The World Forum for Democracy is an annual gathering of leaders, opinion-makers, civil society activists, representatives of business, social innovators, academia, and media to debate key challenges for democracies worldwide and encourage democratic innovation.
The 2023 edition, taking place in Strasbourg (France) from 6 to 8 November 2023, will focus on the topic of “Democracy= Peace?”.
The labs are the heart of the World Forum for Democracy. Their idea is to address specific issues through the critical analysis of tested initiatives.
The labs will allow participants to learn about ground-breaking initiatives that offer responses to the key questions above based on an analysis of their real impact and replicability.
The initiatives should help understand how democracy and democratic institutions and practices can help accelerate the fight against democratic backsliding.
The initiatives should be presented in short speeches of ten minutes and critically assessed by multidisciplinary panels and participants in the labs.
How to apply
Interested public or private organisations worldwide are invited to express their interest in presenting an initiative aimed at enhancing democracy and reversing democratic decline from all over the world.
Examples of possible initiatives and their challenges (non-exhaustive):
- Innovative forms of civic engagement and public-private partnerships
- Cross-border partnerships related to democratic governance and peacebuilding
- Advocacy for underrepresented groups, women, minorities, children, indigenous communities, immigrants, refugees and non-citizens (stateless and undocumented persons)
- Fostering democracy and peace through education, new platforms for conflict resolution and peace-building
- Learning from the past, fighting historical revisionism, innovative approaches to presenting the past, i.e. museums, media, collaborative events, documentaries, multi-perspectivity
- Public accountability, anti-corruption, transparency of public and private finance
- Addressing the wealth gap, new ways of lifting people out of poverty, crowdfunding activism, social enterprises, rural development
- Reconciliation and trust-building processes, truth-telling, restorative justice
- Protection for activists promoting peace and non-violence as a way of life
- Promoting social, economic and or civic empowerment of women and girls
- Study, data collection or analysis of hate crimes, extremism, inequalities, polarisation, propaganda, cyber warfare etc.
- Alternative economic practices.
Submissions should be made by answering the questionnaire and sending it to forum_democracy@coe.int.
One presenter for the selected initiatives will be invited to Strasbourg to take part in the World Forum.
Travel and accommodation expenses may be covered by the Council of Europe if required.
Deadline
15 June 2023
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