ISFiT 2009
ISFiT 2009 (International Student Festival in Trondheim) was held from 20 February to 1 March in Trondheim, Norway. This was the 10th ISFiT-festival, the first was held in 1990. ISFiT is one of the world’s largest student festival with a thematic focus. Approximately 450 students from all over the world attend the festival. More than 350 students in Trondheim work voluntarily for the student festival. Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Desmond Tutu, Dr. Shirin Ebadi and Betty Williams are some of the introductory speakers at the festival.
Theme
The theme for ISFiT 2009 was peacebuilding. The thematic focus was illuminated through both the workshops and the meetings during the festival in addition to the cultural programme. According to the theme document “ISFIT 2009 sees peacebuilding as a long-term process, with the object to create a stable and lasting peace, a peace that is something more than just an absence of war. Peacebuilding shall create a solid foundation for a peaceful development, as well as increase the society’s ability to cope with conflicts in a peaceful way. ISFIT 2009 recognizes peace building both as a preventative process as well as a process of rebuilding. Peacebuilding appears between different actors on global, regional, national, local and interpersonal level.” <http://www.isfit.org/programme/page/show/programme-theme-document>
Vision
The vision for ISFIT 2009 was to create the ideas and the attitudes that change the world.
Workshops
The workshops are the core of ISFiT. Through the workshops all the participants of the festival will attend the different workshops. The workshops will highlight the festival themes in different ways. The workshops of ISFiT 2009 was:
- 01. Peace as concept
- 02. Arms Inc. & Tech.
- 03. Governing systems
- 04. International Trade
- 05. Health - The cure for conflicts
- 06. Children - the silent voices in society
- 07. Film & Photo - Shooting for Peace
- 08. Peace enforcement
- 09. Religion - Belief in Peace?
- 10. Sports - building a common ground?
- 11. Human rights
- 12. Demobilization, disarmament & reintegration
- 13. Wo:men
- 14. Development through migration
- 15. Energy & technology
- 16. Music - Jamming for peace
- 17. Student Peace Action Movement
The ISFiT Dialogue Groups
The Dialogue Groups is an initiative by ISFiT to peace building in practice. The Dialogue Groups invite students from different sides of conflicts to meet on equal grounds for sharing of experiences and dialogue.
The Dialogue Groups 2009 kicked off 10 days before ISFiT 2009 with a seminar at Røros, and continued into the festival in Trondheim. In 2009 students from Israel/Palestine, Cyprus and Georgia/Abkhazia were invited to take part in the Dialogue Groups.
Programme
In addition to the workshops and the dialogue groups there were several lectures and thematic meetings, as well as concerts, exhibitions and performing arts.