Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, will be in Louvain-la-Neuve on 17-19 November. She will facilitate the second PeaceJam Belgium conference. An inaugural academic session open to all will take place on Friday 17 November at 4:00 pm.
Created in the United States in 1996, the PeaceJam Foundation brings together 14 Nobel Peace Prize laureates who joined forces to share their experience with youths all over the world and encourage them to take action in pursuit of peace.
PeaceJam’s work revolves around annual conferences in every country where it is established. The conferences are in reality large, festive social gatherings that take place over a weekend. Several hundred youths aged from 14 to 18 are supervised by one of the foundation’s Nobel Peace Prize laureates and by university student mentors. Each year, a new cohort of ‘peacebuilders’ is formed.
During the weekend of 18-19 November, in Louvain-la-Neuve, UCL hosts Belgium’s second PeaceJam conference. The first took place last year in Brussels, organised by ULB (the two other PeaceJam Belgium partner universities are KULeuven and VUB). At UCL, the conference is organised by the Chair for the Democracy, Cultures and Action Fund with the assistance of the Louvain Student General Assembly (AGL) and several kots-à-projet (theme-based student flats).
The weekend is preceded by an inaugural session during which Shirin Ebadi will speak, accompanied by Philippe Hensmans, Director of Amnesty International Belgium, and Alexis Deswaef, President of the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (the French Community of Belgium’s ‘Human Rights League’). UCL Rector Vincent Blondel, authorities of the four partner universities and PeaceJam Co-Founder Dawn Engel will also speak. The session is open to all but registration is required.