1st International Salon for Peace Initiatives - june 2004

See the websiteof the 1st Salon (in french)

On the 4th, 5th and 6th of June 2004, the French Coalition for the Decade, the Secours Catholique - Caritas France and the CCFD (Comité Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Développement) organized le first International Salon for Peace Initiatives under the auspices of the UNESCO and with the support of the Mairie de Paris and the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The first Salon has achieved a great success, with the participation of more than 10 000 visitors. It gathered 114 French and international organizations in 84 booths.
In the booths and in the different spaces, many activities were conceived particurlary for children and teenagers. Thus, 25 groups, mostly school groups gathering more than 600 children and teenagers visited the Salon. In order to facilitate their visit to the Salon, a " passport to discover peace " was given to them at the entrance.

114 activities during 3 days
114 activities took place during the three days of the Salon in five spaces.
Workshops allowed visitors to live a peace and non-violence experience through role-play, forum-theater and artistic activities.
Debates, conferences and screening of documentaries on the culture of peace and non-violence have been proposed throughout the Salon.
Four roundtables were vital to the Salon activities. Organized under the responsibility of Jacques Semelin, research director in the CNRS et professor in the Paris Political Science Institute (Sciences Po Paris), they allowed for the encounter and the debate among several scientific disciplines (sociology, psychology and pedagogy) and several citizen practices (associative, political).
Concerts, spectacles, exhibitions of sculpture, paintings, photographs, posters, drawings and other creations showed the contribution made by art to the culture of peace and non-violence.

Patronage and media partnerships

The first Salon received the patronage of the Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
On the occasion of the 1st Salon, media partnerships were concluded with the daily newspaper Le Monde, the weekly magazines La Vie and Télérama and the radio station RFI. They all announced the organization of the Salon in their columns and programs, in return for the presence of their logo in all communication documents of the Salon.

Media coverage

Apart from partner media (Le Monde, La Vie, Télérama and RFI), several press articles were written about the Salon : AFP (2 items), Alternatives économiques, Alternatives Non-Violentes, Cahiers de la Réconciliation, Changer international, Coordination Sud, Croire aujourd'hui, Eduquer autrement, Faim Développement Magazine, L'Humanité hebdo, Messages, L'Hebdo-Le monde des ados, La Nouvelle vie ouvrière, Nouvelle-Cité, Panorama, Paris Paname, Partage témoigne, Pèlerin, Prier, Réforme, Revue des parents, SNOP, Télérama Sortir, Témoignage chrétien, Terres Civiles (Suisse), Vivre Plus...
Other articles were published later in La Croix (" Les enfants à l'école de la paix à La Villette ", June 8th ) , La Vie (" Succès du Salon de la paix ", June 10th), Dimanche Express de Belgique (" La paix commence par le dialogue et la rencontre ", June 13th) and Non-Violence Actualité (" Succès pour le premier Salon International des Initiatives de paix ", July-August).
Several radio stations also announced the organization of the Salon: RTL, le Mouv', Radio Notre-Dame. Several programs presented the Salon on Beur FM program broadcasted on May 31st), on France Info (program " Planète Citoyenne ", several broadcasts on June 3rd), on Radio Vatican (interview on June 3rd), on RCF (program " Perspectives " on May 25th 2004) and on RFI (4 10-minute programs on May 31st, June 1st , 2nd and 3rd).
As for televisions channels, an interview was broadcasted on KTO on June 4th and a reportage on France 2 in the morning of June 6th.
About fifty journalistes visited the Salon, photographers (CIRIC, independant...), audiovisuel media (Arte, France 3 IDF, Le Jour du Seigneur, KTO, RFI, RMC...), perss (Nouvel Obs, L'Hebdo-Le monde des ados...), specialized press (Actualité juive, Planète humanitaire, Espaces latinos...), international press (Agence Notimex, The Sunday Times, presse japonaise...).
As for websites, Search engines show 766 results of the Salon on the Internet.
Advertizements and reports were published in numerous newsletters of the participant associations.

Evaluations
On the last day of the Salon, exhibitors were asked to make a first evaluation. 91 % of the exhibitors who answered estimated that the Salon had been up to their expectations. They expressed their satisfaction or their extreme satisfaction of their encounter with the public (85 %) and with other exhibitors (88 %).
An evaluation sheet was also sent to the supervisors of the children and youth groups who visited the Salon. The first answers showed that the visit to the Salon had been very much appreciated.
Another questionnaire was sent to the volunteers who helped in the preparation of the Salon. Answers showed that the overwhelming majority had been satisfied of their participation in this event.
Numerous testimonies during the Salon and the messages left in the Salon guest book show the great satisfaction of the public, as witnessed by these statements:
"Fortunately, you have created this Salon. It is a pleasure to see all these forces united".
"This Salon is an excellent initiative that shows us what can be done to build a sustainable peace and a universal justice. Together, let's start this work".
"Thank you for this beautiful initiative, a magnificent gathering of thousands and thousands of ants that militate together, each in its place, to make peace. We are in need of each and every one with all their differences and complementarities".