Report of Activities 2007 - Club of Madrid

CLUB DE MADRID: REPORT OF ACTIVITIES 2007SHARED SOCIETIES PROJECT, component: “Religion, Democratic Leadership andIntercultural Dialogue: Conference in Oslo on Religion, Politics and DemocraticDevelopment”In mid-May, a conference was held in Oslo on religion, politics and democratic development. Itwas co-organised by the Club of Madrid, the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights and theFoundation for Dialogue amongst Civilisations. The conference “Religion, Democracy andExtremism” brought together over forty political and religious leaders, academics andgovernment representatives from Western and Moslem countries. The host was the President ofthe Oslo Centre, Kjell Magne Bondevik, a priest and former Prime Minister of Norway as wellas a Member of the Club of Madrid, and the session was led jointly by Ricardo Lagos, Presidentof the Club of Madrid and former President of Chile, and Mohammad Khatami, formerPresident of Iran and a cleric. The participants included other Members of the Club of Madridsuch as the imam Al Sadig Al-Mahdi, former Prime Minister of Sudan, Abdulkarim Al-Eryani,former President of Yemen, Vigdis Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland and CassamUteem, former Primer Minister of Mauritius.The subject of the conference was the interaction between religion and politics, with a specialfocus being placed on the cases of Iran and Norway, both of which are confessional States, withvarious religious minorities and experience in governments under clerics. Three main topicswere covered: the interaction between religion and politics, extremism and tolerance.Discussions were also held on the limits for religion in politics and for politics in religion; theway in which religion and democracy can mutually strengthen each other; the connectionsbetween violence and religion; and common ground between Christianity and Islam in terms offreedom, equality, human dignity, tolerance and peace. The meeting closed with the signatureof the Oslo Declaration, in which the participants agreed on the need to find internationalinitiatives to reduce conflicts based on difference and to provide platforms for peacefuldialogue.This conference formed part of a broader, two-year project of the Club of Madrid on leadershipfor managing diversity and dialogue for democratic development, which has the support of theEuropean Commission, the Norwegian government and other donors. In parallel and togetherwith the Club of Madrid, the Oslo Centre and the Foundation for Dialogue amongstCivilisations are organising a two-year project focusing on the construction of tolerance andunderstanding amongst religions through dialogue and the exploration of common ground forco-existence. In the framework of this project, the organisers intend to convene a secondconference in Teheran in autumn 2008.DEMOCRACY AND TERRORISM PROJECT: Participation by the Club of Madrid inthe Annual Conference of the EastWest Institute (EWI) on global security (20-23February 2007)The EastWest Institute’s Fourth International Security Conference on “Protection of People,Economies and Infrastructure against Terrorism and Organised Crime” took place at the end ofFebruary in the headquarters of the World Customs Organisation in Brussels. The conferenceconcluded with a meeting on Democracy and Terrorism, organised in conjunction with the Clubof Madrid. Participants reviewed the Madrid Agenda, the main legacy of the InternationalSummit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security, held in commemoration of the 11th Marchattacks in Madrid. The Madrid Agenda is based on contributions received from more than 200distinguished international experts and academics, Club of Madrid Members, Heads of Stateand Prime Ministers, and leaders of international organisations and NGOs, in a challenge to the10/17