Bahrain Declaration launched

MANAMA- The curtain today(May 7th) fell on the conference on dialogue between civilisations and cultures. The three-day Civilisation in Service of Humanity was held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

The Bahrain Declaration was launched today in the final session which was held at the Gulf Hotel Convention Centre.The participants paid tribute to HM the King for his initiative, stressing its importance in building a civilised human alliance to foster joint values and ward off fanaticism, extremism and terrorism.

They commended the agenda and proposals which would support the culture of dialogue based on peaceful co-existence, intellectual, cultural and religious diversity. The “Bahrain Declaration” acknowledged previous efforts and initiatives which sought to disseminate the culture of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, tolerance, understanding between individuals, cultures, religions and civilizations.

The declarations underscored the importance of spreading the values of justice and peace, recognizing the rule of the law and the UN conventions as the basis of international relations. The participants commended the efforts deployed by all UN agencies to cement constructive alliances to serve humanity, anchor the culture of dialogue, communication, understanding and interfaith and intercultural openness.

The Bahrain Declaration stressed the need to shun all forms of hatred-mongering as they contravene human rights and civic values and lead only to exclusion, discrimination, fanaticism, extremism, violence, terrorism and rancours.

The communique cautioned against any politicization of religions and civilisations as it would only fuel sectarian and violent mindsets, spread intolerance and hamper efforts aimed at promoting solidarity between human beings.They pointed out that politicization of religions and civilisations would lead to blatant interference in the internal affairs of sovereign and independent states, curb development, impede natural political development and encourage quota-based politics.

The declaration underscored the importance of optimizing the role of educational, cultural and media policies in promoting moderation, openness and peaceful co-existence, in total respect of national security. The declaration stressed the need to support the efforts of the United Nations and all regional organisations to promote the value of civilised dialogue in the service of humanity, adding that there is no alternative to peaceful co-existence in our modern world.-BNA