Reasons for our commitment
Poursuing my commitment to peace
A statesman’s responsibilities do not end with his term of office. Above and beyond political commitments, there remains an individual’s duty to fight for that which he believes to be right.
(Credit : Eric Lefeuvre)
Today’s major question concerns the world we will leave behind for future generations. It is also because this involves the future of the French and their children that I wish to take on my full responsibility in this fight. I wish to remain fully mobilized in the thick of the fray on their behalf.
Since the end of the 1980s, a triple threat has pervaded over us all: the danger of the standardization of our diverse world cultures, the menace to our environment, and the scandal of poverty. These are major threats to peace and the very survival of our planet.
The urgency of the situation has pushed to me to act and led me to orient the Fondation’s first efforts towards five vital axes to help the poorest countries:
• Conflict prevention
• Access to clean water and sanitation
• Access to quality medication and healthcare
• The fight against deforestation and desertification
• The safeguarding of cultural diversity
Governments, businesses, and citizens: together we must unite behind these objectives. Each of us has a role to play and we must start today. Tomorrow is already too late.
Jacques Chirac
Acting in the service of peace
Protecting biodiversity, dialogue between cultures and fostering respect for the environment: because these issues all require multiple responses, the action of the Fondation Chirac will take multiple forms.
Jacques Chirac has always pursued his political ambition of fostering an international culture of mutual respect, forging ties between worlds and building a more harmonious global society.
Throughout his political life, he worked to ensure that peace prevailed over the forces of war, solidarity over indifference, sharing over selfish considerations and responsibility over fatalism.
As an ardent activist for cultural diversity, Jacques Chirac seeks to give genuine meaning to the universal principle of the equal dignity of men and women and people. Thus, in order to encourage the shift towards a sustainable model of development, which includes this indispensable dimension, he is of those who advocate a dialogue between cultures and civilizations.
Through the Fondation Chirac, he still pursues his goal of acting in the service of peace.
Peace is undermined by unresolved conflicts and crises, by environmental threats, and by the increasing risk of future climatic refugees whose numbers could reach millions. Peace is undermined by our short-sightedness and failure to support social solidarity, by the steamrolling of singular cultures and by rekindled conflicts rooted in clashes between cultural identities.
Because the new challenges of protecting biodiversity, enabling a dialogue between cultures and fostering respect for the environment all require multiple responses, the action of the Fondation Chirac will take multiple forms.
Depending on the issue, it will support existing initiatives, advocate causes or participate in testing of promising projects, all with the aim of contributing to the development of an effective system for regulating globalization and reinventing world governance.
Jacques Chirac launches this undertaking with the heightened awareness of the urgent need to act while there is still time.
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