Guidelines on Promoting Tolerance in Europe
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools…”
Martin Luther King
At the heart of every kind of violence, ancient and modern, lies intolerance and the absence of dialogue and communication. Analysing modern European history gives clear evidence to this effect. World War II is the most extreme example of racial, political and religious intolerance. With the creation of the United Nations and teh European Union and their various agencies and conventions one would have hoped that the tens of millions of people who either perished, were ignored or became refugees Europe would inscribe the events on its collective memory - it would prevent any sign of recurrence of the events which led to the horrendous crimes of World War II.
Yet 65 years later the memory of the most traumatic period in the recorded history of mankind is beginning to fade. More worrying is the rise of organisations and movements who actively promote the agenda of hatred, xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism. The human blood of the Second World War has hardly dried and hate literature can be found in shops and on teh internet, synagogues are vandalised and swastikas are painted on the walls of buildings in major European cities. The common thread among the individuals and movements who perpetrate all these crimes is blind, primitive hate and intolerance of the other, the different other.
Diversity is the most valuable asset of all civilisations. Diversity is the engine that made this civilisation flourish and prosper. It is the will to dominate the other, the different other, that caused throughout the human races history wars and bloodshed. That is the root of Nazism - the determination of teh supremacy of one race over the others and the license given to that race to exterminate the others.
Understanding the evil power of intolerance and combating its consequences is task of international organisations, governments, NGOs and individuals. They should first fight the recurrence of all manifestations of intolerance which we witness all over Europe with trepidation.
Assessing the threats posed by intolerance, in 1995 the UN established November 16 as International Day for Tolerance. This year, a number of international and European public organisations have initiated several large-scale events to be held on the eve of Tolerance Day in Brussels, Prague and other European cities. Their dates (November 9-11) coincide with the 70th anniversary of the infamous die Kristallnacht that happened in Germany in 1938, demonstrating the consequence of intolerance propaganda against one ethnic group. The Holocaust was the logical end result of suppressing this event. Today, the same threat hangs over Europe. Extremism is trying to conquer people’s minds behind the mask of democratic freedoms.
With the aim of preventing such developments, the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation intends to present at the special session of the European Parliament, scheduled for November 10, a number of initiatives to present a united European front against manifestations of intolerance. The session will be held in close cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Jewish Congress under the auspices of the European Union Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. The invitees include President of the French Republic and acting EC President Nicolas Sarkozy, leaders of European states, foreign ministers, representatives of leading NGOs and young people.
At the formal dinner following the session, the Council will award King Juan Carlos I of Spain with a Medal of Tolerance for providing an example of true tolerance and promoting its principles. The award ceremony is planned to be held annually to distinguish individuals and organizations for active encouraging tolerance.
Another initiative will propose drafting and adopting a Framework Convention on Tolerance and Fighting Various Forms of Intolerance. A number of documents have been adopted dealing with specific forms of intolerance, mainly relating to racial bias. However, there is no convention document to cover all forms of intolerance. This constitutes a deficiency in international humanitarian law. The necessity of such a document is clearly evidenced by the escalating manifestations of intolerance in the past decades and their increasing threat to society.
The Framework Convention is designed to give definitions of tolerance and intolerance, expose the dangers of religious and racial intolerance, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, nationalism and other forms of extremism, and direct the introduction of national legislation to punish every act of intolerance.
The Framework Convention goes beyond calls to fight intolerance and aims to create a system for fostering tolerance based on the cultural dialogue.
Another initiative provides for monitoring the level of tolerance in European states with periodical (once or twice a year) publication of an updated White Paper on Tolerance. This initiative envisages promoting positive experiences in European states through legislation, government and civil initiatives and the like. Current reports by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance are generally focused on emphasising negative facts, and their publication is governmentally controlled. In contrast, the White Paper concept will emphasize the positive experiences and a spirit of competitiveness in promoting tolerance. It will provide a platform for politicians, scholars and members of society to express their attitudes to pending or eventual challenges and suggest ideas for public discussion.
The Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation responsible for publishing the White Paper is headed by Former President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski.
The Council believes that its main task is to educate people on tolerance. It would be careless to define tolerance merely as indulgence towards those who are considered inferior. Tolerance implies maintaining a subtle and vulnerable balance between various communities’ interests. Therefore, acceptance of differences and diversity must be taught.
Nowadays, tolerance can be studied using the tools of applied science, with its methodology, conceptual structure and theoretical analysis. On this basis, the Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation intends, with the assistance of European states and civil society, to launch projects on tolerance research and education.