Prague, July 27 (CTK) – Russian businessman and opposition politician Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed are to be among the participants in the 21st Forum 2000 conference that will be held in Prague in October, the organisers have told CTK.
Earlier this month, the organiser announced that former Austrian president Heinz Fischer, Monaco Prince Albert II, Saudi Arabian human rights activist Manal Al-Sharif and British philosopher Roger Scruton will participate in the three-day conference.
The main part of the programme Strengthening Democracy in Uncertain Times is to take place at Zofin Palace and the Goethe Institute in Prague’s centre. Within the annual conference that opens on October 8, debates and speeches will also be organised in other Czech cities.
In a press release, the organisers write that the conference is to deal not only with threats posed by authoritarian regimes in the current Russia, China and Venezuela, but mainly also with the alarming weakening of democracy from inside the free world.
The conference is open to the public and no fees are paid, but those who want to attend it need to get registered in advance.
Forum 2000 was founded in 1997 by Czech president Vaclav Havel, writer Elie Wiesel and Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa in order to create space for various personalities to comment on the challenges of the third millennium. Last year, the Tibetan Dalai Lama was among the participants.
kva/dr/rtj
