Young people from York will be among the delegates at an international peace conference to be addressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The conference, at The Hague, has been organised on the 100th anniversary of a similar conference organised by the then Queen of the Netherlands, who feared there would be war in Europe - and was proved right in 1914.

And though this event, called The Hague Appeal For Peace, was arranged before recent events in Kosovo, Europe's latest conflict is set to dominate discussion.

It has been organised by a body called the International Peace Bureau, and more than 200 British delegates, many of them young people, are set to attend.

Among them will be two members of York's Baha'i community - a religious group believing in peace and an end to prejudice.

One of them, Rebecca Razavi, said: "This was organised before Kosovo, but it's just pertinent because there is a war in Europe at the moment."

The conference, to be held next week, aims to draft a citizen's agenda for peace and justice in the 21st century, and to appeal for an end to wars for the new Millennium. Ms Razavi said she hoped the work of the conference could be put into practice on a local level.

"We will try not only to raise awareness in York of the Appeal For Peace, but also to encourage people to make a change in their lives and a change in our local community - to make York a peaceful model for the world."

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