Rotary focuses on global peace at Istanbul conference
Building peace requires thoughtful, sustained efforts and meaningful partnerships,” said RI President Stephanie Urchick, speaking at the Presidential Peace Conference in Istanbul. Held from Feb 20–22, the event centred on Healing in a Divided World.
In her opening address, Stephanie described the dedication required for true healing to take place. “Our time together here is a testament to our shared belief in the power of peacebuilding. The act of healing in a divided world is not something we can achieve quickly or easily. It takes an intentional commitment over time. Peace is not just an ideal to which we aspire, it’s a responsibility we must actively pursue,” she said.
The conference marked the launch of Rotary’s eighth Peace Center — the Otto and Fran Walter Rotary Peace Center at the Bahcesehir University in Istanbul. This is the first centre dedicated to peacebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, offering a professional development certificate in Positive Peace.
Peace is not just an ideal to which we aspire, it’s a responsibility we must actively pursue.
— Stephanie Urchick, RI President
The RI President acknowledged the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation’s historic $15.5 million gift that made the centre possible. She also recognised TRF Trustee Marty Helman, who, along with her late husband Frank, managed the foundation, and served on the search committee that chose Bahcesehir University.
“Thanks to its collaboration with the United Nations, our Peace Fellows will receive high-level training in sustainable peace leadership. Working alongside UN experts, they will contribute to global efforts advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. In a world often divided by conflict and despair, the launch of this Peace Center is proof of what we can achieve when we come together with hope, purpose and resolve,” she said.
Each year, Rotary awards up to 130 fully funded fellowships for peace and development leaders to study at its seven Peace Centers. Since 2002, more than 1,800 peace fellows from over 140 countries have been trained for leadership roles in governments, NGOs and international organisations.
Rotary Peace Fellowship applications for the 2026–27 academic year will be open until May 15, 2025. For more details refer https://on.rotary.org/3J6sYLP
A key session explored how technology can both support and threaten peace efforts. Experts discussed artificial intelligence, the role of technology in peacebuilding, and the growing challenge of misinformation.
Sheldon Himelfarb, an award-winning filmmaker and the founder of PeaceTech Lab, called for peacebuilders to forge a global response to misinformation. “Misinformation is becoming an existential threat on par with war, pandemics and climate change. But every day, more people are working on solutions and developing tools for fact-checking, content labelling, media literacy programmes and AI for peacebuilding,” he said.
Climate change and conflict
Environmental issues were another major focus at this conference. Nada El Agizy, president of the Rotary E-Club of Egy-International and director of Sustainable Development and International Cooperation at the League of Arab States, highlighted the unique risks faced by the MENA region. “Climate change is one of the most significant challenges the Arab states have ever faced. This region is a climate-change hotspot, highly vulnerable to the devastating effects of global warming,” she said.
Freddy Mutanguha, a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi (an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region), spoke about the genocide’s impact, his role in developing peace education programmes in Rwanda, which are now part of the national school curriculum, and the importance of forgiveness in reconciliation.
Other notable speakers included PRIP K R Ravindran; TRF Trustee Chair Mark Maloney; RI general secretary John Hewko; Elizabeth Spehar, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support; Kumi Naidoo, South African Human Rights and Environmental Justice activist, and Dr Ayça Demet Atay, associate professor at Near East University in North Cyprus, Rotary Peace Fellow alumna, and founder of the Rotary Club of Peace in Istanbul.
RI directors Anirudha Roychowdhury and Raju Subramanian were present at the conference; PRID Safak Alpay was the chairman. About 1,000 delegates from across 88 countries participated. n
