Athens Democracy Forum

The Athens Democracy Forum (ADF), in association with The New York Times, is an international conference organized by The Democracy and Culture Foundation. It is held annually in September or October and has taken place in Athens, Greece since 2013. The forum brings together international business leaders, academics, policy makers, young people and activists to discuss and focus on new solutions to the most pressing issues facing democracy. The aim of the Athens Democracy Forum is "to serve as the North Star on which democracy and society can reorient themselves".

Key events include the Aristotle Address, the City of Athens Democracy Award, the Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize, the Democratic Innovators Politicians' Hall of Fame.

The Democracy & Culture Foundation
The Democracy & Culture Foundation exists to empower society through citizen engagement and improved governance. According to their mission statement, they do this by “by galvanizing citizens and leaders as well as bridging the gap between citizens and experts.” They also state that they are “becoming the leading global platform” for discussions about the evolution of democracy, and culture as a reflection of freedom. In addition to the Athens Democracy Forum, the Democracy & Culture Foundation hosts the Art For Tomorrow conference, which aims to analyze the social impacts of art. Established in 2015 in partnership with the New York Times, Art for Tomorrow brings together experts, activists and practitioners to explore the intersection of art, democracy, technology, and policy. Other projects facilitated by the Democracy & Culture Foundation include “Building Blocks of Democracy”, “Teens For Democracy”, “Democracy Catching up with Technology” and the Business, Climate, and Migration projects.

History
From 2013 - 2018, the Athens Democracy Forum was convened by The New York Times. Since 2019, the event has been organized by the non-profit organization, The Democracy & Culture Foundation. The first Athens Democracy Forum was held around the United Nations International Day of Democracy with the endorsement of the U.N. secretary general, and the Athens Democracy Forum continues to partner with the United Nations.

2023 Conference
The 11th edition of the Forum took place from September 27–29 and gathered over 450 attendees from all continents. The 2023 Forum was themed under 'Do we Dare to Hope?' and was opened by HE the President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. Prominent speakers included European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, Portugal's Former Secretary of State for European Affairs Bruno Maçães, Meta's President Global Affairs Nick Clegg, Filmmaker Amos Gitai, and UNESCO's former Director General Irina Bokova. The New York Times produced a special report, 'Daring to Hope That Democracy Will Prevail' highlighting the main outputs and discussions.

2022 Conference
The 10th Athens Democracy Forum took place from September 28–30 at the Zappeion Megaron, Stoa of Attalos and the Academy of Athens. 250 international guests attended the event from over 30 countries. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered the Aristotle keynote address and among the many prominent speakers were the 8th United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, American Economist Jeffrey Sachs, Vice President for Values and Transparency, European Commission Vera Jourova, Writer and Academic Yascha Mounk and Founder and Chair, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Mo Ibrahim.

2021 Conference
The 9th Athens Democracy Forum took place September 29-October 1. Prominent speakers included President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic Kyriakos Mitsotakis, American Politician and Voting Rights Advocate Stacey Abrams, Leader of Democratic Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Princeton University Professor Emeritus Kwame Anthony Appiah.

Building Blocks for Democracy
Following the 2021 Athens Democracy Forum, the Democracy & Culture Foundation initiated a four-year project “Re-imagining the Building Blocks for Democracy”. The project was launched in response to the calls during the 2021 Forum to establish more specific characteristics that make democracy resilient to 21st century issues. The Democracy & Culture Foundation initially cooperated with five partner organizations, each of which was responsible for a particular “building block”: Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin, Germany (“The power of Parties, Money and Influence”); Taejae Academy in association with Ban Ki-moon Foundation in Seoul, South Korea (“The power of the Executive”); newDemocracy Foundation in Sydney, Australia (“The power of People’); The Bertelsmann Foundation in Washington DC, United States (“The power of Information”); IDEA in association with Sapienship in Tel Aviv, Israel (“The Power of Voting”). It was agreed that the initial five partners will draft policy proposals in local experts’ panels in 2022 (stage 1), subject those proposals to the scrutiny of citizen’s panels in 2023 (stage 2) and campaign for the implementation of those proposals in 2024 (stage 3). In 2023, the Democracy & Culture Foundation partnered with McKinsey and a variety of academics and EU institutions to create two additional building blocks: “The power of Business” and “The power of AI and Ethics” as well as Foundation for Innovation and Development in Colombia, which took over “The power of Information” building block.

