Atlanta will no longer serve as host of this year’s World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates after plans for the event, plagued by public spats between the organizer and some of the city’s most prominent citizens, collapsed this week.
The Rotary Club of Atlanta, approached at the 11th hour to manage the summit, voted against taking the reins, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The letters did not specify why the club made the decision.
The Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, the Rome-based organization that originally designated Atlanta as this year’s host city, has now voted to relocate the summit, documents reveal. Barcelona is said to be considered as an alternative city.
“I am disappointed that the hard work of those committed to the 2015 Nobel Summit will not result in the event being hosted in the city of Atlanta,” Mayor Kasim Reed said in a statement Tuesday. “However, I want to thank all those who worked diligently to bring this extraordinary event to the city. I am hopeful that the work we began this year will bring a Nobel Summit to the city in the near future.”
Meanwhile, the event’s original organizer, who many blame for the summit’s troubles, insists that some type of event for laureates will still be held this November.
The secretariat’s organization did not immediately respond to an email query on Tuesday. A Rotary representative deferred comments to Reed’s office. Many other former volunteers declined comment.
The decision is the latest turn in a saga that has become an international embarrassment for Atlanta. When first proposed, the event was a draw for Atlanta’s elite, many who thought the summit would bolster the city’s image and honor its ties to three Nobel laureates: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Jimmy Carter and micro-lending guru Muhammad Yunus.
Instead, the summit — intended to bring Nobel laureates and humanitarian organizations together to discuss peace initiatives — has been marred by legal threats and accusations of mismanagement and racism.
The public trouble began in March when Reed withdrew the city’s participation from the event, citing concerns with its lead organizer, Mohammad Bhuiyan. Reed and several other Atlantans clashed with Bhuiyan on hiring decisions, his leadership style and issues such as which institution should house donations.
Bhuiyan is the CEO of Yunus Creative Lab, the nonprofit that helped bring the 2015 Nobel peace summit to Atlanta. He and his wife, Shamima Amin, began the nonprofit with Yunus, who resigned from his own organization in April in the wake of the controversy.
Other YCL board members, including Jason Carter, President Carter’s grandson and a former gubernatorial candidate; Laura Turner Seydel, daughter of Ted Turner; and Willis Potts, the former chairman of the Georgia Board of Regents, later withdrew from the effort as well.
The secretariat warned Atlanta leaders to find a path forward in early May, prompting event organizers to approach the Rotary in a last-ditch effort to salvage the summit.
Reed had said the city wouldn’t participate in the summit if Bhuiyan remained on board. Bhuiyan, however, has repeatedly said that he will move forward with his own event for laureates through Yunus Creative Lab — a decision he confirmed again on Tuesday.
He’ll likely be doing so without major supporters, including President Carter and others who originally signed on. It’s unclear what will become of donations given to YCL by major companies that include Coca-Cola and UPS.
“We are absolutely moving forward and Atlanta will have its summit as planned,” he said. “In fact, we are getting new sponsors, in spite of all of noise that people have been making.”
Bhuiyan, a former college administrator, has publicly accused many participants, such as Reed and Seydel, of trying to “derail” his efforts. He believes criticisms against him are unfair. Bhuiyan, who is Bangladeshi, has also said racism is at play.
Bhuiyan’s detractors have said that the leader’s personality, described by many as polarizing, is at the heart of the breakdown.
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