Strasbourg, 21/10/2014 (Agence Europe) -The third ever 'World Forum for Democracy' will be held at the Council of Europe from 3 to 5 November.
This is the event of the year at the Council of Europe (CoE), when the oldest of the pan-European institutions, which has called Strasbourg home since 1949, becomes the beating heart of the values it promotes. Created in 2012 - when it was opened by Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations (UN) - the 'World Forum for Democracy' will be held at the Palace of Europe from 3 to 5 November.
Having had as its theme “Bridging the Gap: Democracy between Old Models and New Realities” in 2012 and “Rewiring Democracy: Connecting Institutions and Citizens in the Digital Age” in 2013, the third event in the series will focus this year on “From Participation to Influence: Can Youth Revitalise Democracy?”.
A vast subject at a time when “the disaffection of young people is depriving society of their energy and optimism”, according to a programme which details the plenary sessions, guideline debates and workshops (laboratories and collaborative conferences) in which certain specific questions will be examined. These will include a series of 'labs' entitled 'Influencing mindsets', 'Influencing decision-making', 'Influencing politics', 'Influencing institutions' and divided up into workshops such as 'Understanding democracy', 'Acting in favour of social inclusion', 'No to the neo-Nazis, no to hate speech', 'Changing the habits of the new cities', 'Youth participation in elections' as well as, among many others, 'Pirating democracy'.
The Forum will be opened on 3 November by Norway's Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Roland Ries, the mayor of Strasbourg and Philippe Richert, the president of the Regional Council of Alsace. It will also be attended by Harlem Désir, secretary of state for European Affairs representing the French government, which is also a partner of the event, as well as Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament. The American Jeremy Rifkin, the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET) and a specialist in economic and social forecasting, will be the 'guest star' of this opening session, giving it an extra-European dimension which is expected to be highly stimulating.
Studded with artistic interventions, the World Forum for Democracy aims to highlight the initiatives designed to “promote structural changes to achieve a democracy in which young people will have their say”. 'Voting trees' will be placed outside the laboratories to allow participants to use a red or a green leaf to indicate whether the ideas have won them over or not. It will be the job of the Council of Europe and its partners to examine them in greater detail after the event, along with the 'prototypes for ideal democracy', which will be presented at the collaborative conferences.
For the CoE, this third-ever World Forum for Democracy comes as part of a 40-year history of supporting youth participation, which it initiated in 1972 with its unique 'co-management' system, allowing youth representatives to share the decision-making power over youth policy with government representatives. It is also related to the youth leader/worker training it provides every year in its European Youth Centres based in Strasbourg and Budapest, and linked to the activities funded by the European Youth Foundation, benefiting some 15,000 young people every year.
More broadly, stressed Jocelyne Caballero, France's permanent representative to the CoE, at a press conference held on Monday 20 October, “human rights and democracy are hardwired into Strasbourg's DNA” and this forum allows the institution to “stay several steps ahead on these subjects”. This view was challenged neither by the President of the Regional Council, Philippe Richert - who pointed out in passing that the 2013 event had brought 1,400 participants from 100 different countries to the city - nor by the Mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, who described the event as both a “Davos and a Porto Alegre of democracy”. The City is also holding an 'Off' on the sidelines of the 'In' held at the Palace of Europe. Over 17 different sites, this forum in the city will offer encounters, conferences, projections, exhibitions and will be crowned by the awards ceremony for the 'Falcon' and 'Reporters Without Borders for Press Freedom' prizes. France 3 Alsace, Arte, France Culture and the newspaper Le Monde will be the partners for this part of the event. (VL)