Rotary Peace Centre - Jannine Birtwistle

 Rotarian Jannine Birtwistle was representing the Rotary Peace Centre.

Jannine’s theme was Rotary’s role in peace building and conflict resolution.

She defined peace as the absence of violence and she saw conflict as often attributable to unequal distribution of wealth and resources. Since 1990 1.2 bn people had been brought out of extreme poverty defined as having less than $1.9 per day – from 36% of the world’s population in 1990 to 9% today - but COVID was bringing fresh challenges.

Jannine showed that all of Rotary’s seven Areas of Focus had elements addressing issues relating to the needs of a peaceful world – poverty and privation, education and literacy, environmental needs etc. 

She drew attention to the role of Rotary Foundation, recognised in 2016 as “The World’s Outstanding Charity for 2016” and looked back on Rotary’s record on the world stage - the 1940 Rotary Convention’s call for freedom, justice, truth and respect was the catalyst for the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in 1942 Rotary led in the formation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO); and Rotary was one of only two Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) accredited to the UN Economic and Social Committee.

Jannine finished with reference to the Rotary Peace Centre, involving 1400 people and seven universities across the world. She saw peace building and the removal of obstacles to a peaceful world as being at the core of Rotary’s activities.

Rodger Thom gave the Club’s vote of thanks.