“A Shared Society, which is a Club de Madrid project, is what we are preaching here, said Zlatko Lagumdzija, former PM of Bosnia and Herzegovina and CdM Member during the Forum, that took place from 19 to 21 of April in Madrid. The CdM, which was part of the organization’s committee, was present with Lagumdzija in a panel about Preventing Volence because of Racism and Zenophobia. On top of this, the CdM organized a workshop focused on local responses to violent extremism lead by Lagumdzija, along with Jihen Ayed, president of Tun’Act; Juan Cristelleys, from the European Forum for Urban Security and Mr. Leendert Verbeek, from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities at the Council of Europe. The workshop was moderated by Karim Hauser, from casa Arabe.
“A #SharedSociety is a place in which citizens don’t try to erase its differences, but live together with them”, Zlatko Lagumdzija
Peace is not only the absence of war and the different types of violence. Peace is a culture which accentuates the abilities which human beings have to transform conflicts through peaceful and non-violent means. This Forum was a space intended to make the different types of urban violence visible, to debate ways of eradicating them as well as how to disseminate ways of thinking and practices which are capable of transforming cultures of violence into cultures of peace and non-violence.In this sense, the CLub de Madrid brought up the governmental vision and enphasized the necessity of bridging the gap between local and national institutions.
The outbreak of previously unthinkable forms of violence in our cities such as attacks via social networks, international terrorism or violence in sport, makes communities feel a new kind of vulnerability. This threat is in addition to other established types of violence which are in our societies but yet not always visible, and which damage both individual and community life in cities and which need to be identified and tackled.
Now is the moment to disseminate, involve and bring together more local governments and their national, regional and international associations, as well as civil society organisations in the implementation of these commitments and to spreading this message to governments, the media, economic players, the legal, academic and education worlds, and to international bodies.
The Club de Madrid reassures its compromise of creating global alliances for the promotion of Shared Societies, the prevention of violent extremism, the promotion of a next generation democracy, and the promotion of a Culture of Coexistence and Peace.
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