Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, left, David T. Ives and Oscar Arias.

Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, spent a portion of his 63rd birthday, June 13, at a peace conference at the U.N. sponsored by Quinnipiac’s Albert Schweitzer Institute.

Ban told the assembled group of 550 world leaders, diplomats, professors, students and representatives of nongovernmental organizations that he was honored to celebrate peace and harmony on his birthday.

The daylong conference, “A Firm and Lasting Peace in Central America: The Pending Agenda 20 Years Later,” celebrated the 1987 signing of Esquipulas II, the peace treaty that ended political conflicts in that region.

Among the distinguished speakers and panelists were two of the treaty’s signatories – Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica whose courageous initiative won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, and Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, former president of Guatemala.

Ban said the peace accord allowed Central America to turn the page on a long era of bitter armed conflicts, but he acknowledged that outstanding issues must be addressed to ensure lasting peace.

“Despite the remarkable progress achieved, Central America continues to face formidable challenges, including in the areas of public security, development and human rights,” Ban said, vowing U.N. assistance to the people and governments of the region.

Arias said the Esquipulas II Accord was meant to be an inheritance that guaranteed schools would replace military barracks, violators of human rights would be brought to justice, disagreements would be resolved on the floor of a legislative chamber rather than a torture chamber, that their votes would count and their voices would be heard.

“We immortalized in ink our wishes for what kind of future world would be passed down to our children,” said Arias, who is an honorary board member of the Schweitzer Institute.

The children of Esquipulas have collected on the promise to end the wars, but they are still owed better education, better health care and a better economy to elevate them from the crushing poverty that still affects many regions of Central America, he said.

“We cannot do this alone,” Cerezo said. “We need the support, the firm resolve of the international community to help us, not just to give us credit and money. Money is something we can get in our countries.”

David Ives, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute, said the signatories of Esquipulas II paid tribute to Schweitzer’s lifelong philosophy of reverence for life when they chose another way besides war 20 years ago. And while problems remain, Ives said their courage and efforts serve as a model for the rest of the world.

“Five relatively small countries decided on their own to make peace themselves despite pressures from elsewhere not to do so. They wanted peace, not war. Other countries could and should make the same decision,” Ives said.

Luis Alberto Cordero, executive director of the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, said the conference helped identify the challenges that remain in Central America and shone a light on the ways in which the international community can help the region empower its people and reach its goals of a firm and lasting peace.

Conference participants discussed debt relief, foreign investment and trade, gender inequalities, literacy, better use of existing resources, educating citizens about their rights and obligations, and reducing crime, corruption and misuse of public funds.

Sara Godjikian ’04, BA history, of West Hartford, Conn., said she attended the conference because she feels she has a vested interest in Central American peace. She taught English in Nicaragua for three months through the Albert Schweitzer Institute.

“Probably the main role of the Albert Schweitzer Institute is to promote world peace. So many of the people at Quinnipiac have an opportunity to travel to Central America through the institute and, as a result, they think on a larger scale. Those are the people that are going to make a difference in the world,” she said.

In addition to the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac and the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, the event was held in collaboration with the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs, U.N. Development Program, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the University of Peace in Costa Rica, Project on Justice in Times of Transition and the Toledo International Centre for Peace.

Read the speech by David Ives, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute (PDF).

David T. Ives, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute, left, Quinnipiac president John L. Lahey and Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, former president of Guatemala.	Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica, left, with Ives, Sarah Grady '07 and Beth Dare '07.
Luis Alberto Cordero, executive director of the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, left, Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, and Ives.	Arias and Kerry Kennedy, human rights activist, author and daughter of Robert F. Kennedy.
The conference panel.	Alvaro De Soto, former U.N. under-secretary general.