UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

стыке цивилизаций, на стыке восточной и западной культур, и вот почему военные действия, которые
велись на юге Кыргызстана и которые могли бы иметь тяжелые последствия, по моему мнению, были
прекращены раньше в силу того, что именно в Кыргызстане в это время проходил Форум по культуре и
религии в Центральной Азии. Я хотела бы надеяться, что именно благодаря этому Форуму ЮНЕСКО
военные действия были прекращены и уже сегодня перестала проливаться кровь. Ятакжехотелабы
подчеркнуть важность выступления председателей комиссий и особенно отметить то, что, действительно,
народы, не имеющие своей истории, не имеют своего настоящего и своего будущего. Поэтому мы
приветствуем издание истории религий, истории цивилизаций Центральной Азии в новом двухлетии
2000-2001 гг., учитывая, что эту книгу ждет Центральная Азия, она очень нужна нам, мы отдаем
приоритет ценностям культуры и защиты материального и культурного наследия. Спасибо за внимание.
(17) Ms TOKTOSUNOVA (Kyrgyzstan) (Translation from the Russian):
Thank you, Madam President, for giving me the floor. The founding fathers of UNESCO emphasized the
spiritual foundations of peace as a key component of UNESCO’s Constitution. As we stand on the threshold
between two centuries, with the world exercised by Huntington’s clash of civilizations, UNESCO has proposed an
extremely opportune initiative for projects on a culture of peace and dialogue between civilizations. Kyrgyzstan
welcomes and supports all UNESCO projects promoting the culture of peace under way in Central Asia in
UNESCO’s various fields of competence: education, science and culture. The building of a culture of peace lies at
the very heart of UNESCO’s action. However, a culture of peace may not be achieved without pursuing
intercultural, inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogue, both in people’s everyday lives and through the action of
governments and organizations. These values and ethics must occupy a central place in international relations.
Many United Nations agencies are working to promote peace, but UNESCO has a special mandate, a special role
and a special mission, and for this reason we need to go even further to seek to develop dialogue between people,
cultures and religions, for this is the way towards a dialogue of civilizations. Today’s reality forces us to seek new
initiatives for the promotion of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. We are standing on the threshold between
two centuries, and if we do not speak about such dialogue today, in the twenty-first century there may be no one to
speak about it, since all may have perished in conflicts between civilizations. In support of the UNESCO project
“Towards a culture of peace” and the dialogue among civilizations, our government and the President of our
country, Mr Akaiev, has put forward a foreign policy initiative for the revival of the Silk Road, underlying which is
the culture of peace and dialogue among civilizations. In Kyrgyzstan, publication has begun of a journal entitled
Central Asia and the Culture of Peace. The Kyrgyz National Commission for UNESCO has held three
international UNESCO forums on the culture of peace and dialogue among civilizations. At the Issyk Kul Forum,
the forum of intellectuals for peace, Federico Mayor, a highly respected figure in our country, was the first to
propose the idea of a dialogue of civilizations, as a counterweight, as it were, to Huntington’s idea of the clash of
civilizations, and in our country this proposal has received wide-scale endorsement and strong support. In
Kyrgyzstan, we also held the International Conference on Ideas of Tolerance in Central Asia and the Problems of
Early Warning and Prevention of Conflicts, and very recently, in September of this year, the International
UNESCO Forum on Culture and Religion in Central Asia, at which a UNESCO Chair in world cultures and world
religions was inaugurated. We feel that this is a concrete embodiment of the idea of the culture of peace and
dialogue among civilizations. We propose that the project “Towards a culture of peace”, the dialogue among
cultures and religions, should be carried out as a pilot project in Kyrgyzstan. To this end, we have a very concrete
proposal to make. In the first phase, the activity of this pilot project should be aimed at bringing people from
various traditions, religious backgrounds and affiliations together to engage in dialogue on common values; we
have much to talk about with the representatives of various ethnic groups, cultures and religions. We have common
values, and our primary value is the defence of peace and the path to a culture of peace. One aspect, to which
UNESCO attaches great importance, is education in the spirit of inter-religious dialogue. I think that each
individual country has its own specific characteristics, as does our region, and this should enable us to make
interesting concrete proposals for joint projects. Another priority is the exchange of views; however, in the pilot
project in question, education must play the fundamental role. The execution of the programme to promote
understanding of cultural and religious issues is fraught with difficulties. There needs to be full observance of the
rights of peoples and conventions, the neutrality of States, and the principles of a secular society. One of the tasks
of this pilot project to promote inter-religious dialogue is to afford ordinary people an opportunity to express their
concerns, aspirations and hopes, and to share their experience and harness it in one direction - the defence of a
culture of peace. The political and social aspects of this project must be given their full due. The Forum on Culture
and Religion, which was held at Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan, constituted a first step towards the creation of a
multifaceted dialogue. It is no accident that this Forum was held in Central Asia, for Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan
are at the meeting point of Eastern and Western culture. In my opinion, it is for this reason that the military action
in the south of Kyrgyzstan, which might have had dire consequences, was halted so soon, precisely because it was
in Kyrgyzstan at that time that the Forum on Culture and Religion in Central Asia was being held. I should like to
hope that it is really thanks to this UNESCO Forum that the military action was halted and that the bloodshed has
now ceased. I should also like to stress the importance of the statements by the chairpersons of the commissions
and, in particular, to state that peoples without a history are indeed peoples with neither a present nor a future. For
this reason we welcome the publication of the history of religions and the History of Civilizations of Central Asia
in the 2000-2001 biennium. Central Asia is eagerly awaiting this book, for which we have great need. We give
priority to the values of culture and the preservation of the material and cultural heritage. Thank you for your
attention.
(Mr Zlenko, Ukraine, takes the Chair)
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