Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 61 ] — PANEL DISCUSSION ONE — those with the greatest influence over the lives and behav- iour of those who follow their ideas and share their faith and beliefs. Because of their leadership roles, both policymakers and religious leaders have a special responsibility to speak out and act ethically and responsibly, as their actions and words can have a strong and wide ranging impact. Both parties will be stronger if they work together, rather than in opposition to each other. That does not mean that they will always agree, but when their objectives are the same, that is to achieve peaceful, inclusive societies, they will find common ground. However, in working with reli- gious leaders, political leaders must ensure that they do not favour one religious community over another. If they are to promote peace and social cohesion, they must work, and be seen to work, with all religious communities and be seen to promote the rights of all populations equally without dis- crimination, including citizenship rights. This is a message for religious leaders — that they are stronger if they work together and cooperate with one another in advocating state support for their communities, including access to resources and services. So, my second question is how can religious leaders and policymakers enhance cooperation and coordinate efforts in this regard? There are many ways in which this can be done. For example, my office has been working closely with religious leaders and actors over the last three years on a programme that is directly applicable to the prevention of incitement to violence that could lead to atrocity crimes: by this I mean genocide, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. While the programme focuses on the role of religious leaders and actors, these individuals stress the importance of coop- eration with policymakers, and of the benefit of political support for more effective work. We refer to our programme as the Fez process. It consists of a consultation with religious leaders worldwide on their role in the prevention of incitement to violence. I would like to thank all of the religious leaders who have been with us in this process. I cannot but express my deepest gratitude to Pope Francis first and to Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canter- bury, as they have been accompanyingme in this process. And most importantly also, I should like to pay a special tribute to our brother Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah who has been very instrumental in the success of the process, and who is going to translate the first Plan of Action into Arabic and French. The Plan of Action was launched in July 2017, by Secre- tary General António Guterres, in New York, and just last week here in Vienna we held a meeting discussing its imple- mentation. The consultations that led to the development of the Plan of Action provide many practical experiences of cooperation. For example, in Nigeria, religious lead- ers are currently working with politicians to pass a bill to prevent and counter incitement to violence. In Columbia, faith actors have contributed to building the groundwork for the peace process. In Pakistan, faith based organizations (FBOs) are working with the government to implement United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 — fos- tering peaceful, inclusive, and just societies. In many other countries, religious leaders and actors are working closely with policymakers to develop a national plan of action to prevent extremists and gender based violence. The third question is: What are the main challenges of the partnership between religious leaders and policymakers from a competitive perspective? As I mentioned earlier, if partnership is to succeed, policymakers need to be inclusive and to work with a wide range of religious leaders, actors and FBOs, not just those representing the majority of religions. To do otherwise will encourage division, rather than social cohesion, and risk exacerbating existing grievances of minority communities especially in countries where there may be a deficiency of trust between the population and state authorities. Partnership with religious leaders may help to bridge that gap if state authorities are open to listening to the concerns of communities. Working with religious leaders and actors can also be challenging. Not all religious leaders and actors, includ- ing FBOs have an inclusive nature. Difference in religious beliefs and interpretation can be drivers of conflict and How religious leaders and actors interpret the role of women within their faith and spiritual traditions, as well as the extent to which they promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, can have an enormous impact on the lives of women and girls