SECRETARY ROMULO LEADS TWO KEY INTERFAITH DIALOGUE EVENTS AT UN 

21 September 2006, United Nations, New York – In a major boost to Philippine efforts to promote interfaith dialogue, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo chaired the First Ministerial Meeting on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation and the High-Level Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace.  Both meetings were held at the United Nations Headquarters. 

“These two events will help accelerate the pace of interfaith dialogue and will be our contribution to the promotion of peace and understanding and in fighting intolerance,” the Secretary said. 

This morning Secretary Romulo chaired the First Ministerial Meeting on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace.  The meeting draws its mandate from the Declaration adopted by the Informal Meeting of Leaders, which was chaired by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on 13 September 2005.  In that Declaration, the Leaders tasked the Ministerial Meeting “to take stock of the progress of our work on the enhanced promotion of a culture of peace through inter-faith, inter-cultural and inter-civilizational dialogue and cooperation.”   

Participating in the Ministerial Meeting were Madam Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, the President of the 61^st General Assembly and the foreign ministers and representatives of foreign ministers of Bangladesh, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Slovenia, Senegal, Tajikistan, Thailand and Trinidad and Tobago.   Among the observers present we Australia, Serbia, Spain and Turkey.  

The Ministerial Meeting adopted a ministerial statement that will serve as the springboard for further and more intense cooperation. 

After the Ministerial Meeting, Secretary Romulo convened the day-long High-Level Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace.  This meeting places emphasis on the importance of a Tripartite approach to interfaith dialogue.  This tripartite approach involves governments, the United Nations and civil society.  Representatives from these three sectors participated in the meeting. 

Among those present were Senegalese President Abdouolaye Wade who gave the keynote address, Madam Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, the President of the 61^st General Assembly, Madam Carolyn Mcaskie, Assistant Secretary-General of the Peacebuilding Support Office who read the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Ambassador Ali Hachani, the President of ECOSOC, and Ambassador Abrao Gaspar Martines, Chairman of the UN Peacebuilding Commission.   

This gathering of high-level representatives from governments, the UN system and civil society is unprecedented, not only because of its tripartite format, but also as a novel opportunity for government ministers, UN agency heads and religious leaders to engage in an interactive dialogue. 

In his remarks, the Secretary said that the theme of the Conference – Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace: Contributing to Peacebuilding and Development – “highlights the intricate and indivisible relationship between security and development and between security and threats arising from poverty and assaults to human dignity.  In the interactive dialogue, governments, the UN system and civil society will exchange views on this vital and very current subject.”         

The Tripartite Forum, the organizer of this Conference, was launched on 24 March 2006 with the support of 50 governments, UN agencies and the Committee of Religious NGOs whose 110 members are accredited with the UN.  It operates outside the mantle of the UN but supports all the UN initiatives for the promotion of peace in all its aspects.  The Tripartite Forum was an initiative of the Philippines.         

/gary

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