Nobel Laureate Helps Announce Institute’s 2011 World Youth Peace Summit
The evening of April 18 will go down as one of the most important nights in Institute for International Sport history. An overflow crowd at the Rhode Island Convention Center heard Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and Institute for International Sport Founder and Executive Director Dan Doyle announce the Institute’s long-planned 2011 World Youth Peace Summit.
In a brilliant and moving speech that touched the minds and hearts of all in attendance, Professor Wiesel began by offering his high praise to the Institute: “I am for any initiative for peace – even more so if its sights are set on young people. Dan Doyle and the Institute for International Sport, with its Scholar-Athlete Games and forthcoming summit, are creatively working to turn the hope for peace into reality.”
Following his speech theme of “The Role of Youth in World Peace” to perfection, the Nobel Laureate committed his full support to the Institute’s planned Summit, stating, “And I will be there with you at this great 2011 Peace program…God willing.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch, who, 15 years ago, served with great distinction in the Institute’s acclaimed Belfast United program, introduced Dan Doyle, who announced the 2011 World Youth Peace Summit by stating “When Attorney General Lynch worked with me on the Belfast United Program in Northern Ireland, a common theme of that program was ‘the chipping effect’. The idea was to use sports and the arts as mediums to chip away at the hatred and prejudice that had so overwhelmed that region for centuries.
“When we saw the powerful and positive effects of Belfast United on Catholic and Protestant youth, we decided to create the World Scholar-Athlete Games. We had in mind a program with a similar objective- in this case, a worldwide program that would chip away at the many impediments to world peace- from poverty to religious division.
“If you look at the profile of the thousands of graduates of the Scholar-Athlete Games, going back to our first event in 1993, you will see in the group some of the most able young leaders in the world. Many have already launched into extraordinary careers- educators, physicians, elected officials, and a number of social entrepreneurs who have started their own foundations. In 2011, we will ask this group, as well as thousands more nominated through our partnership with the United Nations, to design practical solutions to those obstacles that impede world peace; we will also ask them to leave the Summit as true peace brokers.
“No citizen of the world is more qualified to help us announce this event than our very special guest, Elie Wiesel.”
Keep an eye on the Institute’s Website for many announcements on what Attorney General Lynch called “one of the most visionary youth programs directed at peace ever conceived.”
About the 2011 World Youth Peace Summit
The Institute’s World Youth Peace Summit will bring together thousands of graduates of past Scholar-Athlete Games, as well as representatives from the United Nations member-states, for five extraordinary days of in-depth discussion on the challenges of achieving lasting world peace. Participants will be asked to design practical solutions to the obstacles that impede world peace, and will leave the event as designated “peace brokers.” Topics for discussion will include religious differences, the challenges of technology, and poverty. Participants will be expected to engage in in-depth study of these and other issues in advance, and all participants will be challenged to use their considerable intelligence, imagination and leadership skills to design lasting solutions to these problems.
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