Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 125 ] — CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS — — Build bridges between school, community, parents and religious institutions; and the state in cases where refugees may be struggling to adapt to the prevailing system. v People need to be confident in their own beliefs before they will be open to engaging in dialogue with others. If one is insecure, one will not engage effectively in dialogue. v It is important to begin by training a generation of trainers, teachers and religious leaders to teach the principles of coexistence and social cohesion. Social cohesion v It is important to actively promote the involvement of women, as well as ethnic minorities, including indigenous people, in dialogue initiatives and link themwith religious leaders and policymakers, to foster social cohesion. v It is important for religious leaders to play a proactive role against violence in the name of religion rather than being firefighters. v It is important for religious leaders to take a strong stand against violations of common values, particularly violations of human rights and human dignity. v We should continue to invest in inter- and intra-faith training to encourage people to learn more about their own religion. v We should share and disseminate successful interreligious dialogue initiatives and stories from the field. v We should encourage experience sharing between the various interreligious dialogue platforms from different countries. v Other programmes that religious leaders, institutions and policymakers could partner to foster social cohesion include advocacy training; joint initiatives on the ground in crisis situations; gender-sensitive programmes; initiatives to protect religious and ethnic minority groups; exchange-sharing visits; training on interreligious dialogue and peacebuilding; and supporting civil society initiatives through small grant schemes.