From Thursday, August 5 to Tuesday, August 10, the fifth annual INU Student Seminar, which discusses global citizenship and peace, was held in Hiroshima City and on the Higashi-Hiroshima campus of Hiroshima University. This year, international participants included 19 students and 10 staff from 8 INU (International Network of Universities) member universities in 7 countries. From member universities in Japan, 7 students from Ritsumeikan University and 32 students (including 7 international students) from Hiroshima University participated.

On Thursday, August 5 and Friday, August 6 in Hiroshima City, students visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, listened to a personal account of an atomic bomb survivor, listened to a keynote address by Samsu Rizal Panggabean, the Director of Masters Programs in Peace and Conflict Resolution at Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia), participated in the Peace Memorial Ceremony, and toured around the city. From Saturday, August 7, the seminar took place on the Higashi-Hiroshima campus and the students listened to some guest lectures given by Alexander Meija, the head of UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research Hiroshima Office), and Dr. Christopher Hobson, Research Associate at the Institute of Sustainability and Peace at the United Nations University. In addition, through three different topic-based workshops (“States, Intergovernmental Organizations, and Non-State Actors”, “The UN Security Council and the Imposition of Economics Sanctions”, and “Placing the ‘Human’ into Humanitarian Intervention”) and lectures by other seminar instructors, discussions were held from various perspectives.

During the Mock United Nations Role-play held on the final day, Tuesday, August 10, participants were divided into 8 groups as delegates of different countries to confer on the set topic, “Should there be a humanitarian intervention in Zimbabwe?” For approximately 5 hours, the students engaged themselves in serious and heated discussion from the points of view of their respective countries.

Hiroshima University and the INU have jointly held this seminar since 2006 with the aim of promoting educational exchange among INU member universities. The university plans to host the seminar again next year around the same time in August in Hiroshima.

【Inquiry】

Ms. Hisako Umemura

International Student Exchange Group

International Center

Tel: 082-424-4346

E-mail: kokusai-ryugaku (at) office.hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Please change “at” to the appropriate mark.