PARIS, November 13. /TASS/. The Peace Forum, held for the second time in the French capital, wrapped up on Wednesday. The organizers chose ten projects suitable for international grants following a number of meetings and seminars.
"Paris Peace Forum offers a platform for projects and initiatives devoted to creating peace in the future", the forum's Director-General Justin Vaïsse said during the final conference. He expressed confidence that the event "was recognized as an international summit, a top-level conference and a decision-making platform". "The decisions cannot come from governments any more, they need to emerge in the coalitions on a lower level", he explained.
"It all started as an experiment. In my opinion, it has proved its effectiveness", said the President of the Steering Committee Trisha Shetty, adding that with the first forum held a year ago the orginizers were worried about the range of topics and the specifics of the institutions participating as the range was too wide. "Our hope is to become an incubator for decisions on a local level in order to help them broaden", the pointed out.
Two out of ten projects chosen by the jury (The Abidjan Principles and Rapid Response Mechanism for Higher Education in Emergencies) focus on ensuring access to education both with the government's and private investors' assistance. The programs dubbed Sustainable cities Program and Global High Seas Treaty touch upon the climate change. The first one concentrates on helping local authorities maintain the cities in conformity with the Sustainable Development Goals, while the second one focuses on setting up an international agreement on biodiversity preservation in the World Ocean. The participants of the Principles for Inclusive Peace are working on new means of settling global conflicts.
The Model Drug Law West Africa initiative advises West African authorities on anti-drug laws, taking into account human rights and advice from the best foreign practice. The Ultra-poor Graduation initiative mobilizes development companies to support projects on providing people with low incomes with decent housing. SADA's Women Cooperative helps female refugees from Syria to find work and integrate into Turkish society. The authors of Festival a Sahel Ouvert suggest organizing a large-scale festival where cultural representatives and NGOs will preserve cultural heritage and promote economic development through theater performances, cinema, music and dancing.
Russia as one of the perticipants
In total, 114 out of 700 submitted projects from more than 100 countries were admitted. The Art of Dialogue. Dialogue of the Arts developed jointly by Russia and France as a part of the forum of civil societies Trianon Dialogue was among the selected ones. The project is aimed at promoting culture as an instrument for reflecting political trends and exposing contemporary problems, as well as forging contacts between different countries and peoples, primarily between Russia and France.
Earlier France's Ambassador to Russia Sylvie Bermann told reporters that Russia is presented by four projects in culture, education, ecology and high technology. Rating in Earth's Defense is one of those project, it assesses the impact of enterprises on natural ecosystems. The ambassador noted that Russia's recent ratification of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement makes this initiative more relevant. The Art of Dialogue. Dialogue of the Arts initiative the second on the list of Russia's projecs.The third project is aimed at supporting non-profit organizations' healthcare initiatives and fighting against dangerous diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, substance abuse and tuberculosis. The fourth project dedicated to new technologies was proposed by Kaspersky Lab, which is also the forum's partner.