Bonn, September 2010
30 Years Right Livelihood Award
CHANGING COURSE - RECLAIMING OUR FUTURE
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Right Livelihood Awards, all Award Laureates will be invited to Bonn, Germany, from September 14th-19th, 2010.
The conference in Bonn is made possible thanks to the invitation by the City of Bonn, which, in co-operation with the Foundation for Environment and Development North Rhine-Westphalia and the Foundation for International Dialogue of the Savings Bank in Bonn, will host and organise the conference.
What will happen?
The topic: What it's all about
The Organisers
Programme overview (preliminary):
Sept 14: Arrival
Sept 15: Internal sessions
Sept 16: Exchanging knowledge: Cluster events in Bonn
Sept 17: Making a Difference: Interacting with the people of North Rhine-Westphalia
Sept 18: Internal sessions, networking
Sept 19: Departure
Internal sessions: During the conference, the Laureates will have time to network, to form new alliances to strengthen their work, to exchange experience, knowledge, the insights from successes and failures. Having become a tradition, these "family gatherings" are an important aspect of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation's work to continuously support its Recipients.
Meeting experts and people in Bonn and NRW: Civil society organisations, NGOs, business, academia, activists, entrepreneurs, students - they all will have the opportunity to get to know the Right Livelihood Awardees, to discuss their work and solutions, compare their approaches with their own, to learn and to teach. An exchange through all fields of science, politics, education and life!
A parallel, independently organised youth conference will ensure that the most important asset for our common future does not stay outside: the next generation.
During the past years, people around the world have woken up to the urgency of our global challenges. But despite many efforts, the basic global developments are still going in the wrong direction, be it in the field of food, natural resources, environmental degradation, social justice, human rights or climate change. Looking at the current trendlines, we see that the planet is rapidly approaching a number of irreversible tipping points.
Tinkering with the status quo or embracing „false positives“ will only slow the devastation, not prevent it. We need a profound change of course, in our knowledge systems, our economies, our lifestyles. And we need it soon.
For 30 years, the Right Livelihood Award Laureates have shown that this change is possible. The solutions exist and they are proven to work. At their 30th Anniversary Gathering in Bonn, the Right Livelihood Award Laureates want to awake the world to the fact that now is our last chance to decide: Do we risk collapse through business as usual? Or do we have the wisdom and courage to radically shift our paradigms in favour of a secured common future.
Bonn stands for dialogue, cooperation and synergy effects. The United Nations, federal ministries as well as scientific institutions, development services, business and the media, non-governmental organizations and, of course, the City of Bonn itself are committed components of the Bonn-based sustainability field. They all act as the driving force behind many sustainability initiatives and co-operations – from local to global, from on-site projects to education.
Thus Bonn’s Mayor Juergen Nimptsch is very happy to host the conference celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Right Livelihood Award:
„This conference is tailor-made for Bonn: men and women who are thinking beyond usual limits and who are promoting practical solutions to global problems come to Bonn - a platform for international dialogue on sustainability issues. We are very excited to meet interesting and fascinating laureates, who will find very open-minded partners for discussion here.“
"Climate change and decreasing biodiversity, scarcity of resources, bad governance, violation of peace and human rights, poverty and hunger, unsustainable production and consumption are some of our main global challenges. They affect people’s basic interests, requirements and habits. The solutions proposed are always controversial and incomplete. They need to be discussed and advanced by experts and by as many members of the society as possible.
The conference of the laureates of the Right Livelihood Award is an excellent forum to promote these necessary discussions and to find acceptance for even radical measures."
Eberhard Neugebohrn, Managing Director, Foundation for Environment and Development North Rhine Westphalia.
"International dialogue bears the ultimate power to sustainable and just development. This gathering of Right Livelihood Award Laureates coming from all corners of the world, from different cultures, religions, ways of life, and their exchange with people in Bonn will help enrich our own understanding of our diverse world and how to tackle the great challenges ahead with joint hands instead of mutual, fear-born distrust."
Artur Grzesiek, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Foundation for International Dialogue of the Savings Bank in Bonn and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sparkasse KölnBonn.
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation thanks the above organisers for their generous support, their commitment and their hospitality!
And a big "Thank You" to our Laureates, whose enthusiasm for this "family meeting" is a constant source of inspiration. We hope that we will see you all in September in Bonn - changing course and reclaiming our future!
For any questions and inquiries, please contact
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation,
Birgit Jaeckel
+49 (0)170-24 49 348
or
The City of Bonn,
Verena Schwarte
+49 (0)2 28-77 67 31
