Hi °C | Lo °C Peace activists from across the world are to attend a conference in Londonderry during the City of Culture year.
The local branch of the Rotary Club is partnering the University of Ulster’s INCORE peace and conflict research institute to host the Rotary Global Peace Forum in May 2013.
Registration for the major international event opened this week to coincide with International Day of Peace 2012.
The Rotary Global Peace Forum aims to build on reconciliation and learning among those committed to peace-making and peace-building throughout the world.
The conference, in the Millennium Forum, will offer delegates the opportunity to learn about the Northern Ireland Peace Process.
Contributions will be made by officials from the United Nations and others from South Africa, South Sudan and the Basque region.
The event will be the culmination of Rotary International world president Sakuji Tanaka’s Year of Peace Through Service.
Three other global forums will precede the main event in Derry and will take place in Berlin, Honolulu and Hiroshima.
International politicians, business and community leaders will also be taking part.
Billed as an integral part of the City of Culture programme, the forum is aimed at making good on the 2013 bid promise to “engage in a purposeful inquiry into our past, present and future” during 2013.
Next year will mark the 400th anniversary of the granting of the Derry’s Royal charter and the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
It will also be the 90th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Londonderry being founded and the 20th anniversary of the founding of INCORE at the University of Ulster.
Gavin Killeen, president of the Rotary Club of Londonderry, said: “Our club decided to celebrate its 90th anniversary and make a telling contribution to Rotary’s Year of Peace Through Service.
“We teamed up with INCORE, an international centre of excellence for peace and conflict studies, and the University of Ulster which has pioneered practice-based learning in conflict and developed a global network of peacebuilders since the 1970’s.
“The aim was to design a stimulating programme which will attract Rotarians and friends from across the globe to the city in May 2013.”
Professor Brandon Hamber, director of INCORE, said: “There is much to learn from the Northern Ireland peace process, but also some way to go in terms of embedding a sustainable peace.
“INCORE and the Rotary Club of Londonderry have jointly developed a programme which provides delegates with a unique opportunity to learn from peace-making and peace-building initiatives from around the world, in a city shaped by periods of conflict, reconciliation and, now, regeneration.
“Both organisations are uniquely placed, in a society emerging from conflict, to inform this dynamic and significant Rotary Global Peace Forum.”
The Rotary Global Peace Forum takes place from May 24 to 26, 2013.
People can now register to attend at www.rotaryglobalpeaceforumderry-londonderry.com
