PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL DAY OF TOLERANCE

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL DAY OF TOLERANCE

The President of the Friends of the United Nations, Noel Brown, briefed correspondents at Headquarters Monday, to mark the International Day Of Tolerance and honour the recipients of the first Global Tolerance Award.

Mr. Brown noted that in the Assembly's decision to designate such a day, it had specifically had the contributions of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in mind in implementing and disseminating the principles of tolerance. Those entities were also invited to initiate action for the celebration of the day. It was in connection with those directives that his organization decided to mark the day with a special awards ceremony to honour individuals and organizations, whose commitment, dedication and effort had significantly advanced the principles and values of the programme for international tolerance.

He was delighted, he said, to present the recipients of the first annual Global Tolerance Award, sponsored by his organization. They included: the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), represented by Abraham Foxman; the Southern Poverty Law Centre, represented by Sarah Bullard; Tahar Ben Jelloun, Moroccan poet and novelist, who wrote the bestseller Racism As Explained To My Daughter; Mark Williams, Producer and creator of the music video, "One Song, Many Voices"; Vanessa Williams, who recorded that song; and the actor, Dennis Quaid, who acted in the film, "Saviour", based on the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The award ceremony was scheduled for later in the day.

Of those recipients, he noted the absence of Mr. Foxman, Ms. Bullard and Ms. Williams. He was joined by the rest, and by Ken Jacobson, who took the place of Mr. Foxman. All of them were invited to make statements about the event. Also invited was Carole Summer Krechman, Chairperson of the board of Friends of the United Nations, to speak about the organization's tolerance campaign.

Mr. Jelloun, who spoke through a French interpreter, said he was honoured to be there. His novel, Racism As Explained To My Daughter, dealt with a subject that was of concern to everybody. He believed very much in the value of education, in order to promote tolerance.

Mr. Jacobson said it was a great honour for the ADL, which he was representing, to receive the Global Tolerance Award. That was entirely consistent with its fundamental purposes, in trying through education and exposure to reduce the level of bigotry and prejudice in the United States and the world. They had worked in the United States through major prejudice reduction programmes, and were also involved in Europe and in the Middle East, among other areas.

Mr. Williams, speaking also on behalf of Ms. Williams, equally expressed his pleasure to be among the award recipients. He was pleased that tomorrow, the song and the video would be aired on Channel One Network and would reach 12,000 schools, some 3.5 million students and 350,000 teachers. The title of the song -- "One Song, Many Voices" -- really embodied the spirit of the day's event.

Mr. Quaid, who was not only among the recipients, but was also named as the presenter of the awards to other recipients, said he was honoured to receive an award for the movie, "Saviour". The movie was meant to raise awareness about the tragedy that occurred in Bosnia, and to present a story that people could understand. There had been a lot of confusion, especially in the United States, about what had happened over there. The film tried to put a face on what had happened, so that people could understand it in their own terms.

Ms. Krechman, explaining what was involved in the tolerance campaign about to be launched by the Friends of the United Nations, said the organization was going to launch a website next January. One of the first initiatives of that website would be the creation of a "clearing house" for tolerance education for teachers and parents all over the world, who would be able to find a programme or curriculum to teach tolerance.

Continuing, she said next spring, the organization would launch its grass-roots initiative called "the peacemaker corps", also in the context of its tolerance and diversity programme. It would be a group of young people who would be taught non-violent intervention by professionals. When they graduated from the course, which would teach them how to mediate their problems in school, at home and in their lives generally, they would become members of the peacemaker corps. Friends of the United Nations envisioned at least 2,000 of them by the year 2000. It was hoped that those young people would start to change the world and to make it a place where a culture of peace was a reality.

One correspondent asked whether the initiative that the organization had just described had ever been tested in the field. In response, Mr. Brown said they had been in contact with a number of different groups, with schools and with young people generally. They were impressed by "an incredible spirit of generosity and voluntarism out there". For example, earlier this year, they were impressed to learn that through the Nickelodeon programme, MTV had mobilized some 20 million young people and 170 million volunteer "kids hours", to work on community activities.

He added that what they were hoping to do with the peacemakers corps was to provide a framework and utilize some of the incredible amount of information that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had generated about teaching tolerance. They also

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believed that the world was facing a different kind of conflict, with internal conflicts. Against that background, they wanted to prepare people to learn to live together and work together. There were indications that young people were ready, if properly challenged and properly directed.

Responding to the same question, Mr. Quaid said that, in his experience with educating young people, trying to get them to deal with the problems of bias, prejudice and of diversity in society, there was an openness in that kind of approach. There was a recognition, for example, in the United States that diversity was a way of life. It was the reality, whether people liked it or not.

In a global sense, he continued, diversity had become a major characteristic of the international community. One aspect of their work that was particularly relevant was what they called "peer training programmes", in which they educated young students, who then went to their fellow students to pass on what they had learned. They found in the United States and in many countries in Western Europe that students were very receptive to that kind of work.

Contributing his own views on the issue, Mr. Williams noted that his work, "One Song, Many Voices", had an educational component as well. It was multi-media driven, using video, music, and film. It had been in corporate America and all over the world for nearly 10 years.

