Over 6,000 participants including political and corporate leaders, civil society activists, youth, journalists, international organizations, and religious leaders met in Rio de Janeiro at the end of May for the Third Annual Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (AoC).
Established in 2005 as a UN initiative, the Alliance emerged out of a conviction that, in order to achieve sustainable peace, long-standing divisions between cultures need to be addressed. As a result, the Alliance seeks to mobilize concerted action towards enhancing mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious backgrounds. It aims to bridge the world's divides and to build trust and understanding across cultures and communities worldwide.
The global scope and universal outreach of the Alliance was further reinforced by its growing membership (over 120 nations and international organizations are currently members of the AoC Group of Friends, with the United States very recently joining as the one hundredth member State), as well as by fact that for the first time the AoC annual Forum – after previous meetings held in Madrid and Istanbul - was convened outside the Mediterranean region, on another continent.
Also for the first time, legislators were encouraged to join their national delegations to the Rio Forum, and to play a pro-active role throughout the proceedings of this major international event. A parliamentary meeting was organized by Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Brazilian Parliament on the first day of the Forum, focusing on the role of legislators in promoting intercultural dialogue and cooperation. The meeting, attended by MPs from some 20 countries and three regional parliamentary organizations, was chaired by Brazilian Speaker Michel Temer and received a keynote address by UNAoC High Representative Jorge Sampaio. It provided an opportunity to review progress in the implementation of the IPU Bali Resolution of 2007 on peaceful coexistence and mutual respect among religious communities in a globalized world, and examined how parliaments can more pro-actively pursue the objectives of the Alliance of Civilizations.
During the main program of the Forum, IPU also organized the first thematic session devoted to democracy, good governance and cultural diversity. This session allowed participants to explore the nexus between democracy and diversity, as well as the modalities aimed at promoting the effective participation of ethnic minorities and indigenous groups in public life. The thematic session was moderated by Mexican Senator and IPU Vice-President Angel Alonso Diaz Caneja, and featured prominent international personalities such as the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevick, the Minister of Culture of Brazil and LatinoBarometro President Marta Lagos. The key messages and recommendations from this and the other Forum sessions are available on the AoC website.
A prominent feature of the Rio Forum was the strong and enthusiastic participation of youth representatives from all over the world, which underscored once again that investing in youth is the best investment any parent, community and country can possibly make. One of the very promising innovative solutions awarded at this year's edition of the Marketplace of Ideas was that of ParliaMentors - a pioneering initiative of the Three Faiths Forum, designed to nurture the next generation of politicians and community leaders, while seeking to bring about social change today. The program gives trios (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) of politics students in the United Kingdom the opportunity to be mentored by parliamentarians. Together they create and deliver "empowerment projects" aimed at increasing political participation and social responsibility. There is great scope for such an excellent practice to be replicated in other countries and regions, and IPU as an organization will wish to be as supportive as possible.
