The Director Comments Nobel Peace Prize 2020
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 is awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon for war and conflict. The Director of the Åland Islands Peace Institute, Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark comments: 2020 has been an exceptional year. We have become deeply aware of the vulnerability of peace and life. That is why the UN’s World Food Programme is an excellent Nobel Peace Prize winner for this year. Both in times of peace and in times of conflict, they work to promote food security and to prevent hunger crisis. Tensions are increasing in many parts of the world today. Violence has escalated in conflicts and through the actions of authoritarian regimes and armed groups. Great powers choose to set aside the international rule of law. The freedom of speech is curtailed, and facts are distorted by populist and nationalist language including in our own region. This is precisely why the Nobel Peace Prize winner of this year is more important than ever. The foregoing trends result in […]
Kastelholm Talks 2020: War, Peace and the Environment
On Åland’s demilitarisation day, Monday 30 March 2020, the Åland Islands Peace Institute organized – for the sixth time – the Kastelholm Talks on Peace, with the theme War, Peace and the Environment. Due to the coronavirus and the measures to stop its spread, this year’s Kastelholm Talks could not be held as usual in Kastelholm’s castle and at the restaurant Smakbyn. Instead, a digital version of the Kastelholm Talks was held in collaboration with Nordic Institute on Åland (Nipå), where the speakers participated through an internet connection and the audience could send their questions by e-mail. On the same day, almost 300 people watched the conversations either live or in retrospect. The crisis gives us the opportunity to understand the gravity of the situation and adjust to change. If we do nothing about climate change, then in the future we will live in a state of emergency that is permanent, rather than temporary like what we have experienced now due to the corona crisis. This was one of the messages of the 2020 digital Kastelholm Talks where the patron of the talks, President Tarja Halonen, conversed with Margot Wallström, Marja Lehto, Pella Thiel, Mikael Sjövall and Emma Hakala. This […]