Three Norwegian organisations, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, The Peace Association, and Grandmothers for Peace, are organizing a Nordic-Russian seminar in Oslo, Friday 12th to Sunday 14th November 2021. The seminar is planned by a Nordic Russian planning group and is a physical meeting with video webinars for those who are not able to attend physically.
The objective of the seminar is to elaborate on the overall theme, “Neighbours as friends, not enemies”, by strengthening contact and cooperation between Nordic and Russian peace organisations and activists. Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden will always be geographic neighbours. The security of our inhabitants depends on friendly, non-military interaction and mutual efforts to counteract threats to our common security, environment and climate.
The seminar will include two open meetings and three workshops on specific issues related to peace building, security and nuclear disarmament:
– Open meeting 12.11: Challenges regarding safe storing of nuclear waste – Workshop 12.11: Peace strategies: Rethinking security and peace strategies – Workshop 13.11: Towards demilitarization of the Baltic Sea
– Workshop 13.11: Specific challenges regarding the Arctic
– Open meeting 14.11: How could the Nordic Network work for peace?
The seminar will also discuss the a possible Nordic Peace Network – and develop a final statement on a common vision for peace in Northern Europe.
The seminar and the workshops, as well as written material, will be in English. We welcome material by organisations or individuals to be handed out or sold during the seminar. We also welcome ideas for other peace issues to be discussed, and will try to include time for these issues when possible.
The seminar venue is the Anker hotel in the centre of Oslo, 10 minutes’ walk from the Central railway station. This 3-star hotel was renovated in 2020 and has a large meeting room and lots of space for informal meetings and conversations.
The seminar fee of 50 Euro will cover participation, lunches and coffee breaks as well as dinner on Saturday. The fee should be paid at the registration Friday 12.11.
Nordic participants must arrange and pay their own travel and hotel expenses. The Anker hotel offers comfortable rooms at a reasonable price. A single room with bathroom is 70 Euro, double room with 2 separate beds and bathroom 40 Euros per person – both prices including breakfast. Reserve your room directly to the hotel booking@anker.oslo.no with code IKFF. You can cancel your booking free of charge up until 24 hours before arrival day.
Please use the form below, even if you have informed earlier that you want to participate. The number of participants depends on the Norwegian Corona restrictions at the time of the seminar. At the moment, the limit is 50 persons, without restrictions the room takes 100 persons. We are presently planning for approximately 50 participants and will set up a waiting list if necessary.
We want seminar participants to be present during the whole seminar, for others there are two open meetings on Friday and Sunday.
The seminar is planned by a Nordic-Russian group. Please contact any of them for further information:
Liss Schanke, Norway, liss.schanke@gmail.com
Tim Liebenhoff, Tim.D.Liebenhoff@gmail.com
Ida Harsløf, Denmark, ida@harslof.dk
Marianne Laxen, Finland, mannelx@hotmail.com
Karin Utas Carlsson, Sweden, k.utas.carlsson@gmail.com
Ariana Durani, Sweden durani.ariana@gmail.com
Oleg Bodrov, Russia, obdecom@gmail.com
Elena Kruglikova, Russia, elena.kruglikova@kec.org.ru
REGISTRATION FORM
The deadline for registration is October 10th Please use the registration form below and send the form to Liss Schanke (WILPF) and Penny Heymans (Grandmothers for Peace) liss.schanke@gmail.com and pheymans46@gmail.com
Name and country
Email address
Organisation
Physical or digital participation
Planning to stay at the Anker hotel?
Planning to take part in the dinner Friday?
Planning to take part in the seminar dinner Saturday?
Vaccination status
Other ideas for the seminar or input to the organizers