REPORT of the Hearings with the International Community & Civil Society regarding the United Nations High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilisations Palais des Nations Room XXIII – Building E
Geneva, 17th July 2006

INDEX
Part I Report of the Sessions:
Opening session
1st session: Principles and objectives of the Alliance of Civilisations
2nd session: The political & the religious dimensions
3rd session: Youth, Education & Media
4th & closing session: Economic & social issues, migrations & gender

Part II Interventions of the Speakers:
Intervention by Ibrahim Osman, IFRC
Intervention by Vladimir Petrovsky, CDAC
Intervention by Gaspar Martínez, Pax Romana –ICMICA
Intervention by Richard Amalvy, WOSM
Intervention by George Gordon-Lennox, Reporters without Borders
Intervention by Willy Thys, WCL & ICFTU

Part III Proposals from participating organisations:
Comprehensive Dialogue Among Civilizations (CDAC)
Decade for Interreligious Dialogue & Cooperation for Peace
Entropy Institute for Risk Studies
Initiative of Change - International
International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Prof. Barry Kellman, DePaul University College of Law
United Nations Association of Spain

Part IV Annexes:
IV.a) Context & Program
IV.B ) List of speakers & moderators
IV.c) List of participants
IV.d) Photos

http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/allian-of...report_7-06.pdf

NATO Backs Turkey's Alliance of Civilizations Initiative
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has announced that it supports the Alliance of Civilizations initiative, co-chaired by Turkey and Spain.

The NATO summit started on Tuesday with the participation of 26 heads of state and government in Riga, Latvia.

In a joint declaration, NATO leaders expressed their support for the Alliance of Civilizations initiative.

"We support the collective value and dialogue between cultures and people. Therefore the Alliance of Civilizations initiative under the aegis of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is of great importance to us," was the announcement made at the end of the summit.

Meanwhile, NATO leaders also invited Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday to begin negotiations for eventual membership in the military alliance, but urged Serbia and Bosnia to fully cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal.

NATO leaders resumed their summit Wednesday with a pledge to stay the course in Afghanistan despite mounting casualties and the continual refusal of some governments to send their troops into combat in the most dangerous regions of the country.

"We will stand with the Afghan people for the long term," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters at the press conference held after the gathering.


For further information please visit http://www.cihannews.com

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&...29&hn=38782

Former Portuguese president chosen as UN envoy to Alliance of Civilizations
http://www.unaoc.org/

26 April 2007 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appointed the former Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio as the first United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, the international initiative set up in 2005 to promote reconciliation between religions, cultures and nations.

Mr. Ban designated Mr. Sampaio in the post after consulting with Spain and Turkey, the co-sponsors of the Alliance, which was created to try to tackle fear and suspicion, bridge divides and overcome prejudices and polarizations between Islam and the West.

“The High Representative will provide the vision and leadership required, especially to promote the Alliance of Civilizations as a credible and viable attempt to diminish the dangerous tensions between diverse societies and their threat to international stability,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters.

Last year the Alliance’s High-Level Group issued a report calling for a series of measures in education, media, youth and migration to build bridges between different communities and promote a culture of respect.

It also recommended the creation of a High Representative post to assist the Secretary-General to try to defuse crises that arise at the intersection of culture and politics, along with measures aimed at restarting the Middle East peace process and encouraging political pluralism in Muslim countries.

Spain and Turkey set up the Alliance amid concern that events in recent years have exacerbated mutual suspicions, fears and misunderstandings between Islamic and Western societies, and that a new global effort is necessary to overcome those divisions.

Mr. Sampaio, 67, served as Portuguese president from March 1996 to March 2006. He served also as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis (TB). Mr. Sampaio previously held numerous public offices, including Mayor of Lisbon in 1989, Member of Parliament and member of the European Human Rights Commission of the Council of Europe.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?News...mp;Cr=&Cr1=



Jorge Sampaio

Former President of the Portuguese Republic, United Nations Secretary General Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis

Jorge Sampaio started his political career as a college student at the Law School of the University of Lisbon. He was involved in the student contestation against the fascist regime and was leader of the Lisbon students union between 1960 and 1961. Following his graduation in 1961, Jorge Sampaio started a notable career as a lawyer, often involved in the defence of many political prisoners.

In 1978, he joined the Socialist Party, where he remains to present day. He was later elected deputy for Lisbon in the Portuguese National Parliament the following year. From 1979 until 1984, he was a member of the European Commission for Human Rights. He later became the president of the parliamentary bench of the Socialist Party. In 1989, he was elected president of this political group, an office he held until 1991.

