CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Kerry Kennedy Cuomo and Dr. Morten Rostrup will address the 13th annual Peace Prize Forum, "Striving for Peace: Crossing Borders, Challenging Boundaries," March 9-10 at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Luther is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Students attending the Peace Prize Forum will examine issues related to providing humanitarian aid in nation-states where governments may not honor international humanitarian law and respect the rights of people in need. They will also consider topics on religion and peace.
Cuomo, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in 1988, will address the forum on March 9. The center provides a base for supporting human rights defenders; uncovers and publicizes abuses such as torture, disappearances and repression of free speech; and works to encourage Congress to highlight human rights in foreign policy. Cuomo also serves as a board member for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, a non-profit organization designed to address social justice problems in the spirit of her late father.
Rostrup is international president for Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), an organization that works to provide support and emergency medical aid to victims of armed conflict, epidemics and survivors of natural disasters. The organization, founded in 1971, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Oslo, Norway. The committee honored MSF for its "effective and timely humanitarian aid delivery" and "because of its clear and unwavering human rights advocacy."
MSF also provides resources and support to people without health care due to social and/or geographic marginalization.
Rostrup is a medical doctor at Ulleval University Hospital, Oslo. In 1996, he was the founding president of MSF, and in 1998 he assumed the vice presidency of the International Council of MSF. He became president of MSF in December 2000.
Rostrup has assisted victims of famine in south Sudan, victims of a cholera epidemic in Tanzania, and refugees in Rwanda and Zaire. He also served in Angola, Kosovo, Liberia and Peru.
Other forum speakers include Musimbi Kanyoro, general secretary, World YWCA, Geneva, Switzerland; J. Brian Atwood, president, Citizens International, and executive vice president of Citizens Energy Cooperation, Boston; Dr. Geir Lundestad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo, and secretary, Norwegian Nobel Committee; and the Honorable Tom Vraalsen, ambassador of Norway to the United States.
In addition to plenary sessions, the Peace Prize Forum will feature 30 one-hour workshops on a variety of topics designed to address the conference theme and Lutheran responses to a "suffering world."
Other highlights of the forum include an ethnic arts festival, a peace fair exhibiting peacemaking organizations from around the world, and conversation sessions with the forum's keynote speakers.
The site of the forum rotates annually among five Midwestern colleges of the ELCA with Norwegian heritage: Augsburg College, Minneapolis; Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D.; Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.; Luther; and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
Held in cooperation with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, this series of forums was created to offer an opportunity for Nobel Peace Prize laureates, diplomats, scholars, young people and the general public to come together in expression of their personal commitment to peace. =AF--
Editors: Current information on the Peace Prize Forum is available at http://www.peaceprizeforum.org/ on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
