The third conference on "The Role of Academic Institutions in the Afghanistan Peace Process" was held for the North and Northeast Zones

In the third conference on "The Role of Academic Institutions in the Afghanistan Peace Process", which was held via video conference at the State Ministry for Peace, the presidents and professors of universities and representatives of study and research institutions in the North and Northeast Zone, called the role of universities and academic institutions important in the peace process and said that universities should pave the way for peace dialogue at the local and national levels.
In the beginning of the meeting, Abdul Khaliq Balakarzai, Deputy Minister for Coordination of Tribes of The State Ministry for Peace, thanked the participants and said that academic institutions can work for peace due to their facilities and direct and effective communication with the youth.
Emphasizing the role of all sections of society in the peace process, he said that the ministry plans to hold consultative meetings with various strata in order to involve all sections of society in the peace process.
Subsequently, Ghulam Yahya Hazem, General Director of Policies and Programs at the State Ministry for Peace, said that the purpose of holding the conference of "The Role of Academic Institutions in the Afghanistan Peace Process" was to create a single umbrella for academic institutions to cooperate with the ministry.
He called the work on social peace one of the basic missions of academic institutions and said that these institutions can also play an important and effective role in forming political peace.
He requested the academic institutions to work on a mechanism of cooperation with the State Ministry for Peace in the direction of peace-seeking and peace-building to provide the basis for the continuation of this cooperation in the long run.
On the other hand, the deans and professors of the university and the representatives of the academic institutions of the North and Northeast Zone shared their opinions and suggestions with the members of the meeting. Emphasizing the important role of academic institutions in national processes, especially the peace process, they called for an active and prominent role in this process.
They said that academic institutions could play an important role in this process and provide the grounds for social peace by holding peace dialogues and conferences.
The meeting participants also called for the establishment of peace committees and departments in universities, citing the need for working on special peace researches and peace pathology.
Establishing coordination between academic and government executive institutions, providing a space for youth to exchange ideas, tracing the root causes of war, creating a combined model of peace from the experiences of other countries, working on youth's capacity to exert for peace, holding conferences on peace and dissemination of the culture of peace, are the discussed topics.
It is noteworthy that the conference titled "The Role of Academic Institutions in the Afghanistan Peace Process" has already been held for the central and western zones of the country with the participation of deans and professors of universities and representatives of study and research institutions.