56TH EUROPA FORUM
The theme of the 56th Europa Forum – “Lions: leaders of European Humanitarian Citizenship” - focuses the attention of all European Lions on an issue that cuts across all our services and the way we deliver them: our international character.
This international dimension is evidenced in the new mission voted by the New Delhi Board and the solemn declaration that the aim of all Lions throughout the world is to “promote international understanding of peoples through Lions Clubs”.
It is therefore up to our Association and European Lions to contribute to building a new humanitarian citizenship that promotes understanding and dialogue among the peoples of the world and so lays the basis for European humanitarian citizenship.
The commitment of European Lions in this direction is summed up inThe Charter of Humanitarian Citizenship voted at the Rome Forum in 2004 and implemented at the Bucharest Forum in 2007.
Although humanitarian assistance is a primary right of humanitarian citizenship, it goes hand in hand with the duties incumbent upon humanitarian citizens. Humanitarian citizenship means first and foremost promoting fundamental human rights, which includes the right of all peoples of the world to develop as human beings.
If we want to build our own European humanitarian citizenship, we must work together in Bologna to launch a programme that takes full account of our internationalism and allows the gradual internationalization of what we do, not only within the Association but also at the level of each single District, Constituency, Zone or Club.