The Hague - Rotterdam is preparing to host former world leaders and opinion makers for the first Global Forum on Leadership for Shared Societies on November 12-14.

The conference, titled "Building a world safe for difference," is an initiative of the city of Rotterdam and the so-called Club of Madrid, an independent organization dedicated to strengthening global democracy.

But rather than being a forum of world leaders, the Club of Madrid brings together what it calls the "unique experience and resources" of former heads of states and governments.

Among the participants at the conference in Rotterdam are the former presidents Bill Clinton (US), Mary Robinson (Ireland) and Belisario Betancur (Colombia).

The guest list also boasts a great number of prime ministers, such as Kjell Magne Bondevik (Norway), Kim Campbell (Canada) and António Guterres Oliveira (Portugal).

All of them have, in some way or another, made a reputation concerning multiculturalism and human diversity.

The former politicians are due to enter debates with representatives of non-governmental organisations, research institutes and youth organisations from Europe to Africa and South- East Asia.

Speaking with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Rotterdam early November, the former prime ministers Ruud Lubbers (Netherlands) and Jenny Shipley (New Zealand), both members of the Club of Madrid, are convinced the Global Forum will bear "concrete results."

According to Shipley, former heads of state are an "asset" to international political debates and policy making.

"Former world leaders do not only possess a treasure of experience," she says, "contrary to present world leaders, they are also at liberty to speak their minds freely."

Shipley is not afraid the Global Forum will be ignored at a time when most political leaders are preoccupied getting the financial crisis under control.

"Knowing how to deal with multiculturalism and human diversity becomes especially important when the economic tide turns low," she says, adding that and the way "we deal with human diversity plays an important role in maintaining long-term stability in the world."

Adds Lubbers: "We former world leaders should help the world to take advantage of human diversity."

The choice for Rotterdam as the host of the Global Forum is not a coincidence.

No other Dutch city has such as large proportion of foreigners: in the third quarter of 2008, a total of 277,043 of Rotterdam's 585,517 citizens were migrants - all but 50,000 of non-Western origin.

The massive influx of migrants in Rotterdam in recent decades led to many problems at the turn of the century, also unparalleled in the rest of the Netherlands.

The city's original Dutch population felt increasingly alienated.

Many left the city, to be replaced by ever more migrants from all parts of the world. Often, they lacked a common language to communicate.

The socio-economic situation of the migrants was bad and unemployment and crime rose substantially.

Entire neighbourhoods were neglected. As more and more children whose native language was not Dutch entered local schools, the education level also dropped.

In early 2002, Rotterdam was the first city where the late populist politician Pim Fortuyn, assassinated a few months later, succeeded to establish his political party that advocated a strict policy on immigrants.

Six years and a Labour-lead city council later, crime has dropped substantially, the economy improved and the flight of Dutch citizens from the city has nearly stopped.

Most importantly, the city has set up a variety of projects stimulating inter-cultural dialogues and workshops - some of which will be visited by participants to the Global Forum next week.

Referring to the recent nomination of Moroccan-Dutch Ahmed Aboutaleb as Rotterdam's next mayor, former Dutch prime minister Lubbers spoke about a "milestone."

Yet on a Rotterdam tram, some Dutch citizens complained about the nomination, calling it "an embarrassment." Even in Rotterdam, the Global Forum still has its work cut out for it. (dpa)