Lukasz Zablonski and Philip Seaton. In recent years, the G8 Summit has gone beyond being simply a gathering of world political leaders. The Summit is an occasion for a wide variety of NGOs, activists and civic groups from across the globe to congregate and discuss a multitude of issues. When the location of the G8 Summit was announced, it was clear that the environment would be a key theme under discussion.
But this did not stop numerous other civic groups from organizing events with themes not on the agenda of the main G8 Summit. The fact that the symposium was held illustrates the tremendous power of a large international event such as the G8 Summit to galvanize and energize civil society into action.
The idea generated interest among activists, but also concerns that the financial and logistical challenges of such an ambitious project could overstretch the resources of the groups involved. On 9 July , a full-day international symposium was held in Sapporo.
Oda Hiroshi. The central question of the symposium, and its leitmotiv , was: What can citizens do to create peaceful future relations among the peoples of the world, while also recognizing historical responsibility? It was addressed in more specific terms in four distinct, but connected, thematic sessions full program in Japanese here : 1 Working for reconciliation in Hokkaido ; 2 Reconciliation in East Asia and trans-national cooperation within civil society; 3 Learning from the German organization Action Reconciliation Service for Peace; and theoretical approaches toward 4 Peace, Reconciliation and Civil Society.
In addition to the symposium, several pre-events held between 26 May and 8 July and one post-event July were organized. The pre-events had the additional purpose of providing publicity for the main symposium.
