Remarks by Ms. Nihal Saad,
Director of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations,
at the UNOCT Ambassadorial-level Quarterly Briefing to Member States
ECOSOC, UN Headquarters, 5 March 2024
Thank you, Mr. Chair,
Your Excellency Mr. Vladimir Voronkov,
Under-Secretary-General of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism,
Excellencies,
Distinguished colleagues,
Thank you for inviting UNAOC to the Quarterly Briefing. USG Miguel Moratinos, the High Representative is traveling on mission in Geneva. He sends his best regards.
I am pleased to brief you on UNAOC’s most recent activities.
Over the past 3 months, UNAOC continued to advance dialogue between civilizations, respect for diversity and enhancement of intercultural and interreligious dialogue as important elements in combating terrorism and in preventing and countering violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism in line with OP17 and OP20 of The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy: eighth review.
In Abu Dhabi Last month, we co-organized with The Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence of the United Arab Emirates and the Emirates Scholars International Center, a conference on Dialogue of Civilizations and Tolerance, which was attended by government officials, grassroots, faith actors, religious leaders representing diverse denominations and scholars. More than 600 research papers were presented reaffirming the value of inter-civilizational dialogue in strengthening social cohesion and providing a counter-narrative to extremist ideologies and racist discourse.
In Antalya, Türkiye last week, the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations addressed a panel at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Rising Racism, Xenophobia and Islamophobia.
He underpinned the root causes of polarization and the disturbing rise in racism and religious intolerance based on religion, belief, ethnicity, culture and gender. He highlighted the numerous programmatic activities and initiatives implemented by UNAOC particularly those involving youth and grassroots to promote peace, and respect of human dignity through capacity-building workshops, sports, the arts and education.
Identifying, understanding and addressing the root causes of violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism is key in prevention efforts. Therefore, the first line of defense against violence and conflict should be an examination of the root causes, promotion of the rule of law and respect for human rights.
It is important to highlight the UN GA Res A/res/77/243 which reaffirmed that terrorism and violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic group.
Excellencies,
UNAOC programmes and initiatives are grounded in strategies that reflect marginalized and vulnerable communities.
UNAOC has long recognized the importance of working in complementary with civil society organizations. CSOs have a unique role in understanding community needs and challenges being often closer to the direct targets and beneficiaries of our work.
Here are few examples:
In January 2024, we announced the youth-led organizations who are recipients of our Youth Solidarity Fund. The project is one of the leading support mechanisms in the United Nation system for young people promoting social cohesion and tacking polarization through their youth led projects since 2008. Over 600 applications from 86 countries were received. 7 organizations were selected from Sieraleone, Uganda, Guine-Bisau, Indonesia, Malawi, Bosnia Herzegovina, and Egypt. To date, UNAOC funded and provided capacity building support to 80 youth-led organizations in more than 44 countries representing a total of $2.5 million in investments. The funded grassroots implement projects contributing to peaceful and inclusive societies through ICD and IRD.
Recognizing the importance of mobilizing all stakeholders to better address challenges related to preventing and countering terrorism in a whole of society approach, UNAOC partners with the private sector to leverage the respective strengths to empower grassroots projects, scale up social innovation, drive meaningful change and ultimately make a more sustainable impact in the community served. Through the “Intercultural Innovation Hub” (IIH), in collaboration with BMW Group, and with the support of Accenture, UNAOC identifies innovative grassroots projects implemented by CSOs which benefit from financial grants and a holistic support consisting of a blend of in person and online coaching focused on bolstering the capacities of recipient organizations and improving the long-term impact of their projects, allowing them to sustainably expand their range of action and replicate their initiatives in other contexts. A new call for applications of IIH was launched on 19 February .
Last November UNAOC with UNOCT, within the framework of the United Nations Global Programme on Security of Major Sporting Events and Promotion of Sport and its Values as a Tool to Prevent Violent Extremism, in collaboration with the African Union Sport Council and the 13th African Games LOC, organized a UN-African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Youth Forum on the Role of Young in the 13th African Games with the objective of raising awareness of the role and significance of sport in PVE and compiling recommendations on integrating young people in organizing major sporting event and related sport-for-PVE initiatives
In an effort to develop new pedagogical tools fostering intercultural dialogue, UNAOC collaborated in the design of the “Tutored Online Training Course on Global Education and Intercultural/Interfaith Dialogue”, an initiative led by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, in collaboration with the Aga Khan Development Network, the KAICIID – Dialogue Centre, the Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir – European Institute of Education for Democratic Culture, and UNAOC. The course took place in Fall 2023.
In May 2024, we are co-organizing with the Government of Azerbaijan the 6th iteration of the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue under the title: “Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity” to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
And last but not least, in Q4 2024, UNAOC will organize its 10 Global Forum in Portugal.
We look forward to our continued collaboration with UNOCT and the UN Global Compact colleagues.