UN INTERRELIGIOUS DISCUSSIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 USUN NEW YORK 000496 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR IO/RHS, IO/PPC, DRL, G, R E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM SCUL KISL UNESCO UNGA SUBJECT: UN INTERRELIGIOUS DISCUSSIONS SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The UN has seen a number of initiatives recently to grapple with the "clash of civilizations" notion and the aftermath of last year's violence over Dutch cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed. The initiative with the most wide-spread backing is the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC), which began as an idea of the Spanish and Turkish prime ministers, grew into a report by a panel of UN SYG-named experts released in November 2006, and now involves former Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio as the SYG's High Representative supported by a small office in New York, a new UN Trust Fund, and plans for a ministerial-level meeting in September. Sampaio plans to travel to Washington after the New York meeting to discuss with Department officials ways in which AofC activities can complement similar U.S. programs. ¶2. (SBU) A second initiative was an interactive panel discussion in New York with religious thinkers and scholars, organized by the Qatari president of the General Assembly (PGA). No follow-up to this initiative is expected. A third initiative, led by Pakistan and the Philippines, entails a high-level ministerial meeting in early October in New York on Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Cooperation. Pakistan has expressed hopes that U/S Karen Hughes will agree to participate in their meeting. In addition to these high-profile initiatives, the UN General Assembly will hold its usual discussions and adopt a number of resolutions under the agenda item entitled "Culture of Peace." See action request para 15. ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, appointed in May as the Secretary-General's High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations on April 26, 2006, briefed a meeting of the Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations (FAoC) on Thursday, 6/14/07. The US attended as an observer, with approximately 50 Latin American, Asian, and European delegations represented, many at the ambassadorial level. Few representatives from the Levant and Persian Gulf regions attended (aside from Yemen),and noticeably silent was the Iranian delegation. ¶4. (U) PROJECTS: Sampaio presented his AoC "Implementation Plan" to the FAoC, and outlined his vision for the AoC's activities. (Full text of the Implementation Plan can be found at www.unaoc.org.) The Implementation Plan outlines the AoC's strategic outlook, programming objectives, institutional structure, funding, and its near term program of action. ¶5. (U) Sampaio emphasized two projects in which AoC will have a lead role. First, the AoC's will function as a "clearing-house" for information and programming regarding cross-cultural activities. He stressed that the AoC's role in this regard is to be a central node for the accumulation and dissemination of best practices and collaboration for professional training programs, educational curricula, and general information (links, reports, etc.) that promoted USUN NEW Y 00000496 002 OF 004 cross-cultural understanding and dialogue. Sampaio asked governments to share information on their own bilateral or multilateral efforts with the AoC secretariat for inclusion in the clearinghouse website. Second, Sampaio stressed the creation of a "rapid reponse media mechanism" to provide intelligent commentary that is consonant with the AoC's mission to the newspapers and broadcast media in the event of a conflict between cultural or religious communities. ¶6. (U) BUREAUCRATIC MECHANISMS: An AoC Trust Fund is being established, along the lines of the UN Democracy Trust Fund. Terms of Reference are currently under review. Spain has already pledged 1 million Euros. A small AoC secretariat is operating in New York. Sampaio suggested that friendly governments might wish to second staffers to support the secretariat's work. He also asked that the FAoC countries SIPDIS suggest high profile personalities to be appointed by the UN SYG as "AoC Ambassadors." ¶7. (U) Sampaio envisions the FAoC identifying potential partners and projects worthy of the AoC's support, and providing the vision, energy, trust and confidence necessary for the organization to be successful as a social network for cross-cultural dialogue. The AoC will hold an annual Forum, with the first one scheduled for January 15-16, 2008 in Majorca, Spain. He proposed a meeting of the Friends on the sidelines of the September General Assembly at the Foreign Ministerial level. ¶8. (SBU) DELEGATES' REACTIONS: Most delegates expressed their support for the ideas articulated by Sampaio, and emphasized the need to work in parallel both within the domestic political systems of member countries, and with other international organizations (such as the OIC) engaged in similar missions. New Zealand's PermRep underlined her Prime Minister's strong support for the AoC, and noted that the first regional meeting of the AoC had taken place in Auckland on May 29, 2007. ¶9. (SBU) Apart from the Pakistani Deputy PermRep's reference to the need to remove the "perception of injustice" so as to mollify Islamic extremism (presumably an oblique reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict),no mention was made of other global political disputes (such as Iraq or Afghanistan). FAoC Delegations expressed committment to the goals and mission of the AoC, and to the concept of the AoC as a network of like-minded governments and activists. Chile, China, Russia and the Republic of Korea all noted they were pleased to have been recently