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History

The World Public Forum begins its history in 2002 when representatives of civil society from Russia, India and Greece organized the International Program "Dialogue of Civilizations". Vladimir Yakunin, Jagdish Kapur and Nicolas Papanicolaou have become the founders and co-chairmen of the Forum.

The forum "Dialogue of civilizations" has become a practical realization of the United Nations General Assembly resolution "Global Agenda for Dialogue among Civilizations" adopted on November 9, 2001 at the initiative of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Khatami.

In 2002 the President of Iran Mohammad Khatami was awarded the International Prize of Andrew the First-Called nominated by the "Dialogue of Civilizations” for his contribution to the comprehensive development of the idea of the dialogue of civilizations.

The "Dialogue of Civilizations" program started on May 19, 2002 on Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin. In July of the same year the "Kronstadt Initiative" was adopted at the conference in St. Petersburg and Anchor Square of Kronstadt. This initiative appeals to the Russian and world community for the creation and regular holding of the World Public Forum "Dialogue of civilizations" with the aim of strengthening peace and international security.

"We, the participants of the International Program "Dialogue of Civilizations", initiate the creation and support the regular holding of the World Public Forum which could become a deliberative and consultative body uniting various social organizations authorized by the heads of their states to represent the public interests of their respective countries in this social process" - Kronstadt Initiative, 2002.

The first annual session of the Forum took place in September 2003 on the island of Rhodes, Greece. It was conducted during a complicated international situation and confirmed the necessity of a broad international discussion on the problem of understanding among representatives of different civilizations. The Rhodes Forum has become the most representative among public forums in 2003 and since then has been conducted annually.

In the course of the first session of the Forum the Rhodes declaration "Dialogue of civilizations for human order" was adopted. The Declaration included an appeal to continue the discussion about mankind's destiny and expressed a wish to make this discussion an important factor in the international situation:

"So much damage has already been done to the human system, and it is being backed by so much military power that this state of affairs cannot be transformed instantly. We have first to mediate, seek peaceful, non-violent and orderly solutions which will fire the imagination of the vast society of people worldwide to direct a trend towards a humane future for all".

The participants of the Forum decided to create a standing International Coordinating Committee of the WPF "Dialogue of Civilizations" for the institutionalization of tasks, organizational forms, working structures and ways of financing the Forum.

The conference "Russia - India: dialogue in context of globalization" (Delhi, February 2003) became the first regional conference organized by the WPF "Dialogue of civilizations".

During the following years, conferences of this kind were held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, London, Paris, Vilnius, Abkhazia, Turkey, Greece, Israel, Italy, Spain and Cyprus.

The seminar "Russia and Europe in the dialogue of civilizations" in the Czech Republic (Prague, November, 2002), the roundtable on the problems of dialogue in Iran (Teheran, February, 2003), the conferences "Dialogue of Civilizations" in Russia (St. Petersburg, June, 2003), "Europe in the 21st century: crossroads of civilizations" (Prague, May, 2004) and "Latin America in the 21st century: universalism and originality" in Cuba (Varadero, Havana, March, 2005) have become landmarks in the Forum's history.

Thanks to the joint efforts of supporters of a dialogue the first session of the World Public Forum "Dialogue of Civilizations" received considerable response in the international community. The "Rhodes Declaration" adopted by the participants of the conference has become a crucial point in the formation of an international network of the dialogue's supporters and has created a firm base for their subsequent collaboration.

In the framework of the program "Dialogue of Civilizations" meetings have been conducted with such prominent political and religious leaders as UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, Metropolitan Antoniy of Sourozh, Blessed Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, President of the Republic of Cuba Fidel Castro Rus, President of the Republic of Iran Mohammad Khatami, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, President of Azerbaijan Geydar Aliev, former prime minister of India Inder Kumar Gudzhral, Head of "De Beers" Company Nicholas Oppenheimer, President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus and others.

Among the Forum's participants are such famous political leaders as the former prime minister of the Czech Republic Milosh Zeman, Head of the National Administration of Palestine, Honorary Chairman of the Palestinian-Russian Friendship Society Mahmoud Abbas, President of the World Islamic Congress Al-Riphai Hamid Ahmad, Deputy of the Knesset of Israel Mitsna Amram, Deputy Minister of foreign affairs of Palestine Abdullah Abdullah, UNESCO ambassador of good will for the development of dialogue among civilizations, President of the World Armenian Congress Ara Abramyan, member of the State Council of Greece Theodor Siufas, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Cuba Ricardo Alarcon de Agesada, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation A.V. Saltanov, Head of the Federal Agency of Information Technologies V.G. Matyukhin and others. The World Public Forum has gathered together such outstanding figures in science and culture as the famous researcher Sergey Kapitsa and the Polish film director Krzistof Zanussi.

Among the active participants of the Forum there are also hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church: Vladimir, Metropolitan of Tashkent and Middle Asia, Mark, bishop of Egorievsk, Mikhail, Representative of ROCOR in Russia bishop of Boston, Archimandrite Zakhey, Representative of the American Orthodox Church in Russia, and representatives of Georgian, Ukrainian, Greek and other Orthodox Churches, of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and representatives of Muslims, Jews and other confessions.

In his address to the participants of the Forum, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksiy II said: "You have a new task and new meetings ahead of you because it is a meeting of a human being with a human being, a meeting filled with love to ones neighbor that lies at the basis of the dialogue. It is difficult to change the world, to cease senseless and cruel conflicts, the destruction of sacred places. But our love and our belief can make us better and together with us, also those people, with whom we conduct a dialogue".

According to the words of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the mission of "Dialogue of Civilizations" program is to develop of "a vivid dialogue among the representatives of civil society from different countries".