An unprecedented gathering in Europe of more than a thousand Europeans, together with representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America met in Lisbon, November 3 to 5, 2006 with two public rallies.
The first one, the European Humanist Forum, an open gathering, took place in the Main Lecture Theatre of the University of Lisbon, with the presence of experts in several areas. The second one, a mobilisation in Rossio, where a joint appeal was made for world nuclear disarmament. About 1,500 people participated in this rally, on the evening of Saturday November 4th.
The work was organised in different subject areas: Alternative Economy, Alternative movements & Grass-roots social groups, Anti-Discrimination, Art and popular expressions, Cultures, Migrations and International Cooperation, Digital technologies of information and communication, Ecology & Environment, Education, Health, Human rights, Media, Peace and non-violence, Political parties, Religiosity and Spirituality, Student Movement.
“Today, nuclear war is, above ecological catastrophe, the greatest danger concerning the entire world” said Loredana Cici. “Israel possesses this weapon and does not adhere to the non-proliferation treaty, like Pakistan and India. Not far from here, three atomic powers are working militarily, the United States and the United Kingdom in Iraq and Afghanistan and Russia in Chechnya. Afghanistan is where the most important military alliance is fighting, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), of which France is a part, which in turn is another atomic power.
The most devastating arsenal of all times is concentrated in the zone between the western limits of India through to the Suez Canal. A simple spark could provoke the conflagration that will not only affect this zone…
The challenges today are global; and global and unequivocal should be the responses.
The conflict of economic interests threatens to become a conflict of cultures.
The European Regional Forum is the occasion in which to take an important step in the process of integration in which diverse cultures, that together with the unstoppable phenomenon of migration includes those that originate from other continents, giving each one of them the greatest contribution towards that which unites, leaving to one side that which differentiates.
A path that from this small and ancient continent is preparing a process that will explode, at a global level, to accelerate the formation of the only nation to which we aspire, the Universal Human Nation”.
Europe for Peace