World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th - 24th 2010

· NOT_DEFINED date: TUE 20, 11.30 am-1.30pm

· NOT_DEFINED organizer: European Institute of the Mediterranean, IEMed (Spain)

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description: Ours is a complex world of great inequalities and paradoxes where polarized perceptions, fuelled by injustice and inequality, threaten global stability.
But the history of relations between cultures is not only one of conflict and confrontations. It is also based on centuries of constructive exchanges and progress, cross-fertilization and peaceful co-existence. In a time when different groups and individuals are promoting misguided views about an unavoidable cultural and political collision course it is essential to counter such stereotypes and misconceptions that deepen hostility among societies.
It is precisely with this idea and in this context that the Alliance of Civilizations has been launched in 2005 by the Secretary-General of the United Nations with the co-sponsorship of the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey. The Alliance of Civilizations affirms a broad consensus across nations, cultures and religion that all societies are bound together in their humanity and interdependent in their quest for stability, prosperity and peaceful co-existence.

Chair: Senén Florensa, General Director, European Institute of the Mediterranean

Interventions of:

- Jorge Sampaio, UN High representative for the Alliance of Civilizations:
“The role of the UNAOC in promoting and defending the Alliance of Civilizations” (Video message)

- Bichara Khader, Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain:
“The role of cultural dialogue within the Alliance of Civilizations”

- Yvonne Haddad, Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding, Georgetown University:
“The role of interreligious dialogue in the Alliance of Civilizations”

- Youssef Courbage, Demographer, Institut national d’études démographiques
“The rendez-vous of civilizations”

- Randa Achmawi, Journalist and Writer, Al Ahram Hebdo:
“Democratization and the role of civil society and women in the Alliance of Civilization”

Comments: Daoud Kuttab, journalist and founder of the Arab Media Internet Network; Ihsane el Kadi, Consultant editor of afkar/ideas; Driss Ksikes, Consultant editor of afkar/ideas.