Northern Ireland

Event featuring voices from NI, Libya and Somalia will honour legacy of Pat Hume

Pat Hume died earlier this month. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Pat Hume died earlier this month. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Pat Hume died earlier this month. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

AN event featuring voices from Northern Ireland, Libya and Somalia will this week honour the legacy of Pat Hume.

Mrs Hume, widow of the late SDLP leader and Nobel prize winner John Hume, is the inspiration behind 'Fire in the Belly', the third event planned in the Youth, Peace and Security Leadership Seminar Series.

Just weeks after her death, Mrs Hume will be remembered at an online event on Friday that will feature lessons from young female peace-builders from Somalia, Libya and Northern Ireland on inspiring leaders for peaceful change.

Among those to speak will be Libyan peace and human rights activist Hajer Sharief, Ilwad Elman, who is at the forefront of the Somali peace process and Emma Johnston, a youth worker in the north.

The event will be chaired by Monica McWilliams, a signatory to the Good Friday Agreement.

Tim Attwood, secretary of the John and Pat Hume Foundation, said: "It is important to acknowledge and highlight the positive work of young women and men working on peace at home and globally.

"The late Pat Hume had to scale so many obstacles working for peaceful change during times of great personal and political risk.

"She was described as ‘the woman who never gave up’. We must inspire a new leadership of young people in peacebuilding who will also never give up."

Speaking ahead of the event, Ms Sharief said: "Peace should be treated as a 'public good' of which everyone has the right to build, shape and make.

"Therefore, the inclusion of women and youth in peace processes is not a matter of ticking a box, it’s a matter of providing people with the opportunity to practice their right to shape their own lives and societies."

Please visit https://www.ulster.ac.uk/transitional-justice-institute/events/youth,-peace-and-security-leadership-series2 for information.