Colin Powell Rotary Student Peace Debate

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The Colin Powell Rotary Student Peace Debate was established by the Rotary Club of Jersey in 2014. It provides an important opportunity for Jersey’s secondary school students to speak in the States Chamber and to express their views on a topic decided by Rotary each year, usually relating to current world events.

A team of students from each participating school gives a presentation on an aspect of that year’s topic, followed by a period of questions from other students.

The Peace Debate is primarily aimed at students from Year 10 and older, although secondary school students of all ages are eligible to take part.

Schools are contacted at the beginning of the academic year in September with details of the chosen topic and teams will ordinarily be put together within the schools.

Debate Themes

The first Peace Debate was held in the States Chamber in September 2014 with a theme of threats to peace globally and locally. This was followed in 2015 by migration and its impact on growth and job prospects for young people. The influence of news media and social media was considered in 2016 and mental health and well-being in 2017. Overseas Aid was debated in 2018, and Climate Emergency in 2019, and in 2021 the challenge of Civil Disobedience was addressed. Modern Day Slavery was the topic in 2022.

In 2023, the chosen topic was the challenges of food security in domestic and conflict situations. Students chose to give presentations on:

establishing self-sufficiency by reducing globalisation of food supply;
additional investment in local agriculture to increase food security and other economic, social and environmental benefits;
the responsibility of government to ensure the island has a sustainable food security strategy through its policies.

Voting

Following the presentations and Question Time, the Bailiff proposes relevant motions to be voted on by the students using the voting buttons in the Chamber.

For example, following the discussions of food security in 2023, the Bailiff proposed that “The teaching of agriculture should be a mandatory GCSE subject in Jersey to encourage people to work in that sector.”

This proposition was defeated with 3 votes for, 21 votes against, and 1 abstention.

Colin Powell Trophy

The Student Peace Debate is dedicated to the memory of Rotarian Colin Powell, a man of peace and a great humanitarian.

He was instrumental in establishing this event as an important contribution to the Rotary Peace Programme, which recognised Jersey as a Rotary Peace Community in 2015.

The Colin Powell trophy is awarded at the end of the session for the best performance in the debate, based on the quality and content of the presentation, the competence in answering questions and the contribution to debating the topics presented by other schools.

Get in touch

To find out more, contact: Rotarian Tony Allchurch at tonyallchurch@icloud.com or on 07797 845565