The international Forum 2000 in Prague, adopted on October 17 the Prague Declaration with the amendment of Grigory Yavlinsky on the creation and implementation of the World Programme for Free Basic Primary Education for Children All Over the World. The Declaration addresses the international community, different international organisations and national governments.

Yavlinsky also provided detailed explanations at the Forum on the need to adopt such a programme, as well as a food aid programme for the poorest countries as a basic pre-requisite in the successful fight against terrorism.

“ As an economist I know my figures and I am sure that the world has enough money to immediately start education programmes everywhere around the globe. Education is the shortest, most effective and most significant way of preventing recent developments [that took place on September 11, 2001], said Yavlinsky. He also thinks that the international community and international organisations should begin acting immediately, instead of plunging into “absolutely non-productive or even counterproductive” discussions that “there are poor and rich countries in the world and that “this is the justification for many developments”.

Speaking about ways of resolving the problem of hunger, Yavlinsky stressed that here one should speak about food aid progammes and not humanitarian aid which is granted only in emergencies. “I find it strange that humanitarian aid – food aid - is only coming after the start of the war. From the point of starvation there are many places like Afghanistan in the world. Why should we wait with our aid until a war starts?” asked Yavlinsky.

He also thinks that in past wars “both the sides used the same means and methods of struggle against each other”, but today the accent should be made on a humanitarian response to terrorism – this is the only way to effectively struggle with terrorism without compromising on basic human rights and values. “Terrorists have no limitations, except for technical limitations, while we are extremely restricted in our actions by our principles, values, views and everything that we term human rights,” noted Yavlinsky.

The annual international conference “Forum 2000” has been held in Prague under the protectorate of the President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel since 1997.

This year conference participants include the Dalai Lama, the former President of Germany, Richard von Weizsacker who signed the treaty on the re-union of Germany, ex-President of South Africa Frederik Willem de Klerk, ex-President of the USA Bill Clinton, human rights

defender Sergei Kovalyov, writer and journalist Adam Michnik, scholar and politician H.E. Sheikh Abbas Mohajerani, scholar and politician H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Mohammed Ali, Prince of Jordan HRH El Hassan bin Talal, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, political scientist Jacques Rupnik, philosopher and political scientist Francis Fukuyama.

See also:

Acts of Terror in the US

Grigory Yavlinsky will participate in the international conference “Forum 2000”