The rector of the UB, Dr.
Dídac Ramírez, has chaired the closing ceremony, which has taken place in the Paranymph Hall of the University of Barcelona. The closing ceremony has also been attended by Katérina Stenou, the director of the Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue at the UNESCO;
Jordi Martí, from the Barcelona City Council; Joan Carles Garcia, from the Diputació de Barcelona; Joan Auladell, managing director of the Institutional Relations of the Catalan government; Jordi Cussó, president of the Letter of Peace addressed to the UN Foundation, and Dr. Carlos Gabriel Gómez Restrepo, rector of the La Salle University in Bogotá (Colombia), who will be in charge of organising the next edition of the Congress in Bogota, in 2014.
Throughout the ceremony, the conclusions of the 1st International Congress on Building Peace in the 21st century have been read, and the digital platform Dontknow, which enables to share knowledge on peace, has been presented by Rafael Mira Prieto-Moreno, its founder, and Maria Viñas, director of the Letter of Peace addressed to the UN Foundation. Finally, Dr. Francesc Torralba, president of the Scientific Committee of the Congress, has read the Barcelona Manifesto for Peace.
From 23 to 25 April the Congress on Building Peace in the 21st century has gathered in Barcelona 400 experts from different countries across the five continents, who have talked on the multiple initiatives carried out in different places around the world in order to build peace. Moreover, the Congress has offered an open discussion area for specialists on peace culture from around the world to share their reflections and contribute to world peace.
The Congress has gathered experts on peace, such as Manuel Reyes Mate, professor of Research at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC); John Paul Lederach, professor of International Peace Building at the Institute of International Studies at the University of Notre Dame (USA), and Enrique Dussel, professor at the Department of Philosophy at the UNAM in Mexico, among others. In the working sessions all of them have tackled the challenges of each key theme in which the congress was organised: historical memory, national identities, justice and social structures, mediation and the culture of peace, media and peace, and re-thinking democracy.
This research work is available at the
Congress blog, which is a meeting point between the academic world and the civil society; between reflection and action, in order to establish an effective dialogue which generates proposals on building peace.
