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World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates opens today

by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer

“The 2010 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates” opens in the city of Hiroshima today, November 12. Yesterday, November 11, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates attending the summit, including the 14th Dalai Lama, the supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhism, arrived in turn at the Grand Prince Hotel Hiroshima, the venue of the gathering.

Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, will not attend the summit due to health concerns, reducing the number of individual Nobel Peace Prize laureates taking part in the event to seven. The announcement was made by the summit’s secretariat in Rome, one of the organizers.

After their arrival in Hiroshima on November 11, some of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates interacted with local citizens. American laureate Jody Williams, among others, attended a rally held in front of the A-bomb Dome in downtown Hiroshima. The rally was organized by the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA).

With the words “BAN NUKES!” formed from 1,000 lit candles on the ground before her, Ms. Williams stressed the prospect of nuclear abolition by citing examples of the Land Mine Ban Treaty, which she helped achieve, and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

On November 12 and 13, discussion will be made under the theme “The Legacy of Hiroshima: A World Without Nuclear Weapons.” Wuer Kaixi, a former student leader in the pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, will also attend the summit as a surrogate for the imprisoned Liu Xiaobo, a human rights activist in China and this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

On November 14, the final day of the summit, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates in attendance at the summit will, in turn, deliver remarks to the public in Peace Memorial Park. Roberto Baggio, the Italian soccer star, and the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations will be presented with the “Peace Summit Award 2010” and a special award for the Hiroshima summit, respectively.

(Originally published on November 12, 2010)

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