Returning to the issue, Mr. Quaid said he found in his life that people were not born with racism, bigotry and prejudice. It was something that people learned. The film he acted in, "Saviour", was based on the Bosnian war and centred on a "soldier of fortune -- a mercenary", who saved a Moslem baby, although reluctantly, at first. But, in the process, the baby became his saviour, as well. The war in that country, which involved many ethnic groups, and had gone on since the 1400s, became a situation of, "you killed my father and, therefore, I am going to kill your son". The chain was still not broken, making it likely that the conflict would flare up again. Education was the best way for people to start taking responsibility for their actions. They had tried to portray that in the film. It was about tolerance and redemption.

Mr. Jelloun, the Moroccan poet and novelist, said that in the course of writing his novel, Racism As Explained To My Daughter, he had the opportunity to meet hundreds of young people between 10 and 12 years of age, all over Europe, in particular France and Italy. He experienced their worries and concerns about the future and the discrimination that existed in their environment. The immigrants among them were especially worried about their future in a foreign land. Most of them were aware of the legislation against racial discrimination in France. Still, they sometimes felt that justice had not been done. They also understood that poverty could generate racism. All over Europe, in particular in Belgium and France, that was a very serious

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problem. He hoped that the International Day Of Tolerance, being marked today, would send the right message.

A correspondent reflected on the latest crisis with Iraq and asked if leaders like President Saddam Hussein were capable of redemption, in the context of the day's event.

Responding to that, Mr. Quaid said he would separate the people of Iraq from their President. There was Hitler and the German people and Stalin and the Russian people. The people of the world were left to clean up the mess after those tyrants.

Ms. Krechman added that "Some tyrant in one small part of the world is trying to make himself more important than the peoples of this globe". There was now need to turn to the children. They were the hope and saviour of the world. If children could learn to deal with their problems with other children in a non-violent way, then when they got older, they would not reach for a gun and they would not reach for a violent solution. Rather, they would sit down and mediate. The United Nations had given the world a wonderful opportunity to speak to one another for over fifty years. The time had come to take that concept of speaking and listening to each other and give it to children, to save the world.

Commenting on the need for people all over the world to stand up against intolerance, Mr. Jacobson said some of the leaders that were out there had made direct educational programmes for the affected people necessary. However, people should not entertain any illusions that education was simply going to solve all problems. Obviously, in many cases, without agreement with the political leadership, a lot of the problems would continue. On the other hand, it was not realistic to wait for all the problems to be solved politically.

He said the world had to try to get people and countries to stand up and speak out against the kind of hatred and intolerance that existed. The world should not wait for the political leaders and the United Nations to solve all problems. Ultimately, work had to be done on several levels. It would be good, for example, if the media would see the subject of the day as an important one deserving of considerable attention.

Mr. Quaid added that the process of redemption had to start with thinking about one's own responsibility for hatred, bigotry and racism out there in the world.

Mr. Brown noted that leaders came and went, but the people stayed on. Quite often, the leaders were the product of the configuration and the confluence of forces within the society. He hoped that launching programmes such as the International Year Of Tolerance and by practising the Charter

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principles that people should be tolerant of one another and live together as good neighbours, there would perhaps be fewer tyrants.

He said that, with relentless peaceful conflict resolution, the next generation would not be "so maimed and damaged like this generation". It was sometimes paradoxical that the same leaders that ignited racism and hatred within their societies could not turn it off even if they wanted to. They were ultimately overtaken by a pattern of endemic hostility. He believed the world could resolve that.

Mr. Jelloun said the issue of tolerance could not be separated from political problems. The world, the United Nations in particular, was facing a paradox. First, it was meant to defend human values and tolerance. But, at the same time, it had a difficult task in Iraq. The Iraqi people had been punished twice. First, due to the nature of their leaders. Second, because of economic sanctions. The situation presented a big challenge to the United Nations. The Arab people saw the paradox and the sanctions as racism.

Another correspondent noted that there were many sources of intolerance and asked if any particular kind had been more difficult to deal with. In response, Mr. Brown said racism appeared to be the most difficult, because it was the most visible. Mr. Jacobson said that they tried not to put a hierarchy on what was worse than others. The focus should be on what the particular situation was in every case and, through education, to get the forces involved to work together.

Mr. Quaid said when people were intolerant of others and practised racism and prejudice and bigotry, they saw others as different from themselves, thereby stripping them of their humanity. By doing that, people stripped themselves of their own humanity. Thus, people must examine themselves first and ask, "what are the seeds of intolerance".

Mr. Williams said that the principal dilemma people faced as human beings went beyond determining the most difficult category of intolerance. Each person in the room was unique and unlike any other person. Yet each individual in the room was connected by divine similarities that made everyone a human being. The peoples of the world urgently needed to learn how to find the balance in that paradox by the next millennium.

Mr. Brown noted that the issue was not a static phenomenon and each generation would have to cope anew with the factors that would cause people to resent each other. In declaring the International Year Of Tolerance, the Assembly also cautioned the world against globalization. There was now large-scale migration and intensive interaction among people of different origins all around the world. That could pose a global threat, unless the world got to the heart of the matter and taught people how to live and work together in peace.

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Concluding, he said the Assembly was very accurate in its assessment of what the essential needs of the current generation might be, and what the central mission of the United Nations must be. He hoped that Friends of the United Nations would be vigorous in supporting the efforts of the United Nations, as it promoted those Charter principles inviting people to practice tolerance and live together in peace.

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