RI President Stephanie Urchick to host the special event with the theme ‘Healing in a Divided World’
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At a time when conflict, inequality, and displacement have put many communities in crisis, pursuing a commitment to peace is challenging. That doesn’t deter RI President Stephanie Urchick and other Rotary members who are organizing a presidential peace conference for early next year.
“Rotary is an organization founded on the principle of advancing world understanding, goodwill, and peace. It is our responsibility to promote peace,” says Urchick, who has made this topic a focus of her presidency. “I am expecting the conference will help showcase Rotary’s role in peacebuilding.”
The event, with the theme “Healing in a Divided World,” will occur 20-22 February at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel & Conference Center in Türkiye. It will build on Rotary’s contributions to promoting peace and explore how to reduce polarization in communities, technology’s role in peace and development, how peace and environmental issues intersect, and opportunities to create sustainable peace.
“The idea of a conference dedicated to healing in our divided world holds significant promise,” says conference planning committee chair Şafak Alpay, a member of the Rotary Club of Istanbul-Sisli and a past director of Rotary International. “I hope that through its workshops, panels, success stories, and interactive sessions, the conference will serve its theme. This exchange of knowledge can inspire participants and provide practical guidance for implementing strategies for peace in their regions.”
The conference will also highlight the new Otto and Fran Walter Rotary Peace Center at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, one of seven Rotary Peace Centers around the globe. The center launched in February 2024 and will welcome its first class of fellows in early 2025, just in time for the conference.
“The first group of Rotary Peace Fellows at Bahçeşehir will be joining us during the peace conference to learn more about Rotary’s peacebuilding programs and share their experiences with us,” says Murat Çelik, a member of the Rotary Club of Istanbul-Sisli and the conference’s host organization chair.
Participants at the conference will discuss current issues and ways to create more peaceful, inclusive and resilient communities. Because peacebuilding and conflict prevention is among Rotary’s areas of focus, many other people throughout the organization can bring their perspectives to the conversation.
“We expect a variety of peacebuilding stakeholders, including our partners, trustees, and directors; some of the 1,800 peace center alumni; members of our Rotary Action Group for Peace; and others with an interest in advancing peace,” Urchick says. She adds that she’s eager to meet the new center’s first group of peace fellows after being inspired by the scholars she’s encountered at other peace centers.
“What was incredible to me was being able to attend an annual seminar at the Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Center to hear the fellows present their research,” Urchick says. “I was so impressed listening to the ways these peace fellows were planning to take what they learned back to their communities or organizations, to create and promote peace.”
In addition to addressing many topics related to peacebuilding, conference participants will have the opportunity to attend local events organized by the host committee. Çelik says the gathering may even expand and enhance the definition of peace itself.
“The topics discussed during the conference will give us new perspectives and new challenges on how to make the world a better place to live,” he says. “I love one definition of peace and try to use it on every occasion: Peace is not only the absence of hostility and violence or the lack of war, but it is the quality of life.”
Conference sessions will promote approaches to conflict resolution that are based on empathy and critical thinking. With these skills, Alpay says, current and future generations can find ways to resolve disputes without violence.
Another essential element of the peacebuilder’s work, he adds, is hope: “I believe hope is a powerful force that drives action and inspires change.”
Learn more about the conference and register to attend.
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— July 2024