Monaco's Prince Albert II to attend Forum 2000

The 21st edition of Forum 2000, titled How to Strengthen Democracy in Uncertain Times, will be held Oct. 8–10, 2017 in Prague and other cities across the Czech Republic. Delegates this year will include Prince Albert II of Monaco and former Austrian president Heinz Fischer.

Conference participants will be on discussion panels and give lectures that are open to members of the public who register in advance. Some events are also streamed over the internet.

More of the over 100 confirmed delegates include Russian entrepreneur and opposition politician Mikhail Khodorkovsky, British philosopher and political scientist Roger Scruton, human rights and environmental activist and former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, and professor of Islamic and interfaith studies Mona Siddiqui.

Forum 2000 will address the challenges facing the current democratic world. Democracy is at a historic juncture, with confidence in the institution dwindling and democracy weakening. Democratic processes are paradoxically often becoming a vehicle for the rise of authoritarianism and the undermining of democratic structures, the organizers of Forum 2000 said in a press release.

“Traditional liberal visions are losing power in the turbulent developments of the world. Is it the end of democracy as we know it? Are we at the threshold of a system change? Did democracy lose the capacity to respond to changes in society and technological progress? And how can these negative trends be addressed? This year's Forum 2000 will try to answer these and many other questions,” the Forum 2000 press release stated.

The main part of the conference will take place in Žofín Palace and the Goethe Institute. “As always, we would like to invite people from the general public who are not indifferent to public events to attend the Forum 2000 conference. This year's edition will address not only the threats posed by authoritarian regimes currently in place in Russia, China and also Venezuela but especially the alarming weakening of democracy from within the free world. If we want to keep democracy, we must constantly take care of it for our own good,” said Jakub Klepal, director of the Forum 2000 Foundation, which organizes the Forum 2000 conference every year.

To participate in Forum 2000's discussions, prior registration is required. This is only possible through the online registration system from Aug. 1 to Sept. 29, 2017, or until capacity is reached. For more information, including a continuously updated conference program and a list of guests, visit www.forum2000.com.

The Forum 2000 Foundation fulfills the legacy of Václav Havel by promoting democratic values and respect for human rights, developing civil society and strengthening religious, cultural and ethnic tolerance.

Leading world personalities, thinkers and individuals from all walks of life are given a space where they can share these critical themes and discuss them openly.

In addition to the annual Forum 2000 conference, the foundation organizes a number of other activities, such as the largest NGO trade fair in Central Europe and the Democratic Solidarity Project, which has been striving to strengthen effective international solidarity among the democratic forces in the Latin American region since 2013.

Forum 2000 is the main project of the Forum 2000 Foundation. The idea to hold the Forum 2000 conference was born in 1997 when then-Czech president Václav Havel, Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa invited world celebrities to discuss the challenges humanity faces the threshold of the new millennium.

Since then, Forum 2000 has evolved into an important regular international meeting to discuss the state and future of democracy, the challenges faced by democracy, and the possibilities of addressing these challenges.

Over two decades, the conference has been attended by more than 1,000 leading world figures, including Hillary Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger, Simon Peres, Frederik Willem de Klerk, and Oscar Arias.

The Democracy Festival is an accompanying program for the Forum 2000 conference. It features lectures, discussions, exhibitions and other cultural or educational activities that complement or further develop conference topics. Non-profit organizations, universities and a number of other partners of the Forum 2000 Foundation participate in the Democracy Festival to present their activities to visitors to the festival and offer a different perspective on the issues addressed by the Forum 2000 main conference program.