Promoting tolerance and greater interreligious understanding
23/11/2007 //
"Concerted action between the Council of Europe and Religious Communities" is the title of the next seminar on interreligious dialogue to be held in Kazan (Russia) 22. -23. February 2006. On the initiative of the Commissioner of Human Rights, Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, a number of religious leaders from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox and Protestant societies are meeting to discuss community tolerance and inter-faith dialogue to overcome conflict, and look at the possibilities for a more precise measures to be taken for enhanced dialogue among religious leaders on a general basis. This is the sixth seminar set up by the Commissioner, where the question of educating about diversity (i.e. tolerance) plays a major role.
For the Council of Europe, the topic of interreligious and intercultural dialogue to overcome conflict is not a new one. The seminar has been planned for months, but the explosive situation recently has made inter-religious dialogue a highly topical issue. For more than three years the large-scale project "Intercultural dialogue and conflict prevention" has been a part of the Council’s work for greater respect for cultural differences and involve more concern about political and economic inequalities.
Interreligious and intercultural dialogue was one of the three prioritised areas during Norway’s chairmanship to the Council’s Committee of Ministers in 2004. The Council of Europe provides a framework that allows greater understanding across cultures and religions through promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Norway strongly supports the Council of Europe’s work for a closer co-operation between religions and cultures through dialogue.