"Hands Across the Divide"  in Northern Ireland

The Twelfth Annual Peace Prize Forum features peacemakers John Hume and David Trimble as two of our main speakers. Mr. Hume and Mr. Trimble are two of the architects of the Good Friday Peace Accord in Northern Ireland and are the winners of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize. 

Peace Prize Forum 2000: Striving for Peace: Risk and Reconciliation, is based upon the works and efforts on their path to peace, and on the works of other peacemakers worldwide, will encourage dialog on modern ethnic conflicts. It will be focusing upon the conflict in Northern Ireland, and the processes of reaching peaceful solutions to these ethnic conflicts. Though the focus is on Northern Ireland, the context will also include conflicts from other global ethnic conflicts, from the Middle East struggles to the wars in Kosovo and into Africa and Asia.

The goals of this year's Peace Prize Forum will be presented through Plenary Sessions and Seminars at which the speakers and presenters will challenge participants to consider the issues of wars within national borders, by looking at the roots of ethnic and partisan hostility; the issues of religion and peace, particularly the risks that religious belief calls individuals to assume; and strategies for peace, both personal and political, that provide every person with an arena for action.
 
 

Keynote Speakers

David Trimble
1998 Nobel co-laureate
(Saturday Morning)

David Trimble showed great political courage when, at a critical stage of the peace process, he advocated solutions which led to the peace agreement. By virtue of his position as the leader of the traditionally predominant party in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist party, Trimble is the First Minister of the new government. In this role, he has taken the first steps towards building up the mutual confidence on which a lasting peace must be based.

Read Mr. Trimble's Nobel Lecture    |    Hear Mr. Trimble's  Plenary Address

Denis Haughey
Speaking on Behalf of Nobel co-laureate John Hume
(Saturday Morning)

Denis Haughey, Junior Minister in the Office of First and Deputy First Minister, is one of the founder members of the SDLP and party chairman for five of the most formative years of the party's history. He was a senior member of the SDLP negotiating team in the recent talks and a member of the drafting team which wrote all of the basic SDLP documents laying the basis for the agreement.

Hear Mr. Haughey's Plenary Address

Paul Arthur
(Friday Afternoon)

Paul Arthur teaches politics at the University of Ulster and is a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. Born and raised in Derry, Arthur has been actively involved in the politics of Northern Ireland since the 1960s. He is the author of four books and dozens of articles on the conflict and has organized conferences bringing together politicians from across the political spectrum in Northern Ireland.

Sissela Bok
(Saturday Afternoon)

Bok, an associate of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, is well known for her writing and advocacy for peacemaking at all levels. About her writing in Strategy for Peace: Human Values and the Threat of War, she says her goal is "to propose steps toward a secure and lasting peace that are practical, non-Utopian, and in keeping with widely shared human values." At Peace Prize Forum 2000 she will discuss bringing ethics to bear on public policy.

Excerpts from A Strategy for Peace

J Bryan Hehir
(Friday Evening)

As Professor of the Practice in Religion and Society at Harvard Divinity School and Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Hehir is known for his scholarly writing and action regarding ethics and international politics. Hehir will specifically address the dynamics of religious belief in national conflicts and their resolution.

Janet and John Wallach
Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows
(Saturday Afternoon)

In 1987, in the midst of the intifada, the Palestinian uprising, John and Janet Wallach spent six months living in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. The results of their interviews and experiences led them to co-author three books on Arab/Israeli conflicts. Before that, they co-produced the PBS documentary, "Israel and the Palestinians: Will Reason Prevail?" 

Janet Wallach is the author of seven books. A journalist and biographer, she has written extensively about the Middle East. She is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post Magazine and other periodicals. She is a founding board member of Seeds of Peace.

John Wallach is the founder and president of Seeds of Peace, an internationally recognized conflict resolution program. An award-winning author and journalist, he serves as program director of The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. 

John and Janet Wallach’s appearance at St. Olaf College is made possible through the auspicies of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.