ID :
320851
Sat, 03/15/2014 - 23:59
Auther :

Al-Nasser Participates in Third Seminar of the Initiative on Mediation in the Mediterranean Region

Ljubljana, March 15 (QNA) - HE the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Nasser Bin Abdulaziz Al-Nasser discussed with Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Karl Viktor Erjavec a number of issues of common interest. Among the issues discussed was mediation and peaceful dialogue to resolve disputes through peaceful means. Al-Nasser met separately former Slovenian president Danilo Turk, and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson. During his visit to Slovenia, Al-Nasser participated in the Third Seminar of the Initiative on Mediation in the Mediterranean Region "Promoting a Culture of Mediation and Prevention in the Mediterranean". The Seminar was organized by Slovenian Foreign Ministry and attended by Slovenian President, the foreign ministers of Spain and Morocco, politicians and senior officials from international organizations and civil societies. In his remarks to the Seminar, HE Al-Nasser said: "The United Nations was built to play a greater role in resolving global conflicts, including as stipulated in the Chapter 6 of the Charter on Mediation. Why is it that since 1989, there has been a 10-fold increase in the size of the UN's peacekeeping force: from 10,300 in 89 to 98,000 military and 24,000 civilians in 2011? Is there good reason for this change? Could it be because of the unprecedented challenges that global stability is facing? "As I ask these questions, it is also important to note the good news. There is a growing sense of global citizenship. A civic sense that is more global in its outlook than it is national is emergent. This is a wonderful thing. We can ascribe this change to many things, whether the Internet and global media or the increasing size of a global middle class, but that is not what I wish to talk about today. "What I would like to focus my remarks on is the thriving ecology of citizen-led groups around the world that are working to resolve and prevent deadly violence. For many of these, they are working on the ground and interacting directly with armed groups that are in conflict. "This is why I believe that the question of citizen-led initiatives, such as civil society groups or religious leaders, in mediation or other processes that present alternatives to violence is one of the fundamental questions of our time. This is also why the organization I lead, the UN Alliance of Civilization, actively supports initiatives that bring in the voices of civil society, religious leaders, and vitally, young people into mediation processes and broader reconciliation efforts to lessen identity-based divisions." (QNA)

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