DG/95/35 Original: English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION Address by Mr Federico Mayor Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the Istanbul Symposium for the Summing Up of the Regional Meetings on Tolerance Istanbul, 4 October 1995
Tolerance is openness to other people, to other cultures. It is recognition of difference, diversity and uniqueness as our most precious heritage, as the surest foundation for building a brighter future. The key to such a future is to share more, and to practise dissent without force or violence. The word is our force - the word and not the sword. Tolerance means tolerance in daily life. Our everyday behaviour is the supreme expression of our beliefs, our traditions, our thoughts, the supreme expression of what we have learnt, what we have forgotten, of our illusions, our choices, our wishes, our innovations, our inventions, our experiences. Culture is expressed by our everyday conduct. Tolerance is an essential facet of the intellectual and moral solidarity that UNESCO s Constitution charges it to promote as a fundamental mission. Mr President of the Republic of Turkey, Your Excellency Süleyman Demirel, Mr Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Mayor of Istanbul, Distinguished representatives of religious faiths, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be back in Istanbul - cradle and crossroads of civilizations - at this symposium to reflect on the movement for tolerance which began right here in Istanbul some years ago. For it was primarily a Turkish initiative that led the 26th UNESCO General Conference to adopt a resolution inviting the Director-General to examine... the appropriate arrangements for declaring 1995, which is the fiftieth anniversary of UNESCO, United Nations year for tolerance. I can now report back to you that the UNESCO Secretariat has worked hard over the past four years to fulfil this assignment. In consequence, the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 proclaimed that its fiftieth anniversary would be a Year for Tolerance, providing impetus for governmental and non-governmental partners the world over to pull together in a major mobilisation in favour of tolerance and non-violence. As we now approach the close of the Year, we can say with certainty that it has been an eventful one, calling public attention to the necessity of promoting tolerance, through a full calendar of festivals,..
2 concerts, broadcasts innovative projects in and publications, dialogues and the arts and education. The second part of my assignment, to prepare a declaration on tolerance that might be discussed and possibly adopted on that occasion, also began here in Istanbul in April of 1993. The very first Draft Declaration on Tolerance produced by a conference of specialists that Spring was enriched by final statements and recommendations coming from meetings and conferences held all over the world - from Rio de Janeiro to Tunis and Harare, and from New Delhi to Yakutsk. Recognition and appreciation are due to the Governments, National Commissions and Permanent Delegations to UNESCO of the host countries of these regional meetings. They have demonstrated political engagement at the highest level toward the promotion of tolerance. The present meeting will take into account the outcome of these regional conferences, as well as my latest draft of the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance. This text is the fruit of lengthy discussions and consultations with Member States which have brought reflection on the concept and practice of tolerance into the international sphere as never before. As I said before, the word tolerance means recognizing and accepting beliefs and practices that differ from one s own. For the life scientist it has a somewhat different and more positive connotation. It signifies the ability of an organism to endure, survive and flourish, its capacity for responding to challenges. When an organism acquires a tolerance, it becomes more flexible, adaptive, balanced and stable. It absorbs shocks and stresses rather than succumbing to them. At the same time, intolerance, which the dictionary defines as refusing others the right to hold divergent opinions and to express them freely, also carries the scientific meaning of weakness: lacking the capacity to tolerate or endure diverse circumstances. Intolerance denotes fragility, and tolerance strength. The tolerant plant lives in sunlight and shade, robustly surviving the flood today and the dry heat tomorrow. When I look at events unfolding in every region of our planet I ask myself, does our world have such a resiliency? Human diversity and ingenuity have been among our greatest
