(12/04/2007 - www.elhassan.org)
HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal has called for a comprehensive resolution to bring together the demands of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and the 1990 Cairo Declaration on a Culture of Compliance for human rights. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 15th Conference of the Academy of Latinity, Prince Hassan added that the Declaration of European Muslims, which was drafted after the Balkan wars in the 1990s, stated clearly that Muslims living in Europe called for pluralism and respect for the other in the interest of the common good.
HRH expressed his fear that decades of bridge-building had been erased in recent years due to poor policy-making and negative media coverage of Muslim communities and societies. Prince expressed his hope that alliances such as the one between the Latin world and the East, exemplified in the conference, could help to save us from a fragmented future.
Arabs are labelled as humiliated and angry by many in the west, said HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal. But few ask why this might be so or acknowledge that any community or race would react in a similar fashion when confronted with the unfair policies of leading powers. HRH was speaking yesterday (April 14th) at the opening ceremony of the 15th Conference of the Academy of Latinity at the Al-Hussain Cultural Centre. Addressing the theme of “The ‘Universal’ in Human Rights”, HRH said that a culture of compliance with international humanitarian law was essential to healing rifts and bringing justice to the Middle East and elsewhere.
Echoing the Prince’s sentiments, Federico Mayor, President of the Academy and former head of UNESCO, reminded delegates of the principles of the UN Charter and of UNESCO. He called for an honest recognition of the diversity of people and an enforcement of the post-Second World War call for promoting peace in the minds of man.
Enrique Iglesias from Uruguay painted a bleak picture of the state of the world in the early part of the 21st Century. He lamented that hope had turned to frustration, optimism to despair and tolerance to violence. He called for increased efforts to involve religious leaders in a search for a workable structure for universal rights and values.
Prince Hassan also criticised the behaviour of leaders in the Arab world, asking whether we had lost the benefits of an ancient civilisation to a new tribalism of cronyism, corruption and organised crime.
Among dignitaries attending the ceremony were Mayor of Amman, Omar Ma’ani, the President of the Senate and the Deputy Prime Minister. The conference is being co-hosted by the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies.