Twenty-six Nobel Peace Laureates from around the world will participate in the first-ever summit to be held in Latin America of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates 2017 and Bogotá the chosen city.
Organized by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce (CCB) and the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, this 16th edition takes place February 2-5 at the Corferias Exhibition Grounds and where the Laureates will share their experiences as world leaders in reconciliation and peace building. Other iconic cities that have hosted this event are Hiroshima, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris and Chicago.
A dozen entities will share their experiences with post-conflict scenarios, addressing issues such as the search for a non-conventional weapons ban, social development, climate change mitigation, and the defense of Human Rights and child protection, among others. The entities that have confirmed are UNICEF, the Institute of International Law, the International Peace Bureau, the American Friends Service Committee and International Association of Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines,
Among the Peace Laureates who have confirmed are the former President of Poland Lech Walesa; Yemeni Human Rights campaigner Tawakkul Karman; antipersonnel mine activist Jody Williams; Guatemala’s Rigoberta Menchú; Egyptian diplomat Mohamed El-Baradei; Indian children’s rights advocate Kailash Satyarthi.
Mónica de Greiff, Executive President of the Chamber of Commerce believes that “having such a distinguished group of Laureates will make the Bogota Summit a unique opportunity for the international community to reflect on the problems that affect us as a society”. De Greiff has also emphasized that with a record number of Nobel Peace Prize winners confirmed, next month’s meeting now ranks as the most attended by Laureates in the history of the summit, which began in Rome in 1999 thanks to an initiative by the former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev.
The summit is also emerging as an event of profound importance to the world, both for the attendance of Laureates, as well as the special moment that surrounds its realization in Colombia – country of origin of the 2016 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Juan Manuel Santos, and who last year ratified a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces to Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, and four years of talks in Havana, and that ended one of the longest-running conflicts in the world.
The Summit is a free event and registration is open for those interested in attending. The event will take place in the Great Hall of Corferias and registration is also free by entering the CCB’s website (www.ccb.org.co) or the Summit’s official website (www.bogota-nobelpeacesummit.com).
