4th WORLD SUMMIT OF NOBEL OF PEACE LAUREATES
Rome - Campidoglio, November 27th- 30th 2003

ETHICS IN POLICY, ECONOMICS AND SCIENCE

Summary of the event

The 4th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates took place in Rome from 27th to 30th October 2003, organized by the Gorbachev Foundation Italia, with the patronage of the Comune di Roma and the co-participation of the Provincia di Roma. The Summit also had the High Patronage of the President of the Republic and the Patronage of the Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate of the Republic. Taking part were the Nobel Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev, the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, Shimon Peres, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Joseph Rotblat (represented by Robert Hinde), Lech Walesa, Betty Williams, Jody Williams, Oscar Arias Sanchez and the representatives of the following Nobel Peace Organizations: Institut de Droit International, International Peace Bureau, American Friends Service Committee, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, International Labour Organization, Amnesty International, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, United Nations Peace-keeping Forces, Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Médecins sans Frontières, United Nations, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, United Nations International Children Fund (Unicef). The Nobel Laureates Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestine Authority and Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who could not come in person, sent their own written speeches, which were read aloud by their representatives. The Summit was co-presided by Mikhail Gorbachev and by the Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni.

The first day of the Summit, Thursday 27th, was preceded by three collateral events attended by the Nobel Laureates and the Mayor of Rome: the welcome cocktail-dinner at the Hotel Exedra; the inauguration of the exhibition “Rome, City of Human Rights”, organized by Soka Gakkai with the patronage of the Gorbachev Foundation, at the Fori Traianei; an evening dedicated to the film director Andrzej Wajda at the Cinema Quirinale with the showing of the film “The Man of Marble” (the launch poster for which, created by Franco Scepi in 1979, then became the symbol of the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates). The evening took place as part of the MedFilm Festival 2003 (registered charity) twinned with the Rome Summit.

On Friday 28th, the Summit was inaugurated in the Capitol in the Giulio Cesare hall in front of a giant reproduction image of the symbol-monument “ManforPeace” by Franco Scepi (donated by the Gorbachev Foundation Italia to the city of Rome during the 2000 Summit) which stands in the gardens of the 18th Department for Security in via Baccelli 10. All of the Nobel Laureates present signed the parchment opening the Summit sessions. The Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Mayor of Rome, Veltroni, then presented the Manforpeace Award 2003 to the Italian National Singers’ Football Team, in recognition of their having collected and distributed, in over 400 matches played during the 22 years since their formation, more than 30 million euros for humanitarian activities in many countries of the world, and for having used their own names and images to make millions of people reflect on extremely dramatic international problems and emergencies.

The Summit work started at 10.30 am in the Sala della Protomoteca with the special session entitled “Thoughts of Peace” dedicated to inter-religious dialogue with speeches by the Dalai Lama, by Riccardo Di Segni, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, by Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, Secretary of the Pontificial Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and by Abdellah Redouane, Secretary General of the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy.

The first ordinary session of work, coordinated by the former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, was dedicated to “Ethics, Values and Policy”; after that, Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, moderated the session called “Peace and Security” while the Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, president of Middle Power Initiative, presided over the session on “Sustainable Development”. All the Nobel Laureates and the representatives of the Nobel Peace Organizations took part in the discussion, while the final considerations, at the closure of the first day’s work, were made by the Dalai Lama and by Mikhail Gorbachev.

At 6.30 pm in the same Sala della Protomoteca, there was a meeting between the Nobel Peace Laureates and the international press, organized by Procter & Gamble (Summit sponsor), which presented its 2003 Report on Sustainable Development and a new technology which helps to resolve the problem of providing drinking water in developing countries.

At 10.00 pm at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the “Drum and Dance Company” from Madison, Wisconsin, performed the evocative and previously unseen show of ethnic dance and music entitled “Call for Peace” which was choreographed in special honor of the Nobel Peace Laureates.

Saturday 29th saw the second day of work starting with the morning session, coordinated by Prof. Luigi Spaventa, on the theme “Economics and Ethics” during which speeches were made, not only by the Nobel Laureates, but also by the representatives of companies sponsoring the summit that have devoped their company mission in line with the principles of ethical economics: Procter & Gamble, Coop and Trambus.
In the afternoon, from 3 pm to 5 pm there was a meeting reserved for the Nobel Laureates to discuss their Final Statement, while, from 5 pm to 7 pm, Prof. Rita Levi Montalcini, Nobel Prize in Medicine, joined the Nobel Peace Laureates to discuss the subject “New Ethics also for Science”. At 9 pm, the gala dinner was held, offered by the Comune di Roma in Palazzo Doria Pamphilj.

On the same day, Saturday 29th, at the Sala Stampa del Giubileo in Via di Porta Castello, the Conference entitled “Beyond oil – Possible solutions” on the present and future of sustainable urban transport in large cities, organized in collaboration with Trambus s.p.a., with the participation of the representatives of the municipal administrations of 6 world capitals and international experts. The prototype of a hydrogen-powered bus for urban transportation was presented to the public, the Nobel Laureates and the press for the first time.

On Sunday 30th between 9 am and 12 am, the special session against the death penalty, organized in collaboration with the Comunity of Sant’Egidio, opened with speeches by Marian Pink (Amnesty International), Mario Marazziti (Comunity of Sant’Egidio) and Sergio d’Elia (Hands Off Cain). As well as the Nobel Peace Laureates, speeches were also made by four representatives of organizations fighting for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States: David Atwood, Ross Byrd, Walter Long and Adam Ortiz.

At 2 pm in the Sala della Protomoteca, the Concluding Statement of the Summit, drawn up by the Nobel Peace Laureates, a copy of which is attached to this summary, was presented to a crowded press conference.

At the end of the press conference the Summit work officially concluded with a brief ceremony, during which a group representing young students and sportspeople from the city of Rome presented an official request to be allowed to organize, during the 2004 Summit, a parellel summit, reserved for young people, with the opportunity for interface with the Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.