Nobel Peace Laureates to convene this month in Chicago

IPPNW will join more than 20 other Nobel Peace Prize recipients in Chicago on April 23 for this year’s World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. This will be the largest gathering of Peace Laureates in the history of these summits, which have taken place annually since 1999 under the auspices of the Gorbachev Foundation and the City of Rome to promote peace and global security.

Former US President Bill Clinton will deliver keynote remarks at the Chicago Summit, and will be joined on the program by former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, former US President Jimmy Carter, and Peace Laureates including Oscar Arias, Lech Walesa, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Jody Williams, and Muhammad Yunus.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese human rights activist and Peace Laureate who has recently won election to Burma’s parliament, will present video remarks during the Summit. Kerry Kennedy, President of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, will speak during an opening ceremony entitled “Speak Up, Speak Out for Freedom and Rights.”

IPPNW will participate in a panel to explore practical paths to a world without nuclear weapons on the final day of the three-day Summit. Ira Helfand will discuss the latest research on the climate effects of nuclear war; the impact on global agricultural production, food availability, and nutrition; and the urgency of working for a nuclear weapons convention. Co-president Vappu Taipale will also represent the federation in Chicago.

This year’s Nobel Laureates Summit is being organized by the Chicago Community Trust, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s Office of Protocol and International Relations, and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
 
World-renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz will be at the Summit on assignment from Vanity Fair magazine. Michaela Mycroft, the winner of the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011, will be awarded the Medal for Activism. Actor, film director, and activist Sean Penn will receive this year’s Peace Summit Award from President Gorbachev and Mairead Corrigan Maguire.

World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates