PRAGUE: His Holiness the Dalai Lama will deliver the opening address of Forum 2000 Conference Societies in Transition during a four days visit to the Czech Republic capital Prague. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will arrive in the Czech Republic today (14 September) at the invitation of Forum 2000 for the 17th annual Forum 2000 Conference.
The two days annual Forum 2000 Conference starts on 16 September. More than 100 global leaders from politics, academia, civil society, media, business and religion will discuss challenges and threats related to democratic transitions. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will take part in the Forum 2000 International Advisory Board and Shared Concern Initiative members meeting after the opening addresses of the conference. Fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Republic of South Africa’s former President Mr. Frederik Willem de Klerk as well as former Czech Foreign Minister Mr. Karel Schwarzenberg who are members of the Advisory Board will attend the meeting. This year’s conference is inspired by the legacy of Forum 2000 founder and former Czech President Václav Havel, who dedicated his life to both the struggle for freedom and human dignity against totalitarianism and the transition of his country to an open and thriving democracy. The conference aims to explore the challenges, opportunities, and risks in transitional processes from the post-Soviet region and the Arab World to Latin America and Asia. The goal is to deepen our understanding of what is necessary to move from authoritarianism to democracy and the causes of the cessation or reversal of these processes. Discussions will target institutional, constitutional and societal developments, political party dynamics, transitional justice, media, education, foreign policies, as well as cultural factors including religion and historical memory. On 14 September, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will give a public talk on Compassion and Respect in Today’s Society at the Tipsport Arena in Prague and one day teaching on Geshe Langri Thangpa’s Eight Verses of Training the Mind at the Podvinný mlýn Arena on 15 September. His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s final public address during this visit will be at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University on Democracy, Human Rights and Religious Freedom in East Asia along with three other speakers. This address will take place on 17 September afternoon. This is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 10th visit to the Czech Republic. The first visit was in January 1990 at the official invitation of President Václav Havel immediately after the Velvet revolution. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will leave for Hanover, Germany, on 17 September evening.
Media contact: 0700 – 0800 hrs Czech Local Times
1800 – 2100 hrs Czech Local Times
Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa +420 777 964 219