invited to join the FAoC. (NB: The US attended the FAoC as an observer for the first time, at the suggestion of Spain's Deputy PermRep.) GA DEBATE ON CIVILIZATIONS -------------- ¶10. (SBU) On May 10, the President of the UN General Assembly, Sheika Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, hosted an "informal thematic debate" on the topic of "Civilizations and the Challenges for Peace: Obstacles and Opportunities." Panels of religious scholars and experts gave interesting presentations, with the most thought-provoking coming from Dr. Ghassan Salame, former Lebanese Minister of Culture and USUN NEW Y 00000496 003 OF 004 currently professor international relations at Institute des Sciences Politiques in Paris, and the most provocative coming from Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amre Moussa. Member states were predictable in their responses, not raising any new or controversial issues. The newly-appointed High Representative of the Secretary-General for the Alliance of Civilizations, former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio spoke briefly to describe his four areas for future action. Webcasts of the debate and bios of the speakers are available on the UN website at www.un.org/ga/president/61/follow-up/thematic -dialogue.shtml. ¶11. (SBU) Panel 1, on "Respect for Cultural Diversity is a Prerequisite for Dialogue," contained a presentations by Dr. Ghassan Salame, which analysed the reasons for the current climate between civilizations, focusing on the concurrent needs for respect and distance. AoC High Representative Sampaio also spoke, although not as a member of the panel, and most delegations emphasized the need for coordination among the UN, the AoC and other initiatives. Panel 2, on "Religion in Contemporary Society," noted that opinions and actions of religious believers, rather than religious ideology itself, were at the root of much of the tension between religions, and encouraged the building of bridges. One speaker mentioned the desirability of the SYG appointment an Adviser on Religious Matters. Panel 3, on "The Responsibility of the Media," ranged from suggestions of a "code of conduct" for journalists to calls to make greater use of informal channels of information such as blogs. The Russian delegation spoke in defense of government policies to encourage "responsibility" among journalists. ¶12. (SBU) Panel 4, on "Civilizations and the Challenge for Global Peace and Security," was a platform for Arab League SYG Moussa to criticize the new world order in the wake of the Cold War, singling out "erroneous policies and double standards of bigger powers" and post-9/11 focus on anti-terrorism as a source of extremism. He highlighted that no solution can be found to the tension between the West and the Islamic world until the "injustice to the Palestinian people" is resolved, noting that the relative strength of Israel was "time bound." Moussa called for the Security Council to deal with the "clash of civilizations" questions, and asked for the GA to criminalize Islamophobia, as anti-semitism has been criminalized. ¶13. (SBU) He accused the "advocates of hegemony" of destroying the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, in disregard of international law, and setting a double standard for human rights. He elicited the biggest applause of the day from the audience with his ending line about the world being on the "road to hell." (NB: The official summary of the GA President's office of the 2-day event downplayed Moussa's rhetoric and recommendations.) In response, the PermRep of Egypt acknowledged the dominance of "highly armed" and developed countries at the UN, but opposed the notion of the Security Council taking up the question of civilizations (or the question of climate change). The Koreans expressed frustration over the misnomer of this debate on "civilizations," pointing out that only the "Abrahamic" faiths were discussed, and that a better title would have USUN NEW Y 00000496 004 OF 004 been "Islam and Christianity." HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE -------------- ¶14. (SBU) At the initiative of Pakistan and Philippines, who combined their previously separate initiatives under "Culture of Peace" at the General Assembly into one effort, the GA unanimously adopted a resolution (A/61/269) deciding to hold a formal high-level dialogue October 4-5 on "Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace." In response to EU, Australian and Canadian insistence, an informal interactive hearing with NGOs, civil society and the private sector will be held in conjunction with the formal session, providing a balance between the Pakistani preference for previously-prepared statements read by government ministers and the EU preference for open discussion with experts. (Comment: On the margins of the negotiation of this resolution, the Pakistani representative mentioned to USUN that they hoped U/S Karen Hughes would participate in this event on behalf of the USG. Missoff was non-committal in response to this request.) FOLLOW-UP ACTION -------------- ¶15. (SBU) a) Department may wish to compile information on activities being carried out by various Department bureaus and embassies, as well as other programs run by federal or state level government entities, to share with the AoC in its capacity as clearinghouse for such information and best practices. b) Department may wish to consider whether to suggest any U.S. academics, theologians or movie stars as potential "AoC Ambassadors." c) Former President Sampaio will seek appointments with Department officials for September, either through the UN liaison office in DC or through USUN. d) USUN would appreciate guidance from Department on whom to inscribe to speak on behalf of the USG at the October 4-5 high-level debate on Inter-religious and Inter-cultural Cooperation. WOLFF