The annual meeting of Permanent Secretariat and NPL representatives gathered in Piacenza last week has nominated Piacenza as the CITY OF WORLD PEACE BUILDING. The nomination will be considered by the Assembly of Nobel Peace Laureates at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in 2019.
At the meeting members of the PermSec together with Nobel Peace Laureates representatives have also decided to maintain the headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat in Piacenza, confident that the city will increasingly support the work of the Secretariat that began here 20 years ago and that it will participate even more actively in its efforts in support of world peace.
Almost 20 years ago, in 1999, the Mikhail Gorbachev Foundation, which has its headquarters in Piacenza, launched the first World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome. After the Initiative became an annual event the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summits of the Nobel Peace Laureates was established in Piacenza. Since then, the Permanent Secretariat has arranged 16 Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates in cities throughout the world – including Rome, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Hiroshima, Chicago, Barcelona, and Bogota. The last Summit in Bogota was attended by more than 18 000 people and 27 Nobel Peace Laureates and Peace Laureate Organizations. Since the very beginning, annual summits have been supported by celebrities committed to the work of peace, including Bernardo Bertolucci, Sharon Stone, Sean Penn, Roberto Baggio, Annie Lennox, Bono, Richard Branson, George Clooney, Peter Gabriel, Bob Geldof, among others.
During the past 19 years the Summits have focused global attention on the main issues threatening world peace – including nuclear and chemical weapons, ethnic tensions, poverty and inequality. They have consistently supported the MDGs and SDGs and have issued resounding declarations on including the Charter of a non-violent world and the Charter for Peace, promoted in 2017 by the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos.The Permanent Secretariat has also supported Nobel Peace Laureates in the preservation of their legacy and the continuation of their work in support of peace – and has become the Centre of a network of wide-ranging peace activities. As a result of all this, the annual Nobel Peace Laureates summits have become the most important event on the worldwide annual peace calendar.
