Student Summit at UoD
Nov. 26, 2016, 8:22 p.m.

The Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies hosted a youth summit on 20 October, 2016 in the University of Duhok (UoD) Student Center. The youth summit started at 10am with the presence of  Dr. Mosleh Duhoki, the President of Duhok University, as well as a representative from U.S Consulate in Erbil, Thomas Hill Director of Initiative for Peacebuilding Through Education/Clinical Associate Professor from New York University, and Dr. Jotyar Sadeeq, Center Director for the Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies at UoD. The initial number of participants was 351 from different locations camps and schools in Duhok province among these were 18 high schools, 16 camps, several UoD students, and employees from Harikar and Humanity NGOs. All of these participants were from our latest list of participants in the Center’s Peace and Conflict Resolutions workshop in Duhok and Ninewa provinces.

After the introductory and welcoming speeches were over, three of the participants shared situations they have encountered after having the workshop and how they dealt with them using the peacebuilding skills they had learned.

summit

The participants then were asked to think about issues they want to address in their community. 13 groups were formed, with participants joining the groups they saw most related to their own ideas. Each group then moved to a location to discuss the topic and find solutions, the topics were as follows:
  1. Be the change that you want in the world
  2. Bridge building to build the community
  3. Peaceful coexistence
  4. Spreading peace education through books
  5. Spreading peace through childrenDescription: 20161020_114100.jpg
  6. Traditions
  7.  The art of the deal
  8. Love and peace
  9. Religion roles in peacebuilding
  10. Spreading peace through Social Media
  11. Women’s role in peacebuilding (2groups)
  12. Community centers’ role in peacebuilding
  13. The parties’ role in peacebuilding

summit3

Students brainstormed ideas and created plans for how to best address these issues in their communities. The participants wrote positive reviews and were looking forward to meeting again with their group members in the future.