H.E. Juan
Antonio Yáñez-Barnuevo, Permanent Representative of Spain to the United
Nations; H.E. Baki Ilkin, Permanent Representative of Turkey to the
United Nations; Prof. Tomaz Mastnak, Director, Office of the
Alliance of Civilizations; Ahmed Younis, National Director, Muslim
Public Affairs Council; Sr. Joan Kirby, Temple of Understanding, and
Chair, NGO/DPI Executive Committee; Aberrahim Foukara, United Nations
Bureau Chief, Al Jazeera; and Martin Burcharth, US Correspondent,
Information (Danish newspaper), discussed the Alliance of Civilizations
and how the media contributed to promoting mutual understanding between
different cultures and beliefs.
Ambassador Yáñez-Barnuevo
described the establishment of the Alliance of Civilizations and how
the Spanish and Turkish Governments co-sponsored the initiative, which
was launched by the Secretary-General in July 2005. He briefly outlined
the composition of the High-level Group for Alliance of Civilizations
which was expected to prepare a report that would include an analysis
of the problem as well as recommendations for actions to be taken in
order to solve the problem. Ambassador Yáñez-Barnuevo stressed that the
High-level Group was to address deep-rooted perceptions, not immediate
events.
Ambassador Ilkin started by saying that
the issue was not new and that there had been efforts to try and
address it before. He said that the High-level Group would look at best
practices and try to complement the work that had already been done.
Ambassador Ilkin stressed that the second phase of their work would be
much more important, namely the implementation of the recommendations
put forward in the report by the High-level Group.
Prof. Mastnak
talked about the meeting of the High-level Group, which took place in
Doha, Qatar last weekend. This was the second meeting of the High-level
Group. The UN Secretary-General also participated in the meeting, which
looked at questions of youth, immigrant populations, education and
media. Also high on the agenda was the cartoon controversy, which was
understood as a crisis that the Alliance needed to deal with. Prof.
Mastnak also referred to the joint statement that was issued at the
meeting by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Secretary
General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the
Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, the First Deputy Prime
Minister, Foreign Minister of Qatar, the Foreign Minister of Spain and
Foreign Minister of Turkey. (Hard copies of the statement and other
relevant information material were available at the briefing.)
Ahmed Younis
talked about how in his opinion the recent cartoon controversy was
affecting the majority of moderate Muslims in the US. He said that the
Muslims did not want the Danish Government to curb freedom of speech,
but that they expected the Government to exercise its own freedom of
speech and respond to the controversy. He said that the unfortunate
reality of the controversy was that the conversation was dominated by
extremists on both sides. Most Muslims were not represented by them.
Joan Kirby, rscj
stressed the need for dialogue and education and how important it was
to have inter-religious understanding and cooperation between the
diverse groups. She highlighted another initiative, namely the
Tri-Party Forum which brings together the UN system agencies, UN Member
States and the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN to create
innovative partnerships across traditional boundaries to seek together
new forms of effective, just and global cooperation. She also expressed
interest to cooperate with the Alliance of Civilizations.
Aberrahim Foukara
started by saying that the media worked in mysterious ways. Sometimes
they contributed to cross-cultural understanding and other times they
caused damage. He illustrated that point by giving several examples of
positive and negative media coverage in terms of its cultural
sensitivity. Mr. Foukara acknowledged the fact that it was difficult
for the media to step back and stressed that every so often they did
contribute to the positive dialogue among civilizations.
Martin Burcharth
said that the media had an incredible role to play in advancing
cross-cultural understanding and there was a lot to be learned from the
recent cartoon controversy. He felt that the cartoons were not about
freedom of speech but about one newspaper testing the reaction of the
Muslim community in Denmark to being publicly ridiculed. He also said
that libel and defamation were clearly against the law in Denmark.
While the Danish Muslim community exercised their right to peaceful
protest, the cartoons were published around the world and the
controversy took its own turn.
The panel discussion was followed by a question-and-answer session.
A
question was raised about whether some countries with large Muslim
populations used the cartoon controversy to re-direct attention away
from internal problems. In response to the question, Ambassador
Yáñez-Barnuevo said that the Alliance of Civilizations preceded the
cartoon controversy. He stressed that the Alliance was established to
deal with a deeply-rooted misperceptions and divides. The cartoons were
only a symptom of the much bigger issue at hand; in Prof. Mastnak’s
words there was a whole “reservoir of resentments”.
In a separate ad hoc briefing Rachel Groux,
Counsellor, Office of the President of the General Assembly, outlined
the Human Rights Council proposal as submitted by the President of the
General Assembly last week. She described the main differences between
the current Commission on Human Rights and the proposed Human Rights
Council, including membership (six less seats, total of 47; elected by
absolute majority in the GA) and expectations arising from the
membership, term limitations (2 term maximum, followed by an
unspecified pause), meetings (regular throughout the year), reporting
structure (GA instead of ECOSOC), universal periodic review and
possibility of suspension. In response to a question about where the
process of establishing the Council stood at the moment, Ms. Groux
responded by saying that the President of the General Assembly was
collecting feedback from the Member States. She added that hopefully
more will be known by 13 March when the Commission begins its meeting.
The
briefing was well attended by about 100 representatives of
non-governmental organizations, UN and Permanent Mission staff. It was
webcast live and is archived at www.un.org/dpi/ngosection and/or www.un.org/webcast
