For the sixth consecutive year, the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation supported the International Peace Conference (IPC) organized by students of the United World College (UWC) in Maastricht back in February 2020. This year’s three-day conference revolved around the theme of ‘The Eyeland’.
About the International Peace Conference
The IPC is a unique, student-led initiative that seeks to spark activism and initiative in the areas of peace-making and conflict resolution among youth. Through annual conferences, youth from all over the world have the opportunity to engage in intercultural discussions and workshops exposing them to a multitude of different concepts.
IPC 2020
‘The Eyeland’ theme aimed to explore ideas of Utopia and Dystopia, in relation to peace and its connotations in modern society:
“We live on an Eyeland, a special bubble running on idyllic values that meets everyone’s desires, where peace and understanding are possible even with no singular definition. You could call it perfect. But, how can you define perfection? And how do you achieve it? Do we have to rely on dystopian practices to achieve this utopia? The more we think about it, this utopia turns into a dystopia. Does this mean we need conflict to have peace?”
The Foundation’s alumnus Ahmed Abofoul joined the ‘Fragments of Conflict’ session as one of the speakers, held on the last day of the IPC. Born in Palestine and now a Law Master student at Leiden University, Ahmed addressed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as his personal experiences. The goal of this session was to address complex and contentious issues by sharing the deeply personal and small-scale stories that often get lost in the midst of conflict. Students were given the chance to move across the room and talk to different individuals that held insightful outlooks on similar stories.
