UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The two-day UN
conference on culture of peace kicked off at the United Nations headquarters
Wednesday, with President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann
calling for morals and ethics in all human activity.
"Our world is experiencing an extremely difficult period, the worst since the founding of the United Nations," said d'Escoto in his opening remarks. "It is a time of numerous bankruptcies, but the worst is the moral bankruptcy of humankind's self-proclaimed 'more advanced societies,' which has spread throughout the world."
"It is not only Wall Street that needs to be bailed
out. We need to bail out all of humankind from its social insensitivity," he
added.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that
globalization can be a great force of progress, adding that as economies merge,
as cultural boundaries disappear, as new media bring human societies closer
together than ever before, "new fault lines can emerge."
"One of the great challenges of our time must now
surely be to ensure that our rich cultural diversity makes us more secure -- not
less," he said. "For peace to endure, individuals, groups and nations must come
to respect and understand each other."
The secretary-general also commended the various interfaith initiatives including the World Conference on Dialogue held in Madrid this past July at the invitation of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who asked the UN General Assembly to hold Wednesday's conference as a follow-up to the July meeting.
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The U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (1st, L) attends the UN conference on culture of peace at the United Nations headquarters on Nov. 12, 2008.(Xinhua/Hou Jun)
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Speaking at the conference, King Abdullah said that
throughout history, preoccupation with differences between the followers of
religions and cultures has engendered intolerance, causing devastating wars and
considerable bloodshed without any sound logical or ideological justification.
"Every tragedy suffered in today's world is
ultimately a result of the abandonment of the paramount principle enunciated by
all religions and cultures: the roots of all global crises can be found in human
denial of the eternal principle of justice," the king said.
The Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Amir of the State of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Israeli President Shimon Peres, King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of the Kingdom of Bahrain, King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the President of Finland Tarja Halonen, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, Afghan President HamidKarzai, and other heads of state and high-level officials also spoke at the meeting.
U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to attend the meeting on Thursday.
UN report: Cultural sensitivity critical to development strategies
LONDON, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Development strategies that are sensitive to cultural values can reduce harmful practices against women and promote human rights, says a new report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched here on Wednesday.
The State of World Population 2008 report says that culture is a central component of successful development of poor countries, and must be integrated into development policy and programming. Full story
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