Global Forum for Democracy 2022 – voices for freedom in Lucerne

Global Forum Lucerne — An empty swimming pool to house discussions full of democracy at the Global Forum on Democracy in Lucerne swissinfo.ch /Carlo Pisani

Series Global Voices of Freedom, Episode 15:

At the 10th Global Forum for Modern Direct Democracy in Lucerne, discussions are focused on how to make democracies stronger in this time of global crisis. In this video series, we showcase eight diverse points of view from around the world, from countries ranging from Ukraine to Mexico.

This content was published on September 23, 2022 - 09:06

1 minute

Studied history and politics at University of Bern. Worked at Reuters, the newspapers Der Bund and Berner Zeitung, and the Förderband radio station. I am concerned with the Swiss practice of modern direct democracy in all its aspects and at all levels, my constant focus being the citizen.

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The filmmaker from Italy, who was raised in Africa, calls Switzerland home now. Carlo studied film directing at the Italian National Film School, worked as a documentary editor and director/producer in Berlin and Vienna. He crafts multimedia into engaging narratives. 

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Weltforum für Demokratie 2022 – acht Stimmen der Freiheit aus Luzern Original

Putin’s war against Ukraine has brought home that we cannot take liberal democracies and their freedoms for granted.

Ensuring that democracies can survive, and even emerge stronger after being threatened, is not the job of governments and parliaments alone. It is also up to the citizens. This was a point made by former United States President Barack Obama in his 2017 farewell speech when he said: “The most important office in a democracy: Citizen”.

The Global Forum for Modern Direct Democracy, which is taking place from September 21-25, has gathered together around 400 participants from 50 countries. Below a selection of them present their vision of how democracies could be made more robust – and also more democratic.

Get involved: you can also make suggestions and join in the discussion on how to strengthen democracies in the debate below. We look forward to hearing from you!

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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

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