The Rotary Peace Scholarship

Pieta Vandyke introducer our speaker Annemieke Holthuis.

 

 

Annemieke is a lawyer who was accepted for Rotary Peace Fellowship`

 

Annemieke is a lawyer with the Federal department of Justice  in Criminal Law and was selected as a Rotary Peace Fellow from January to March in Thailand in a 3 month certificate program.

 

She described the program. Her focus was in war crimes, and genocide, crimes against humanity. She is interested in conflict studies and entered the program with several other award recipients .

 

She described her experiences in the program including field studies . She told members of a conflict between Thailand and Cambodia over a temple and ownership rights.

 

Also there was a conflict over a dam in the region and the impacts on the citizens.

 

She also worked in Nepal in March before the earthquake and showed us pictures of beautiful temples which are no longer standing since the recent calamity.

 

Nepal is still in a post conflict situation just 10 years out from a civil war. She described some of the political dynamics living sand working in a still very corrupt society.

 

Annemieke showed members some very interesting photos.

 

She was asked to work on a paper on conflict resolution and strategies to deal with corruption which is unfortunately a reality in many devoting countries and will continue to be  a challenge

 

Her paper along with her colleagues was then presented and discussed at a Rotary seminar. 

 

Bill Feyrer thanked our guest for her talk.