History

About the 24-hour Global Peace Conference

It was a time of great upheaval. The events of 2019 and 2020 – Australian bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic recessions, and the Black Lives Matter marches – brought home the fact that our lives are intricately and intimately woven together. 

This upheaval prompted us, Rotary Peace Fellows from around the world, to reconsider what this meant for us as peacebuilders. What does a world grounded in peace look like? How can we galvanise our differences to work for the greater good? Who must we listen to if we are to work towards building a world where everyone is respected and able to flourish? 

Guided by a desire to enable more social connection and collaboration during a time of social isolation, the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association (RPFAA) launched its inaugural peace conference on 27 June 2020, with  three goals in mind:

• To promote the Rotary Peace Fellowship, highlight, connect and support the work of peace fellows;

• To build inclusive peace partnerships around the world;

• To co-create spaces where people can come together to inform, collaborate, and bring action to peacebuilding and the end of violent conflict.

The 2020 conference

From the far corners of the Pacific to the urban cities of Asia, the inaugural conference was arguably the biggest gathering of peacebuilders with the widest global reach. Launched with the objective of building local capacities through practical skill-building workshops, and putting the spotlight on peacebuilders from diverse backgrounds, Global Peace Conference in 2020 became an established event in the Rotary Peace Fellows and Peacebuilders' community, providing them with great visibility in global and regional communities. It drew over 1500 participants and featured 75+ hours of peacebuilding content. Notable speakers included:

• John Paul Lederach (internationally renowned peacebuilder and author of The Moral Imagination)

• Holger Knaack (2020-21 Rotary International President);

• Irene Santiago (Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Executive Director of the historical NGO Forum on Women in China in 1995); 

• Senator Penny Wong (Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Senate and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs);

• John Charles Bryan Barnes MBE, (legendary Jamaican-born English international former professional footballer, manager, pundit, and the Show Racism the Red Card activist);

• Yasmin Sooka (Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan to the Human Rights Council); 

• Uzra Zeya (CEO and President of Alliance for Peacebuilding);

• Hafsat Abiola (President of Women in Africa Initiative);

• Edward Wageni (Global Head, HeForShe Initiative, UN Women);

• Arnoldas Prankevicius (Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs of Lithuania);

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

• Ramzi Aburedwan (Palestinian musician and composer);

……and many many more!

Where to now?

Building on this momentum, our 2023 Global Peace Conference promises to be an exciting, interactive convergence of thought-provokers, peacebuilders and everyday people building peace in their spheres of influence. 

The event will be a convergence of:

• Over 1,500 participants

• 400 experts

• 140 break out room facilitators

• 50 panel sessions and workshops

• 75 hours of content on issues

...all within 24 hours!

We are giving the platform to young people making a difference in big and small ways. We are learning from indigenous communities on how they resolve conflict and work through modern-day issues. We are collaborating with artists, musicians and performers on how to shape minds and soften hearts during seemingly irreconcilable conflicts. And pushing the boundaries of innovation even further, we are dialoguing with tech-entrepreneurs on how to translate peacebuilding frameworks into business strategies.