Jorge Sampaio won the presidential election in January 1996 and was re-elected as President on January 2001 and served until March 2006. As President, his actions were focused on social and cultural affairs. In the international political scene, he gave important publicity to the cause of East Timor's independence.

Jorge Sampaio is also the United Nations Secretary General Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis. His immediate task will be to encourage world leaders to strengthen their commitment to tuberculosis control, and to work to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halting and beginning to reverse the incidence of the disease by 2015.

clinton global initiative . org

http://attend.clintonglobalinitiative.org/...t=speak_sampaio

U.N to debate Contact with Extraterrestial Civilizations
http://www.ufodigest.com/unufo.html
http://ufos.about.com/b/a/256877.htm


Interesting that that the organizers believe extraterrestial contact will want everybody to create a one world gov't and get rid of everybody's problems that way, don't you think?

Thank you for the links, i'll check them out

Shalom

Solana welcomes the appointment of High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations (2007-04-27)

Brussels, 27 April 2007
S131/07

Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the CFSP, welcomes the appointment of Jorge SAMPAIO as UN Secretary-General's High Representative for the Alliance of the Civilizations Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), made the following remarks on the occasion Ban Ki-moon's appointment of Mr Jorge Sampaio, former President of Portugal, as High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations on 26 April 2007: "I have followed the work of High-level Group on the Alliance of Civilizations since it was launched by the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2005 and which has been cosponsored by the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey.

I agree with the thrust of the group's report and look forward to further discussions on how to implement the recommendations. It is both important and urgent to try to build bridges between societies, promote dialogue and forge the political will to peaceful co-existence between different cultures and religions. I do not believe that a "clash of civilizations" is imminent or inevitable, but rapid globalization certainly increases the need for intercultural dialogue and respect. The gist of the Alliance of Civilizations project is in line with a number of EU initiatives in the field of promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding. And I look forward to engaging with my good friend Jorge Sampaio on how to take this and other, related initiatives forward."

http://www.unaoc.org/repository/solana_on_HR.pdf

The AoC: Tailor-Made for Obama

Post from Charles Penny's Blog:

An Alliance of Civilizations Could Make Friends for Obama's America
By Charles Penny - Feb 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am EST

The article below originally appeared on Barack Obama’s website as “Friends Waiting to Be Made in an Alliance of Civilizations” on January 22, 2008. I am re-publishing it now especially to share it with my compatriots in Spain, such as those in “Obama Supporters in Spain”, a group of friends of Barack’s which I joined today, 1st February 2008.

As this re-release of “Friends Waiting to Be Made in an Alliance of Civilizations” is aimed at readers who may be more familiar with Spanish politics, I should also provide the caveat beforehand that I have serious reservations about the Zapatero Government’s apparent willingness to negotiate with groups which use violence and vandalism in an attempt to achieve their objectives and its fuelling the flames of independence-seeking movements within Spain, a country I love almost as much as my own. Furthermore, I question the warm relations Zapatero’s Spain has sought with regimes like Castro’s Cuba and Chavez’s Venezuela, relations which are already bearing bitter fruit for Spain. However, I strongly support the Alliance of Civilizations as an initiative to promote peaceful relations between countries and peoples. I encourage US policy-makers like Barack Obama and those Israeli policy-makers inclined towards peaceful relations with their Palestinian neighbors to engage in the Alliance and other initiatives which aspire to create a more peaceful world.

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The American foreign policy I have known and loved is one in which war is a last resort. Sadly, in recent years, a very different policy has emerged in the current culture of fear propagated by America’s own leaders. Regarding one of the conflicts in which the US is currently mired in particular, Barack Obama says, “…the war in Iraq should never have been authorized, and it should never have been waged.” (1) With the truth better known about the Bush Administration’s real motives for the invasion of Iraq as opposed to what the public and even high-ranking officials in the Administration were told in the build-up to the war, it is now even more clear that precious US credibility was lost precisely at a time when it was most needed.

Barack Obama offers a fresh change of course for innovative leadership to restore America’s standing in the world and enable the US to once again be the protagonist for peace in the Middle East it has been when peace in this region was at least in sight, if not in reach. As an American residing in Spain, the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC), a United Nations initiative underway since 2004, sounds as tailor-made for Barack Obama as those trendy gray suits he wears. US participation in the Alliance or in some other similar peace initiative, led by an Obama Administration, could result in peace and understanding winning out over war and extremism.

