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
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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
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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

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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
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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

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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

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been "Islam and Christianity."

HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE
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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
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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