THE SASAKAWA PEACE FOUNDATION

Forum 2000: Shared Concern Initiative

15,200,000 yen [Grant project]
Forum 2000 Foundation (Czech Republic)

Forum 2000 meetings have been held in Prague since 1997 to discuss the creation of a philosophy for peaceful coexistence of various people. PhaseI of the Forum 2000 discussed common issues for all humanity, and the results have been released to the world in the Prague Declaration while Phase II tried to construct a common platform for dialogue amongst groups in conflict. Phase III will organize an international “General Meeting” to study the causes of global threats including terrorism, and conflicts between peoples of different religions and/or ethnicities and to discuss possible solutions to these threats. During the three-year period of Phase III, the General Meeting will be held annually and involve about 30 invited world political, economical, and ideological leaders. A core group, the Shared Concern Initiative, will set the themes for the meetings, compile the results and prepare proposals. Furthermore, the Shared Concern Initiative will release joint announcements as necessity arises to drive the resolution of world threats.
“Freedom and Responsibility” has been chosen as the theme of this year. In the annual General Meeting, freedom and responsibility in the areas of media, politics, international law and business shall be discussed. In a meeting of religious leaders, risks of globalization will be debated by leaders of different faith and scholars. Moreover, building on the results of past 10 years and treading in a footstep of the Prague Declaration, which was adopted as an official U.N. document, a second such declaration will be pursued and activities relevant to its preparation and disseminate will be made additionally.

The following activities are planned in the last year of the project.

General Meeting and Religious Leaders Meeting (October 7-9, 2007)
(1) General Meeting (October 8th). Participants include: Václav Havel － former President of the Czech Republic; former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Ricardo Lagos - Former President of Chile; Michaëlle Jean - Governor General of Canada; HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia); Shirin Ebadi - Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Christiane Amanpour - Chief International Correspondent of CNN and others, approximately 90 in total.
(2) Religious Leaders Meeting (October 9th) will assemble leaders from Islamic, Jewish and Christian faith as well as scholars.
(3) Auxiliary programs: Seminars and lectures of various size, totaling more or less 20, will be held including a session on water issue in the Middle East. Venues will be either in Prague or its outskirts.
Shared Concern Initiative: Throughout the year, various messages targeted to help resolve global concerns and threats will be put forward as needed by the group and be sent out to national governments, international bodies and the media as joint announcements.
Development of the Prague Declaration
Headed by Prince Hassan bin Talal, the Prague Declaration Development Committee will be organized to draw a draft. It will be completed and disseminated in tandem with other participants in the General Meeting.

(Third year of a 3-year project)