3 gifts. Must they also be the source of endless conflict and destruction? Wherever we come from, the troubles our communities face today are manifold and complex - social disintegration and exclusion, racial and religious prejudice, injustice and the insidious violence that poverty perpetrates on the human body and spirit. There is an immense gap between the haves and the have-nets, both between and within countries, internationally and intranationally. Those who have most take for granted all the material facilities they enjoy. Many young people in the richest countries have nearly everything without knowing the price - or even the value - of almost anything. We have the capacity to address many of these asymmetries that are among the root-causes of human conflict. We know that many challenges are today of a translational and transfrontier nature. If the problems are translational, the solution is translational; if the problems are transfrontier, the solution is transfrontier. We know equally that the concept of territory is becoming, in many aspects, a cultural one. To address all these issues on the basis of a global vision and in particular to reduce the threat to stability inherent in the scandal of 20 % of the inhabitants of the planet possessing 80 % of its resources of all kinds, what is urgently required is greater international solidarity by the affluent nations in the practical form of meeting the development assistance target of 0.7% of GNP as approved by the General Assembly in 1970, instituting fairer international terms of trade, reducing the debt burden on the poorest countries, promoting worldwide sustainable and selfsustaining development - particularly through investment in education. Empowerment through education means conferring personal sovereignty, means giving all human beings the capacity to master their own destiny - without external influences and, above all, external diktat. When all is said and - hopefully - done in the field of human welfare, there remains a still more evident need to promote respect for difference, awareness of diversity, attitudes of understanding and open-mindedness. Violence, intolerance, wars and conflict ultimately have their origin in the human mind, and it is in human minds that we must nurture the spirit of peace. Yes: tolerance is the keystone in the construction of the temple of peace. But if it is to
4 bear the burdens that the maintenance of peace will place upon it, then tolerance must be more than the mere sufferance of difference. It must be sympathy with difference, identity with others in their creative diversity. It must correspond to that sense of affinity with all forms of human creativity so memorably described by Claude Levi-Strauss when he wrote: We must (... ) hearken for the stirrings of new life, foster latent potentialities, and encourage every natural inclination for collaboration which the future history of the world may hold (...). Tolerance is not a contemplative attitude, dispensing indulgence to what has been, or what is still in being. It is a dynamic attitude, consisting in the anticipation, understanding and promotion of what is struggling into being. Tolerance here, as for the scientist, is a positive virtue, a sign of organic strength. This is the tolerance that we must nurture if we are to succeed - as we must succeed - in making the difficult transition from a culture of violence to a culture of peace. A culture of peace will also require that we refine early-warning mechanisms. We must be in a position to act immediately, before it is too late. Timely action calls for preparedness and resolve. I hope that the United Nations will soon be in a position to deal with conflict-generating situations before they evolve to intricate and complex levels at which they are difficult to address. Acting in a timely fashion, in synchrony with the pace of life and events - this is a new dimension of ethics and decision-making: the ethics of time. Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, We have reached a summing-up point, but the movement, the campaign for tolerance naturally continues. Our Followup Plan of Action and Declaration of Principles will be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly for consideration at its 51st session next year. That programme includes two bi-annual awards - the UNESCO Prize for Children s and Young People s Literature in the Service of Tolerance and the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of Tolerance and Non-violence - and a proposed International Day for Tolerance to be celebrated every 16th of November beginning in 1995, the 50th anniversary of the
5 signing of UNESCO s Constitution. The forthcoming 28th session of the UNESCO General Conference is called upon to institute this International Day. In addition we would like to see the formation of regional networks for education and public outreach, as well as social science research and monitoring of cultural pluralism and social integration. Interest has already been expressed in building a Mediterranean network along these lines. In this context, we would expect Turkey to continue playing the very significant role it has done from the start of the programme. It is indeed the task of all of us who believe that tolerance is a prerequisite for peace in the world to work continuously and perseverantly - in our homes, in our schools, in our workplaces and in the wider spheres of municipal, national and international life - to promote and represent the cause of tolerance. It is a great source of encouragement to UNESCO that it can count on such distinguished partners in this vital endeavour. For this can be a new departure, a new path enabling us to honour the promise we made 50 years ago to our children - to save them and succeeding generations from the scourge of war.