Covid and conflicts: Rondine’s young people and the leaders of the world for a sustainable, just, and inclusive post-pandemic tomorrow

How to respond to the new conflicts generated by the Covid19 emergency at the global level? Is it possible to start building a sustainable, just, inclusive post-pandemic tomorrow barring further armed and social conflicts? These are the questions young people of Rondine Cittadella della Pace are about to ask a high-level group of national and international authorities, political and religious leaders, prominent names of culture, diplomacy, and the academic world.

They will do so during online event “Defusing new tensions. The post-pandemic world will need young Leaders of Peace” on 10 December 2020, from 4 to 5.30 pm (CET) live on the Facebook pages of Rondine International Peace Lab (EN) and Rondine (IT, live translation).

Exploring different approaches, views, and narratives, selected speakers will collaborate in elaborating a collective reflection around two keywords, Responsibility and Care. Each speaker has been asked to indicate a priority and to send a concrete wish, a proposal towards 2021 and a future of peace still to be written. Among confirmed speakers: H.H. Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople; Luigi Di Maio, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Secretary of State of the Holy See; H.E. Amb. Mariangela Zappia, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations in New York; H.E. Amb. Maritza Chan, Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations; Rotimi Olawale, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Youth Hub Africa, Nigeria; Enrico Letta, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) – SciencesPo; Pasquale Morano, Director-General of Italian Red Cross; Vanessa Nakate, International climate justice activist, Uganda; Franco Vaccari, President and founder of Rondine; Giorgi Gabedava, President of Rondine International Peace Lab, and current students of Rondine’s World House campus who will re-launch the Leaders for Peace campaign appeal to sensitize governments to the training of young peace leaders. Moreover, the event will represent an opportunity to learn about the projects and best practices implemented by bright Rondine alumni as a response to the Covid19 emergency in their communities. The event will be moderated by Valeria Robecco, President of the United Nations Correspondents Association.

The event is promoted by Rondine Cittadella della Pace and Rondine International Peace Lab under the global Leaders for Peace campaign, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nation, the United Nations Correspondents Association, under the patronage of the Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Italy, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Youth and Youth Hub Africa.

The campaign is supported by the Italian Bishop’s Conference and Fondation Assistance Internationale (FAI).

On 10 December, the historic anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and exactly two years after the launch of the global Leaders for Peace campaign at the United Nations in New York, Rondine once again makes its Method and the activism of its young people available to youth-led peace-building, at the service of conflicts to be defused. Conflicts that the pandemic seems to have dangerously brought back to the international scene, with a concrete risk for many of the social and peace progresses reached globally in recent years to be called into question. An arduous challenge that opens the third and final year of the Leaders for Peace campaign by directly addressing the fear of sudden changes in growth and geopolitical scenarios, and the emergence of new hostilities. Nonetheless, targeting the growing and accelerated worsening of inequalities capable of re-igniting previous social and economic conflicts that were left dormant or hitherto moderated by collective development efforts.

As a symbolic date: 10 December 2020 will indeed mark, in addition to the anniversary of the human rights charter, the fifth anniversary of the UNSC unanimous adoption of Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security as proposed by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 global development goals, the Paris Agreement on mitigating climate change, the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Sì followed today by the new encyclical Fratelli Tutti, as well as twentieth anniversary of UNSC resolution 1325 on the role of women in peacebuilding.

The event is promoted by Rondine Cittadella della Pace in collaboration with Rondine International Peace Lab under the global Leaders for Peace campaign. The campaign is supported by the Italian Bishop’s Conference and Fondation Assistance Internationale (FAI).

The global Leaders for Peace campaign. In December 2018, on the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, current and former students of Rondine Cittadella della Pace launched an appeal to all countries, asking them to take a first step on the global topic of human rights. With the “Leaders for Peace” campaign, Rondine calls each of the 193 member states of the United Nations to provide training for new global peace leaders and to extend Human Rights education in their educational systems, integrating them with the results of the Rondine Method. Finally, for those countries that will be available to do so, to dedicate a symbolic contribution from their defense budget to directly provide for the training of these new peace leaders, individuals capable of promoting peaceful policies and the development of pacified social relations. Following two international events held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City (USA) in 2018 and 2019 and numerous other international events and initiatives (including online events), the campaign gained the moral support of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, Pope Francis, the formal commitment of Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the Republic of Costa Rica, the Presidency of the European Economic and Social Committee, Mayors and cities. The first follow-up event in 2019 has been organized in partnership with the Permanent Missions of Italy, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Sierra Leone and the European Union to the United Nations.