.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..
Information compiled by CPNN
Metropolis , the metropolitan section of the World Organisation of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) has announced on their website, the The World Forum on Cities and Territories of Peace to take place in Mexico City 5-7 October, 2020.
Foto from the Madrid Forum of 2018
According to the website, the forum is conceived “as a multi-faceted and multi-level meeting place for local leaders, international organizations and networks, NGDOs, academia, and civil society, aimed at opening dialogue, reflection and the construction of solutions that promote urban environments capable of eliminating expressions of violence.”
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How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?
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This initiative follows previous forums to combat urban violence that took place in Madrid in 2017 and 2018 as a joint initiative of the mayors of Madrid and Paris (see CPNN from April 2017 and from November 2018).
At the time the mayors of Madrid and Paris were both women. An interview with Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena, quoted her as saying “I have insisted repeatedly on the fact that women’s culture is more closely linked to daily, practical affairs. It is the culture of life. . . . . [peace education] starts at school. We want children to learn the value of dialogue and mediation, and for them to learn to solve their own problems among themselves.”
At the second Madrid forum it was pointed out that “All have agreed on the importance of talking about education, changing the conception of masculinity and giving more economic autonomy to women to ensure that future generations really live in cities of peace.”
In this regard it is significant that the mayor of Mexico City is now a woman, Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman elected by popular vote to govern Mexico City. At her inauguration, she stated that “I am going to lead an honest, open, democratic, austere, inclusive government that acts with, for and for the citizenship, without distinction of party, religion or socioeconomic level, but putting all our effort to make of this, a city of rights, with justice and that diminishes the still serious social inequalities.”
Mayor Sheinbaum is a member of the Board of Directors of Metropolis.