Rotary Day at the United Nations pushes peace from concept to reality
On the 99th anniversary of the end of World War I, more than 1,200 people gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, for Rotary Day at the United Nations.
Representing 87 countries, they convened on Saturday, 11 November, at the Palais des Nations, originally the home of the League of Nations, and dedicated themselves to the theme enunciated by Rotary President Ian H. S. Riseley: “Peace: Making a Difference.”
View Slideshow Rotary International honors six champions of peace at the United Nations on 11 November.
“The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace have always been among Rotary’s primary goals,” said Riseley. “It is past time for all of us to recognize the potential of all of our Rotary service to build peace, and approach that service with peacebuilding in mind.”
For the first time in its 13-year history, Rotary Day at the UN was held outside of New York.
Rotary Day culminated Geneva Peace Week, during which John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International, noted the “close and longstanding ties between Rotary and the UN in (their) mutual pursuit of peace and international understanding.”
Rotary members “can transform a concept like peace to a reality through service,” said Ed Futa, dean of the Rotary Representative Network. “Peace needs to be lived rather than preached.”
As a highlight of Rotary Day, Hewko introduced Rotary’s 2017 People of Action: Champions of Peace award winners. He praised them as “an embodiment of the range and impact of our organization’s work,” and saluted them for providing “a roadmap for what more peaceful, resilient societies look like.”
Rotary honored six individuals, who each made brief remarks. They were:
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Alejandro Reyes Lozano, Rotary Club of Bogatá Capital, Colombia: “Part of the generation that grew up with uncertainty and fear,” as he put it, Reyes Lozano played a key role in negotiating an end to the 50-year conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). With a Rotary Global Grant, he’s now leading peacebuilding efforts among women from six Latin American countries.
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Jean Best, Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright, Scotland, UK: “Without peace within ourselves we will never advance global peace,” said Best, explaining The Peace Project, the program she created to “the future leaders of peace” develop the skills they need to resolve the conflicts in their lives.
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Safina Rahman, Rotary Club of Dhaka Mahanagar, Bangladesh: “Education is a powerful and transformative vehicle for peace,” said Rahman, a passionate advocate for workers’ rights and workplace safety who also promotes and provides educational and vocational opportunities for girls.
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Ann Frisch, Rotary Club of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA: Frisch’s Civilian-Based Peace Process introduced the radical concept of “unarmed civilian protection” in war zones around the world. “Sustainable peace,” she said, “requires strong civilian engagement.”
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Kiran Singh Sirah, Rotary Peace Fellow: The president of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, USA, Sirah uses stories to help encourage peace, nurture empathy, and build a sense of community. “Stories matter—and I believe they matter a lot,” he said.
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Taylor Cass Talbot, Peace Fellow: Currently based in Portland, Oregon, USA, Cass Talbot partnered with SWaCH, a waste-picker cooperative in India to form Pushing for Peace, which promotes safety, sanitation, and dignity for waste pickers in Pune, India. Her ardent advocacy also manifests an artistic flair: her weighty but whimsical Live Debris project creatively addresses issues of waste and exclusion on a global scale.
The six peace honorees joined a stellar panel of speakers and experts in workshops devoted to sustainability and peace, as well as a workshop on education, science, and peace designed by and for young leaders in which Rotaract members from around the world played a prominent role.
Dr. Michel Zaffran, the director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization, joined Her Excellency Mitsuko Shino, the deputy head of the permanent mission of Japan in Geneva and co-chair for the Polio Partners Group, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, to provide an update on efforts to eradicate polio. They noted the tremendous progress made by Rotary, WHO, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners in eliminating 99 percent of all global incidences of polio.
Returning the focus to peace, Zaffran sounded a positive note. “This same international relationship (that’s eradicating polio),” he said, “can be used to achieve world peace.”
In his keynote address, Riseley made a similar observation. “The work of polio eradication, has taught us . . . that when you have enough people working together; when you understand the problems and the processes; when you combine and leverage your resources; when you set a plan and set your targets — you can indeed move mountains,” he said. “And the need for action, and cooperation, is greater now than ever before.”
https://www.rotary.org/en/peace-focus-rotary-day-un