News, 14.11.2018

Ministry for Foreign Affairs to co-host Ahtisaari Days in Espoo

CMI and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will hold this year’s Ahtisaari Days on 15 November in Espoo. During the event, youth from Espoo will learn about peace mediation. The programme will culminate with a public event, whose participants will include former President Martti Ahtisaari.

The annual Ahtisaari Days will be held this year in Espoo, where local young people in grades 7–9 will learn about peace mediation with experts from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) on 14–15 November.

The programme also includes school visits by Ambassador-at-Large on Mediation PolicyAntti Turunen and Special Representative on Mediation Jutta Urpilainen, among others. The message of Ahtisaari Days is that conflicts caused by people can be solved by people, be they international conflicts or quarrels between young people.

On 15 November, former President Martti Ahtisaari will visit Kirkkojärvi school in Espoo, where students have organised a celebration around the themes of peace and reconciliation. He will also pay a visit to Espoonlahti upper secondary school to discuss reconciliation and the unification of Finland after the war in 1918. The students at these schools have selected student mediators from among their peers, and former President Ahtisaari will present the mediators with peace doves.

The public event in the evening at Aalto University will feature an interview with former President Ahtisaari and a panel discussion in English about designing peace.

 

Programme for the public event, Aalto University, Dipoli, Kaleva-sali

15.30    Welcoming words by President Ilkka Niemelä, Aalto University

Interview with Nobel Peace Laureate and President Martti Ahtisaari, also including Helsinki Festival Artistic Director Marko Ahtisaari Interviewer: Communications Director Elina Lehtinen, CMI (in Finnish).

Aalto University student case presentation: working with Stanford University Peace Innovations Lab

16.10    Panel discussion: Designing Peace (in English)

  • Postdoctoral researcher Claudia Garduño García, Department of Design, Aalto University
  • Postdoctoral researcher Matti Nelimarkka, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University
  • Chairman of the Board Alexander Stubb, CMI
  • Professor Olli Varis, Department of Built Environment, Aalto University
  • Moderator: CEO Piia Kuosmanen, Paragraaffi