The Vancouver Peace Summit: Nobel Laureates in Dialogue, will include a series of dialogues focussing on the themes of peace, education, creativity and well-being, and women and peace-building.
Joining the Dalai Lama will be six Nobel laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, and Mairead Maguire. Other luminaries include former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, musician and activist Sir Bob Geldoff, and Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada.
“We have a very historic gathering of very interesting people. I don’t think Canada has ever seen six Nobel laureates together in one place,” says Victor Chan who, along with the Dalai Lama, co-founded the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, the host of the summit.
Governor General Michaëlle Jean will open the summit, at which time the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu will be awarded the inaugural presentation of the Fetzer Institute Prize for Love and Forgiveness. The Tibetan Children’s Ensemble will perform at the opening.
Most of the dialogues, which will take place at the the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and the Orpheum Theatre, are open to the public and many events will be live-streamed on CTV National News.
A key theme of the summit will be education, says Chan, “which balances the idea of educating the mind, cognitive and intellectual advancement, as well as increasing and fostering social and emotional competency.”
The theme “Connecting for Change” is an invitation-only dialogue with the Dalai Lama focusing on how people from a broad spectrum of sectors can work together to bring about change for the common good.
“World Peace through Personal Peace” features a conversation between the Dalai Lama, Bishop Tutu, Governor General Jean, spiritual writer Eckhart Tolle, and Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, dubbed the “world’s happiest person” by scientists.
Chan however stresses that the dialogues won’t be all talk and no action. He expects real and concrete results from the summit.
“We’re hoping that, at the end of the day, it is not just a talk-fest—a lot of talking heads standing on their soap boxes—but that they actually inspire people to action to make a tangible contribution that is evidence-based, results-oriented, and saleable,” he said.
“All this is very wrapped up in the idea of promoting compassionate action.”
Indeed, the approximately 25 summit participants have all in one way or another been instrumental in effecting positive change through their own personal endeavours.
Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self Employed Women’s Association in India—a trade union benefiting the poor that has more than a million members—is recognized as one of the world’s most remarkable pioneers in grassroots development.
Bishop Tutu was instrumental in bringing an end to apartheid in South Africa. Mairead Maguire co-founded Peace People in Northern Ireland after her three nieces were killed by an IRA getaway car whose driver was shot by a British soldier.
Maguire and Betty Williams, co-recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for their work to end violence in Northern Ireland, will participate in the “Women and Peace Building” dialogue.
Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace prize for her work to ban land mines, former Roman Catholic nun Karen Armstrong is considered a powerful voice for ecumenical understanding, while Swanee Hunt works to achieve gender parity with a view to alleviating poverty and human suffering.
The lineup also includes Maria Shriver, First Lady of California and chair of the Special Olympics, Daphne Foundation founder Abigail Disney of the famous Hollywood Disney family, Warren Buffet’s son Peter Buffet, and author Stephen Covey, named by Time magazine as one of America’s 25 most influential people.
“These people have, over the years, impacted the lives of millions of people,” says Chan.
Entertainers will include the Blue Man Group, a theatre group that .has productions running in several U.S. states as well as in Tokyo, Berlin, and Basel, and Mario Frangulas, a tenor from Greece.
In collaboration with Free The Children, the Dalai Lama Center also hosts “We Day Vancouver,” a special peace summit program at GM Place for 16,000 students from British Columbia schools. Participants include the Dalai Lama, primatologist Jane Goodall, and human rights activist Mia Farrow.
The peace summit will run from Sunday Sept. 27 to Tuesday Sept. 29. For more information visit www.dalailamacenter.org .