Spain has had many centuries of experience with Muslim countries and peoples. Its record is most certainly a mixed one of being a bridge between Europe and Africa for finding common ground, but more often, of confrontation led by religious zealotry on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar. From its history and geographic position on the planet, Spain is a place where Christians, Jews and Muslims have, in its better moments, lived together in harmony, and in its worst, clashed in confrontation. However, in today’s tumultuous world, Spain would seem to have learned from its own experience.

Spain’s version of 9/11 was 3/11, that tragic day in March, 2004 when 192 innocent lives were taken by terrorist bombers on early-morning commuter trains in Madrid. Instead of lurching to the right and pursuing a policy of war in a culture of fear as might have been expected, the Spanish people rose up and swept a progressive new president, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, into power. He has taken a markedly different approach to addressing the fundamental issues dividing people in our world.

On September 21, 2004, Zapatero presented a proposal for an Alliance of Civilizations at the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations. According to the Mission Statement for this innovative organization, “The Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions and, in the process, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.” (2)

The Alliance of Civilizations fits hand-in-glove with Barack Obama’s goals to fundamentally change the approach of American foreign policy. At a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in April, 2007, Obama stated, “In today's globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people.” In the same speech, he provides five ways in considerable detail “…to let the world know that we are committed to our common security, invested in our common humanity, and still a beacon of freedom and justice for the world.” One of these five measures in summary is “…to invest in our common humanity - to ensure that those who live in fear and want today can live with dignity and opportunity tomorrow.” (3)

This approach represents the America which in its best moments has been a proactive positive force for international relations based on peace and shared prosperity for all peoples. The Alliance of Civilizations has already been putting machinery in place to constructively work towards the goals and vision presented by Barack Obama. Notably-absent US and Israeli membership and participation in the Alliance are crucial if its good intentions are to be converted into potentially dramatic progress towards a common security rooted in our common humanity. US leadership and dialogue between warring nations is essential if there is to be peace in the Middle East. Sadly, the absence of that US proactive and positive intervention in recent years has created a void in which extremist elements have won out over more moderate ones and conflict has spread like a wildfire in that critical region.

Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, “An enemy is a friend waiting to be made.” (4) Barack Obama understands that talking to so-called or even self-proclaimed enemies is essential if there is going to be any chance for peaceful resolution of conflicts. Some individual representatives of nations may speak of other nations being sworn enemies and of wiping them off the map (often for domestic political consumption), but without US dialogue to “give peace a chance”, those flames are only fanned further and there is little if any chance for cooler heads to prevail.

In addition to concrete on-the-ground steps for fostering understanding and cooperative relations among nations, such as those taken at the Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Madrid on January 15-16, 2008 (5), the AoC provides a setting in which constructive dialogue can take place. However, US involvement to bring all parties to the table and US pressure on all sides to bring them to agreement will be needed to settle long-running disputes.

I wonder what has happened to US leadership as a problem solver. Barack Obama’s insight gives me hope that the US will once again take its place as a confident leader to make real progress on issues like world development and world peace, two issues which both Obama and the Alliance of Civilizations program recognize as intimately related. A strong US role is needed in the AoC or some other similar initiative which can offer some hope for Middle East peace. Barack Obama offers the vision we need to lead again and for peaceful resolution of conflicts in the world to be paramount to US foreign policy.



1 Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: “Lessons from Iraq”; De Moines, Iowa; October 12, 2007 (available on www.barackobama.com)

2 Alliance of Civilizations Mission Statement; AoC website, www.unaoc.org

3 Barack Obama speech, “The American Moment: Remarks to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs”; Chicago, Illinois; April 23, 2007 (available on www.barackobama.com)

4 Comments by Archbishop Despond Tutu; video interview; Alliance of Civilizations website, www.unaoc.org

5 Major Outcomes of the Alliance of Civilizations Forum; AoC website, www.unaoc.org

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/p...rlespenny/CGCSn

QUOTE

Spain and Turkey set up the Alliance...

Interesting. Spain certainly seemed to be deeply involved in quite a few "happenings" which appear to be related to the fulfillment of Biblical End-Times prophecies, including the Middle East peace process, something called "The Barcelona Process", and the like.

i have noticed this also.
Maybe you could start a thread about this??

Shalom