Remarks by Mr. Miguel Ángel Moratinos,
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for UNAOC,
at the UNAOC Group of Friends High-Level Meeting
27 September 2024, Conference Room 1, United Nations headquarters, New York
Your Excellency, Mr. Jose Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Spain,
Your Excellency, Mr. Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye,
Your Excellency, Mr. Paulo Rangel , Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of the Portuguese Republic,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
I warmly welcome you all to UNAOC Group of Friends High-Level Meeting an I thank you for making time in your hectic schedules to participate in this meeting.
It goes without saying that the Group of Friends of UNAOC has been the driving force behind the effective improvement and progress of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations over the years.
Today, the role of UNAOC is increasingly being recognized as an essential soft power political tool for preventive diplomacy, which works to support the conflict prevention and conflict resolution agenda of the United Nations. During the past two decades, UNAOC has pioneered a range of approaches and activities across its priority areas namely, youth, education, media, migration and women as peace mediators. The impact of its grassroots projects and initiatives has been significant, particularly those implemented for and with civil society organizations and youth.
This role is needed more than ever before at a particularly demanding time marked by multiple global challenges and a very complex geopolitical landscape.
I am very encouraged that the Pact for the Future includes several references that are aligned with UNAOC mandate and objectives under action 11, 13, 18, and 35 pertinent to sustaining peace, building inclusive and just societies, addressing the root causes of conflicts, combating racism, racial discrimination, religious intolerance and promoting intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
As such , I also recognize the responsibility that falls on us with other UN entities with relevant mandates.
Excellencies,
Yesterday, my office circulated UNAOC Action Plan 2024-2026 to all the Group of Friends.
The proposed Action Plan builds on existing UNAOC programming activities and suggests several additional focus areas that correspond to the evolving global landscape and aim to enhance the ability of UNAOC to carry out its mandate.
In the next few minutes, I would like to give a quick overview of the main components of the Action Plan:
I have identified 5 priorities of which 2 are new:
- Prevention
- Mediation
- Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE)
The 2 new Priority area are :
- Promotion of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, including dialogue among civilizations for our shared humanity, and
- Addressing religious intolerance , bigotry and other forms of discrimination.
On Prevention: prevention remains our best hope for preventing new conflicts from flaring up.
The UNAOC project activities streamlined across UNAOC 5 pillars have retained the support of Member States of the Group of Friends. Over the years, these activities have become increasingly aligned with UN policy framework and priorities and key elements of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 4, SDG 5, SDG 10, SDG 16 as well as SDG 17.
We continue to strengthen established flagship programs and project , while introducing new action points across
Youth and Education.
On Mediation: In addition to completing the implementation of several training workshops for African women as peacemakers in Central African Republic, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo , Religious Mediation has been added as a new action point capitalizing on our solid network of religious leaders and faith based organizations.
On Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism : as Vice-chair of the Working Group on PCVE under UNOCT, We continue to demonstrate leadership in advancing intercultural dialogue and interreligious dialogue as a viable tool for prevention through context specific initiatives and result-oriented programmatic activities with focus on Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA and Latin America Regions.
However, prevention remains largely underfunded compared to securitized approaches.
On the new priority area Promotion of Interreligious and intercultural dialogue including dialogue among civilizations for our shared humanity :
In collaboration with other stakeholders will launch a series of Tutored on-line and in-person Training Courses on Intercultural and Interfaith dialogue expanding the scope of the on-going course with the North-South Center of the Council of Europe to include tailored courses to targeted geographical denominations.
UNAOC will Continue to promote interreligious and intercultural dialogue is a viable prevention tool and re-inforce the Secretary-General’s call for adequate, predictable and sustained financing for peacebuilding.
Conduct Resource pooling to ensure adequate funding critical to ensuring more systematic and impactful results and reshaping responses to violence in the long run.
On the new priority area Addressing religious intolerance, bigotry and other forms of discrimination:
Today, there is a deep concern at vile acts that advocate religious hatred and thereby undermine the spirit of tolerance and respect for diversity. The continuing incidents of intolerance, discrimination and violence against persons based on their religion or belief drives a wedge among communities and diminishes them. Member States pledged The Pact for the Future in Action 18(c) to “combat racism and eliminate discrimination, xenophobia and religious intolerance, and all other forms of intolerance and discrimination from our societies and promote interreligious and intercultural dialogue”.
In line with our mandate, I introduced 3 new action points that I find necessary to address these serious threats:
A dialogue series titled, “Let the Dialogues Begin” a platform that will provide an opportunity for transparent and constructive dialogue among state and non-state actors including religious leaders, NGOs and FBOs on the root causes of intolerance and religious bigotry across the faith spectrum. This dialogue series is intended to tailored discussions on all major religions and faiths.
Monitoring Antisemitism and Enhancing a System-wide Response: In my capacity as the designated UN focal Point on Antisemitism, an Action Plan is work in progress in collaboration with relevant UN entities and other stakeholders including major Jewish organizations and government envoys on combating antisemitism
Addressing Islamophobia: I will continue to speak out against Islamophobic incidents and Strengthen collaboration and consultation with UN relevant entities, intergovernmental organizations, regional organizations and international organizations including League of Arab States, OSCE, Council of Europe and others as well as governments’ envoys and focal points addressing Islamophobia especially the Envoy On Combating Islamophobia of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) with the aim to contribute to the implementation of the UN General Assembly Resolution “Measures to Combat Islamophobia”
The UN Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites: I plan to convene the Global Conference on Safeguarding Religious Sites within the program of UNAOC 10th Global Forum in Cascais 25-27 November and I hope that we can develop a “Code of Conduct” for the protection of religious sites in conflict zones based on the expected outcomes and recommendations of the Forum.
I wish to wrap by highlighting 2 points on Institutional development and Advocacy:
During 2019–2023, the status of the UNAOC as an entity of the United Nations Secretariat has been substantially strengthened. I was granted a delegation of authority by the United Nations Secretary-General. Subsequently, I entered with the United Nations Secretary-General a Senior Manager’s Compact, a key performance management tool, through which senior managers at the USG and ASG levels communicate their priorities and objectives on an annual basis.
In addition, UNAOC continued to expand its geographical presence and visibility and opened its liaison office in Geneva at the Palais des Nations. Furthermore, the UNAOC Group of Friends continues to grow steadily. As of today, it includes 160 Members of which are 130 UN Member States, 1 non-member state, and 29 international organizations.
Last but not least, under communications, I have introduced a new activity “Putting a Human Face to Artificial Intelligence’ which aims at strengthening the human dimension of Artificial Intelligence, UNAOC will harness the potential of AI to enhance intercultural and interreligious dialogue, while addressing the various ethical, social and cultural implications of these technologies.