World Summit of Nobel Peace Prizes Winners in Bogotá
More than twenty nobel peace prize winners will attend tomorrow the World Summit of Nobel Peace Prizes that will take place in this capital and celebrate the end of the conflict with the FARC-EP, news broadcast reported today.
This is the first time that Latin America has hosted this annual meeting, held in different parts of the world since 1999.
Bogotá organized the meeting with six other cities, including Santiago de Chile and Mexico City.
The agreement reached between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) to end the long confrontation between both parties determined the selection of this Andean nation as host of the forum, the web site El Tiempo commented.
As the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Juan Manuel Santos, this is a recognition of the efforts to search for national reconciliation, the website added.
Personalities like Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú will present their experiences for four days in fields ranging from the fight against antipersonnel mines and nuclear weapons to the rights of children and women.
Participants will also discuss the need for dialogue and the role of youth and education in a transition period such as that of Colombia.
Ex presidents Jimmy Carter, from the United States; Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union; Oscar Arias of Costa Rica; Lech Walesa of Poland; And Frederik de Klerk of South Africa, among others, also confirmed their attendance.
In total there will be nine panels and most of the conversations and parallel initiatives will take place in the Corferia precinct.
According to the program, the Colombian leader will be in charge of inaugurating the summit.
On November 24, Santos and the leader of the FARC-EP, Timoleón Jiménez, signed the transcendental pact that opened the doors of the so-called post-conflict period.
It remains to initiate a similar negotiation process with the equally insurgent National Liberation Army, or ELN, to achieve a full detente scenario.
In December the occupant of the House of Nariño was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize, during the presentation of the distinction the organizing committee emphasized that one of its aspirations was to encourage the Colombian people to persevere in the negotiations for a political and definitive end to the on going internal war.
The conflagration has left some 300 000 dead people, almost seven million displaced from their homes of origin and at least 45 thousand missing.
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