Inequalities within countries and between them are becoming more visible and less tolerable. Economic, social, cultural, religious differences generate conflict while personal ambitions and greed easily transform manageable conflicts into deadly ones. Ideas and institutional reforms in international conflict prevention have not kept pace with technological progress. Universal human rights, justice, security and prosperity for all, encompassed in Roosevelt's Freedom from fear and Freedom from want confront the war on terror, the war on drugs, the paralysis of the Security Council and the entrenchment of the concept of state sovereignty. From Syria to Mali, from the South China Sea to the Gulf of Guinea, can we begin to understand the modern face of armed conflict, and push it back, over the edge?

Louise Arbour has had a long and prestigious legal career, both in Canada and internationally. After studying at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario, and later to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. In 1996, Ms. Arbour was appointed by the Security Council of the United Nations as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. After three years as Prosecutor, she left to take up an appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada. From 2004 to 2008 she served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She is currently President of the International Crisis Group, an independent not-for-profit organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.

In English. Simultaneous interpretation available.

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