In times of terrible wars, Barcelona will host the International Peace Forum on the next 23 and 24 days with the participation of around 200 speakers from different disciplines and under the organization of the Schengen Peace Foundation. The event has the involvement of institutions from very diverse fields, such as the University of Barcelona, Foment del Treball, the Conservatori del Liceu foundation, Casa Asia, Pymec, the Catalan International Institute for Peace, the Philippe Costeau foundation, the Col. Legi Oficial d'Arquitectes de Catalunya or the Royal Artistic Circle, among others.
The forum will start on Thursday the 23rd at the University of Barcelona with a session on the Global Peace Index (GPI) by Michael Collins, executive director for the Americas of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). . One of the missions of the IEP is to develop the GPI each year using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators, while measuring the state of peace based on the degree of militarization, the scope of national conflicts and the level of social security. The GPI places Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Russia, Ukraine, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Mali and the Central African Republic among the countries hardest hit by fighting. It should be noted that the report was presented last summer before the war between Israel and Gaza broke out.
At the opposite end of the list are Iceland, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Austria, Singapore, Portugal, Slovenia, Japan and Switzerland. Spain occupies position 32, the same as the previous year. Unfortunately, the 2023 GPI corroborates “that the world has become less peaceful for the thirteenth time in the last 15 years, with a decline of an average of 0.42% in the level of peace.”
“We want it to be a transversal, multidisciplinary congress, with people who are not usually given the opportunity to talk about peace in public institutions,” the organization highlights. Along with representatives of NGOs for development cooperation and assistance to refugees and human rights defenders, scientists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, architects, playwrights, musicians, sports managers, artists, journalists, activists or politicians, among other groups, will participate.
The round tables will be combined with workshops, documentaries and concerts, such as the one offered at the Liceu by the Colombian musician César López, founder of the Immediate Artistic Reaction Battalion, an initiative that seeks alternatives to violence.
In the absence of the definitive closure of the program and last-minute changes, the organizers are planning sessions that will address the role of music as a tool to contribute to overcoming armed conflicts; migration from personal experiences; peace processes in Africa through culture and entrepreneurship; the protection of the oceans, or the situation of women in Afghanistan. This last round table will feature Sunita Nasir Tareen, civil engineer, former UN official and president of the Association of Afghan Women in Spain, and the writer and activist Nadia Ghulam, who for ten years posed as her deceased brother. in order to work.
Other notable participants are Francisco Rojas, rector of the UN University for Peace; the director of the Global Humanity for Peace Institute, Scherto Gill; Ramin Jahanbegloo, Iranian philosopher and politician, or Ouided Bouchamaoui, member of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2015.
