Rotary World Peace Scholars studying at The University of Queensland have recounted their experiences in war-torn countries such as Bosnia and Sierra Leone.
Nine overseas students, UQ’s first world peace graduates, presented their International Studies (peace and conflict resolution) research at Rydges Hotel at Southbank, Brisbane on Saturday, October 23.
They spoke of peacebuilding, war crimes, HIV Aids and global justice for the inaugural Paul Harris seminar– Resolving Conflicts and Building Sustainable Peace in the 21st Century.
Each scholar spent about three months in troubled countries, from Ethiopia to Bosnia working on peace and community projects for their Masters degree at the UQ Rotary Centre for International Studies.
Centre director and seminar organiser Dr Marianne Hanson said the conference allowed students to publicly present their views on peace and conflict.
“These are people who will shortly be completing their degrees and who will be going out in the world in November,” Dr Hanson said.
“Within a short time they should occupy positions of influence and make a difference to enhancing the chances of peace and social justice at a global level.
“Rotary International, like so many other organizations, is beginning to understand that peace studies is really vital and has to be supported because we’ve seen so much death and tragedy in the world.
“In the last century alone, 86 million civilians were killed in 250 conflicts. There’s a recognition that we should be trying to do things differently now.”
Each year Rotary, selects up to 70 World Peace Scholars’ to study at its peace centres.
Most of the Rotary students, such as Carolyn Fanelli and Amy Kay, drew on their time overseas.
Ms Fanelli, a 28-year-old American, worked for the Education for Peace group in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly with children through schools.
Another student, Amy Kay, spent much of her time working on HIV/AIDS community in Ethiopia and The Middle East.
In Ethiopia, she helped AIDS orphans through the community group Hope for Children and teamed up with a photographer who taught children how to use cameras to document their experiences and highlight the spread of the disease.
She also went to Cairo where she worked on a regional HIV/AIDS program for the United Nations covering 18 mainly Arab countries.
She was involved in speechwriting, marketing, editing and proposal writing but also in helping religious leaders to stem the spread of Aids related stigma and discrimination.
Ms Kay is now working with the Queensland AIDS Council to show an exhibit of the children`s work for Australian National AIDS Week at UQ’s St. Lucia campus.
The nine presenting scholars were:
Path Heang Impunity and its Affects on Reconciliation in Cambodia
Sofia Knoechel-Ledberg Chinese Nationalism - A Cause for Concern?
Matthew Bright Global Distributive Justice: The case of Mozambique
Carolyn Fanelli The International Community`s Approach to Education in Post-Conflict Societies: Is it Peacebuilding? The case of Bosnia
Ryan Hendy Barriers and Breakthroughs : A Comparative Analysis of Establishing a Positive Peace in Haiti and Sierra Leone
Rebecca Milligan The Roadmap to Nowhere? : Repeating Oslo’s Mistakes (the Israeli-Palestinian issue)
Amy Kay Representations of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Africa : The Power of Photography to Create and Break the Silence Surrounding HIV/AIDS
Christian Oakes Cambodia Assistance to Primary Education : A Case History of a Development Project
Francesca Del Mese The Trouble with Justice : An Analysis of the Demobilisation and Accountability of War Crimes Efforts in Sierra Leone
Media: contact Dr Hanson (phone: +61 07 3365 3112, email: m.hanson@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au)
