in an extended service for the US Peace Corps, working with youth through school development programs and deep involvement with RYLA Ukraine.

• Chris Pieper from the United States is undertaking an MA in Peace, Conflict, and Development. Chris has a background in law, serving as an attorney specialising in government and international law. He also has a background and deep interest in civil society and interfaith dialogue, having spent many years as a community leader within those fields.

• Maria Cristina Cifuentes from Columbia is undertaking an MA International Relations and Security Studies. Cristina has a varied background, having worked across government, policy, youth, and environment to name a few. Cristina is interested in positive peace, peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

• Jeeyoung Moon from South Korea is undertaking a Masters in Peace, Conflict and Development. Jee has a background working in community development settings in Rwanda and Vietnam, which solidified her interest in peacebuilding, refugee protection, humanitarian response and emergency relief.

• Peter Machieng Gaduel from South Sudan is undertaking an MA International Relations and Security Studies. Peter has worked with the UN Mission in South Sudan as an expert in the Protection of Civilians and aspart of multi-stakeholder solution working groups. Peter has an interest in R2P, arms control, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR).

• Eva Mackinley from Australia in undertaking an MA International Relations and Security Studies. Eva has worked with non-profits in the space of youth, climate, and international development, and in digital campaigning for social change with a focus on strategic communications.