Rotary Club embarks on partnership

Registration for the major international event scheduled for May 2013 open last Thursday, which was International Day of Peace 2012.

The Rotary Global Peace Forum aims to contribute to reconciliation, learning and full-self expression for those committed to peacemaking and peacebuilding throughout the world. The event will be the culmination of Rotary International World President Sakuji Tanaka’s year of Peace Through Service, which includes three other Global Peace Forums in Berlin, Honolulu and Hiroshima.

The Forum will bring academics, political, business, community leaders and peace activists from around the world to venues across the city to explore making, building and embedding peace from a local and international perspective.

An integral part of the 2013 UK City of Culture programme, the Forum makes good on the promise to engage in a purposeful enquiry into our past, present and future.

Next year, 2013 is also the 400th anniversary of the granting of the city’s charter, the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the 90th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Londonderry and the 20th anniversary of the founding of INCORE at the University of Ulster.

“Our Club decided to celebrate its 90th anniversary and make a telling contribution to Rotary’s year of Peace Through Service’” said Gavin Killeen, President of the Rotary Club of Londonderry.

“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 1970s, 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 peacemaking and peacebuilding 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 conference, to be held in the Millennium Forum, will offer delegates the opportunity to learn about the Northern Ireland Peace Process. It will offer a unique opportunity to witness peacebuilding as it unfolds, with participation from many of those who have made, and continue to make, telling contributions to the Peace Process and the emerging reconciliation in and between Northern Ireland, Ireland, Britain and the rest of the world.

Contributions from UN personnel and places such as South Africa, South Sudan and the Basque Region will provide an international perspective.

The Rotary Global Peace Forum takes place from May 24 to 26. Register at www.rotaryglobalpeaceforumderry-londonderry.com