SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE OF H.E. MR. NASSIR ABDULAZIZ AL-NASSER
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE UNITED NATIONS ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS
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AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CANDIDO MENDES
REITORIA
RIO DE JANEIRO
8 May 2015
President, Professor Candido Mendez,
Distinguished members of the Faculty,
Dear students,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is with a feeling of wonderment that I find myself among you here today, in this impressive institution of higher education, the first of its kind built privately in Brazil by the family of a man I, and the international community as a whole, admire Professor Candido Mendez, a man – a friend – of great prominence.
I also feel deeply honored by your university’s decision to bestow on me the title of Doctor Honoris Causae, in my capacity as High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.
Thank you most sincerely, for this honor.
Allow me, Ladies and Gentlemen, to devote my acceptance remarks to the notion of diversity and its relationship to the institution I am privileged to lead. The institution that Professor Mendez him self, participated in the path of its establishment.
Why “diversity”? Because we are in Brazil.
Brazil reminds us that diversity is the reality that informs human life: diversity in states, cities and villages, in ethnicities and identities, in beliefs, faiths, and traditions.
The very special social fabric of Brazil, brilliantly demonstrates the interpenetrations of African, European, Christian, and non-Christian cultures in this country, from colonial times to the present.
This diversity mirrors the morals and ethics of the supreme world organization that I’m working under its emblem, United Nations, and its charter, which is the mother International Organization.
Not only this, but, Brazil is the metaphor for that wider inescapable truth apprehended by many world visionary thinkers.
Our world today is a “global village” and it is closer than ever to expressing that most challenging of philosophical propositions: unity in diversity.
How to manage diversity and turn it into an incubator of progress, peace, and security — locally, nationally, and internationally? This is the challenge we all face today.
Let me here beg your indulgence, Professor Mendez, as I will try to briefly recall for my audience the genesis of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. I beg your indulgence, because you were present at the institution’s inception.
The UNAOC was born at a critical juncture, when the world faced a potential cultural confrontation, the result of the criminal fanaticism of a band of terrorists who, before hijacking commercial flights and turning them into weapons of mass destruction, planned to hijack a faith of peace-Islam, my faith.
Faced with this new fanaticism that risked to pit the West against the Muslim World and lead to the “clash of civilizations” predicted a decade earlier by Samuel Huntington, the international community heeded the urgent call of two European powers, Spain and Turkey – one Christian, the other Muslim — for the establishment of a new UN organization with the objective of countering the tide of intolerance and misunderstanding unleashed by the September 11 tragedy.
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations was established in response to the recommendations of the High Level Group composed of eminent personalities widely acknowledged for their wisdom, and their prestige.
Professor Candido Mendez, you were a member of that outstanding group and you and your colleagues worked hard for almost two years to lay the foundations for the organization, which I am proud to lead and represent before you today as High Representative.
The new institution was intended to equip the United Nations with a new tool of preventive diplomacy to apply to situations of cultural and identity tensions in a world equally blessed and damned by the new paradigm of globalization. This is our new world, our “global village”.
Again, the daunting challenge was how to manage diversity to make it work to the benefit of all, instead of becoming a source of tensions and conflicts.
Seen from this perspective, the Alliance can be considered as one of our best hopes to counter polarization across and within societies, through its counter narrative and post conflict approaches.
As an example, in the Alliance’s work, this is the approach we take when we help young people through small grants and train them to resolve tensions in places like the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, or Asia.
We accompany them in trips around the world, both those from East and West, and provide them the opportunity to interact and know about their respective cultures.
We focus on the media too as one of the four pillars of the Alliance’s intervention strategy. When it comes to the media, we all unfortunately know that the loudest voices tend to get the microphones.
Cameras focus on the fringe. In this context, we , at the UNAOC, are trying to enhance the level of public debate on identity-based conflicts through skill building of journalists ethics around the world.
In all areas of the Alliance’ programming, our ability to deliver on our goals is based on meaningful partnerships on the ground- and this not just in the area of youth and media.
Religious leaders, academia, civil society organizations, and the corporate sector have a critical role to play in fostering understanding, respect for diversity and tolerance.
Migration is another pillar of the Alliance’s work. The situation of migrants throughout the world is fraught with potential for controversy. I am sure you are familiar with the uneasy status of Muslim immigrants in Europe.
I’m also sure you heard about the atrocities committed against migrants and minorities, in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
In our global world in which migration is increasing and will continue to increase despite more daunting border restrictions, it is sometimes tempting to see only one side of the picture.
Far-right groups and political parties do not hesitate to point to immigrants as the source of the nation’s troubles, blaming them for increasing criminality, national budget deficits, falling educational standards, and worse.
On the other hand, when civil society idealizes immigrant communities, giving immigrants the illusion that they can defy social and legal norms at no cost, they undermine the consensus on how to live together, making it more difficult for immigrants to integrate and condemning them to a marginalized life in their new country.
Let me conclude with few remarks on the future — the future of our living together.
You will agree with me that the daunting challenge for our societies in the near and, more so, in the long-term future will be how to live peacefully with the other: he or she who does not share the color of our skin, our deeply-held beliefs or traditions, or our language, but who is our neighbor or colleague in this globalized world in which borders have become fluid, if not obsolete.
More than ever, the wise idiom, “live and let live,” will be of great value. But this phrase should not be our only motto, because we at the UNAOC want the peoples of the world, to live together without letting the others go, we want to live and work together, to build our future in a positive globalized world, not to live separately.
The virtues of tolerance, mutual respect, moderation, and reason, if taught seriously in schools, upheld in the home, and practiced in daily civic life could save future generations from collective catastrophes like those of the last century.
Not only does diversity matter even more tomorrow than it does today: it is our inescapable human condition. The question is how to equip future generations with the tools that will enable them to make this coexistence an experience of peace, creativity, personal happiness, and a better life for all.
Educational institutions such as your university can play a major role in this regard, as should our religious organizations, civil society groups, political parties, and, I emphasize, international organizations such as the Alliance of Civilizations.
Let’s all work together to make a brighter future possible.
Thank you.