The Future of Democracy: A Recap of our peace&justice café on June 23
On June 23 we held the fifth edition of our premier hybrid event series the peace&justice café. This time, the theme was ‘The Future of Democracy’: where it stands, where it’s going, and how we can protect it.
With over 150 participants both online and in-person at The Hague Humanity Hub, as well as a superb collection of presenters and roundabout hosts, the event was a stimulating afternoon of debate and conversation.
After our varied round-tables, the conversation moved on to our keynote dialogue featuring Thijs Berman, Executive Director of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD); Khadija Patel, the renowned journalist and Chair of the International Press Institute; Ben Wagner, Director of the AI Futures Lab at TU Delft; and Carmen, a women’s rights activist working at EmpoderaME.
During the debate we constantly checked in with our audience via a MentiMeter. Check out the results below!
The peace&justice café included 13 different roundabouts, 5 of which took place online and 8 in-person. These ranged from discussions on how the invasion of Ukraine could affect other post-Soviet republics (with International Alert), considering how the digital world can offer chances for democratic participation (with The London Story), and why the Rule of Law is key to securing the future of democracy (with the Netherlands Helsinki Committee).
For the full list of roundabout topics that were covered, check out our website.
The roundabouts were incredibly well reviewed by participants, and several interesting statements emerged from the discussions:
From “Why the Rule of Law is key to the future of democracy” (with the Netherlands Helsinki Committee):
“Don’t forget to focus on the third pillar, the judiciary, as key to ensuring rule of law works in a society”
From “Platform politics: Rethinking the future of democracies in the digital world” (with The London Story):
“As platforms seek high engagement and to keep users, their algorithms amplify inflammatory content and conspiracy theories. When political actors appropriate conspiracy theory narratives, their content receives a large amount of interactions and views.”
From “The importance of film & dialogue about democracy: Supporting and using film in your work as an NGO” (with Movies That Matter):
“We learned about the power movies can have for NGOs and how we as NGOs can support meaningful movies.”
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Join us at the next peace&justice café!
Our next edition will take place on Thursday, November 10 (16:00 – 18:30) and will focus on The Path Ahead for Gender Justice. As with other editions we’re in for an afternoon of stimulating debate, learning from peers, and insights into how we can achieve gender justice from the experts in the field. Pre-register now!
