Cascais, Portugal – For the third consecutive year, UPF-Portugal was invited to be a partner in the 2024 edition of the Estoril Conferences, which took place on October 24 and 25, 2024 at the Nova School of Business and Economics on the Carcavelos Campus in Cascais, Portugal. The theme of this year's conference was "Time to ReThink," as it aimed to address significant global changes and challenges, reevaluating thinking and actions related to major world problems. The two-day event mobilized students, teachers, civil society, world leaders and business institutions to turn knowledge into action. The focus was on five pillars: Planet, Peace, Policies, Artificial Intelligence and Technology, and Health and Longevity.
This year, UPF participated in and contributed to this important conference with a delegation of 15 people, including key ambassadors for peace and partners and, for the first time, a speaker on the main stage in the person of Hon. Senida Mesi, a development economist and former deputy prime minister of Albania.
After several welcoming addresses, the conference was opened by Mr. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, president of Portugal, and Mr. José Ramos-Horta, president of Timor-Leste and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who kicked off the first day of this two-day event by sharing his insights on effective peacebuilding strategies gained from his decades-long fight for Timor-Leste’s independence. On this 25th anniversary of his country’s independence, he discussed the critical lessons learned and the relentless pursuit of justice that shaped his journey.
Following presentations from Mrs. Olena Zelenska, first lady of Ukraine, and Mrs. Oleksandra Matviichuk, chairwoman of the Center for Civil Liberties and Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2022, on how to keep the spirit of a nation alive and uphold human rights in a time of war, Mrs. Senida Mesi, spoke in the session entitled “Why There Is No Peace Without Women,” together with Mrs. Yulia Svyrydenko, first deputy prime minister of Ukraine, in which they were interviewed by Mrs. Rita Rodrigues, news anchor for CNN Portugal.
During this session, Mrs. Mesi spoke about the importance of the activities of UPF and Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), an organization affiliated with UPF, and the experience of their co-founder, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon as a refugee, overcoming many difficult challenges to build, together with her husband, a global movement on peace issues. It should be noted that Mrs. Mesi had herself initiated the concept of “No Peace Without Women” in a webinar held on September 15, 2022, organized by the International Association of First Ladies for Peace (IAFLP), one of UPF’s associations, together with the EUME branch of WFWP and other organizations.
The conference continued with sessions on many other diverse issues, including a written message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and an exploration of the critical role of microscopic beings in ecosystems and human health by Sir Richard Roberts, Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs and 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate.
More information, including the full agenda and list of speakers, can be found at: https://www.estorilconferences.org.
