The Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Greg Urwin, delivered the keynote address for the international conference on Peace, Justice and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific Region at The University of Queensland on Thursday March 31.
Mr Urwin spoke on Challenges to Peace in the Pacific. His address can be heard here.
The keynote address followed the official launch of UQ’s Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies by Queensland Governor, Ms Quentin Bryce, AC, and The University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Hay, AC. Speakers also included Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Professor Linda Rosenman; Ms Lilla Watson, Member, UQ Senate; and Professor Kevin Clements.Their speeches can be heard
here.
The Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies - the only Centre in Australia to bring together peace and conflict studies, international politics and development, alternative dispute resolution, mediation and law - is hosting the conference.
The official launch and the keynote address were held in the UQ Centre, Building 27A, Union Road, St Lucia campus.
The conference will continue from April 1-3 at The Bardon Centre, 390 Simpson Road, Bardon.
Conference highlights will include:
• International political economist Richard Friman, of Marquette University, discussing how globalisation fuels both legitimate and illegitimate business.
• Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty on challenges to peace and justice in the region, and the role of the AFP in peacekeeping and maintaining law and order.
• Honourable Justice Sir Albert Palmer, Chief Justice of the High Court of the Solomon Islands, speaking on customary versus introduced law in the settlement of land disputes within the Pacific.
• A roundtable on a draft Pacific Charter on Human Rights and a plenary session featuring traditional Pacific leaders talking to Australians.
• A session on post-conflict reconciliation in the Asia Pacific region with a major focus on post-Suharto Indonesia.
• A session on the flows of small arms and light weapons in the region, which will examine gun running in Papua New Guinea and small arms weapons collections in the Solomon Islands and Cambodia.
• Speakers on post-conflict reconstruction in Timor and the Solomon Islands.
• A Solomon Island’s critique of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and a response from the current Special Coordinator James Bately.
• Women, peace building and community engagement.
• A session on the prospects for peace in Nepal, Fiji and New Caledonia.
• A plenary session on the state and violence in the Asia Pacific region.
For further information about the conference or the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies visit www.uq.edu.au/acpacs
For further information: contact Lorann Downer, Deputy Director, Office of Marketing and Communications, The University of Queensland 07 3365 1088 or 0413 458 317.
