Academy of Latinity looks at Human Rights and Culture
(12/04/2007 - www.elhassan.org)
The Academy of Latinity comes to Amman this weekend for its 15th annual conference. Prince Hassan bin Talal, patron of the conference, will welcome a host of dignitaries and scholars from across the Mediterranean and Latin worlds to examine the universal nature of human rights. Delegates will explore the topic in a variety of ways and ask if a universal understanding of human rights is a precondition for a dialogue of cultures.
Senior members of the Academy who will speak at the event include Federico Mayor, Spanish scholar and former Director-General of UNESCO, Mário Soares, former President of Portugal, Bernardino de Léon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for Spain, and Professor Candido Mendes from Brazil.
Among other contributors, Ebrahim Moosa from South Africa will examine the growing gulf between Islamic and secular perspectives on human rights, a gap of understanding that is often widened by media approaches in the west and by well-publicised actions of governments and others in the Islamic world. This dilemma often hampers attempts at reconciliation between people and governments.
Humanity in a global context is the theme chosen by Susan Buck-Morss from the United States. She will set her discussion against the background of what she refers to as “the tragic consequences of militaristic unilateralism, refusal to engage in dialogue, and narrow, partisan consciousness”.
Encompassing the argument that all delegates must tackle, Walter Mignolo from the US asks if the issue facing policy-makers is not to re-cast the debate on human rights and cultural diversity but rather to recast the very concept of human and humanity. Only then might it be possible to overcome the divisions created by those who, consciously or unconsciously, claim their own cultural uniqueness in relation to Human Rights.
The conference, which runs from April 14th to 17th, will be co-hosted by The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, of which Prince Hassan is President.