“How democratic education prepared me as city councillor”: Simone learnt to become an active citizen, through actually experiencing true and full democracy in my school. Her democratic education also taught Her to learn and work together with people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds, and to treat them as equals. She now knows how precious it is to have fundamental rights. She is defending them to build a more democratic, transparent and inclusive society - by being a city councillor and an education activist.

Storytelling - How democratic education prepared me as city councillor

Matt Leighninger leads Public Agenda’s work in public engagement and democratic governance, and directs the Yankelovich Center for Public Judgment. Previously, Matt was the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), an alliance of major organizations and leading scholars working in the field of deliberation and public participation. Over the last twenty years, Matt has worked with public participation efforts in over 100 communities, in 40 states and four Canadian provinces. Matt serves on the boards of e-democracy.org, the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2USA), The Democracy Imperative, and the Participatory Budgeting Project, and is a Senior Associate for Everyday Democracy.

YAMAWAKI Keizo is a professor of Meiji University, Tokyo. He specializes in migrant integration policy. He has advised numerous local governments as well as ministries of the national government in Japan. He is best known as the chair of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ committee which produced the first governmental report on migrant integration in the country. Since 2010, he has worked with the Council of Europe and the Japan Foundation to promote exchange of ideas and good practices in migrant integration between cities in Japan and Europe. In 2012-2013, he was based in Europe as a visiting fellow of the University of Oxford and that of the Migration Policy Group, Brussels.

Stelios Perrakis is Professor of International and European Institutions, Department of International, European and Area Studies at Panteion University (Athens). He is Founder and Director of the European Centre of Research and Training on Human Rights and Humanitarian Action, Panteion University and holder of the UNESCO Chair “Democracy, human rights and peace”. From 1996-2000 he was Secretary General of European Affairs, Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2002 he is member of the International Humanitarian Fact-finding Commission.