2022 Conference
During the 2022 Forum Luca Belgiorno-Nettis from newDemocracy Foundation, Amir Kochari from IDEA, Marcel Schepp from Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Ji Hye Shin fom Taejae Academy and Anthony Silberfeld from Bertelsmann Foundation presented stage 1 findings.

2023 Conference
In 2023 Forum results of citizens panels were presented by Andrea Venzon and Colombe Cahen-Salvador from Atlas, Ahn Byong-jin from Kyung Hee University, Iain Walker from newDemocracy Foundation, Cristian Movilă from EIDOS Foundation, Adrianna Mejía Hernández from Fundación Innovación para el Desarrollo, Marcel Schep from Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Declan O’Brien from Kofi Annan Foundation,  Kenza Sifi from Al Akhawayn University and Mael Metis from Franklin University Switzerland.

City of Athens Democracy Award
Established in 2016 by the Mayor of Athens, the City of Athens Democracy Award is presented annually at the Athens Democracy Forum to individuals with international recognition, whose work and ethics defend democratic principles.

Recipients

 * 2016 – Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch
 * 2017 – H.E. Felipe González Márquez, Former Prime Minister of Spain
 * 2018 – H.E. Joaquim Alberto Chissano, Former President of Mozambique
 * 2019 – Pawel Adamowicz, Former Mayor of the City of Gdańsk
 * 2020 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Former President of Brazil
 * 2021 – Wai Wai Nu, a Burmese activist
 * 2022 – People of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
 * 2023 – Jean-Claude Juncker, Former Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the European Commission

⁠Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize
At the Athens Democracy Forum, the Democracy & Culture Foundation, in partnership with the Kofi Annan Foundation, awards the Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize at the Athens Democracy Forum. The prize is awarded to a youth activist between 18-30 years old who exemplifies exceptional leadership, to inspire more young people to commit to the advancement of democracy. The award was established in 2023. The Athens Democracy Forum first partnered with Kofi Annan Foundation in 2017, after Annan attended the forum.

Recipient

 * Namatai Kwekweza – founder and Director of WELEAD Trust [2023]

Distinguished Speakers

 * Kofi Annan [2017]
 * Irina Bokova [2017]
 * Kevin Rudd [2017]
 * Ai WeiWei [2018]
 * Michael D. Higgins [2019]
 * Donald Tusk [2019
 * Kyriakos Mitsotakis [2020]
 * Yuval Noah Harari [2020]
 * Brad Smith [2020]
 * Stacey Abrams [2021]
 * Eduard Heger [2021]
 * Toomas Hendrik Ilves [2021]
 * Joseph E. Stiglitz [2021]
 * Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya [2021]
 * Shoshana Zuboff [2021]

Advisory board

 * Serge Schmemann – Member of the Editorial Board, Athens Democracy Forum Chairman and Program Director, The New York Times
 * Jane Bornemeier – Editor, Special Sections, The New York Times
 * Jonathan Charles – Managing Director, Communications, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
 * Kim Conniff Taber – Editorial Director, Democracy and Culture Foundation
 * Kishore Mahbubani – Former President, U.N. Security Council, and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
 * Corinne Momal-Vanian – Executive Director, Kofi Annan Foundation
 * Khalil Osiris – Founder, Truth & Reconciliation Conversations
 * Alexis Papahelas – Executive Editor, Kathimerini
 * Alexandra Pascalidou – Journalist, Author, TV & Radio host, speaker, moderator
 * Alexander Rhodes – Managing Associate, Mishcon de Reya
 * Iain Walker – Executive Director, NewDemocracy Foundation
 * Jayathma Wickramanayake – United Nations Secretary General's Envoy on Youth, United Nations