INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS IN MADRID FOR CONFERENCE ON PROMOTION OF TOLERANCE AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

20 November 2001




Experts in human rights, religion and education will gather in Madrid from 23 to 25 November to draft a set of recommendations on how school curricula and textbooks could contribute to the promotion of tolerance and non-discrimination.

The International Consultative Conference on School Education in Relation with Freedom of Religion or Belief, Tolerance and Non-Discrimination is being organized in the framework of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on freedom of religion or belief, in cooperation with the Government of Spain and on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

The conference aims to contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights by redesigning the role that school education should play, with a view to eliminating all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief.

Conference participants will prepare and adopt a declaration containing a set of recommendations addressed to States and other relevant parties working on school education. The declaration is expected to suggest ways and means by which curricula and textbooks should contribute to the promotion of tolerance and non-discrimination as well as the legitimate self-representation through full respect of the representation of others.

States, relevant United Nations bodies, other inter-governmental organizations, national human rights commissions, as well as selected experts, religious and belief communities and non-governmental organizations, have been invited to participate in the conference.

The inaugural ceremony, on 23 November in Madrid's Palacio de Congresos, will be addressed by H.R.H Don Felipe de Borbón, Crown Prince of Spain; Leandro Despouy, Chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Abdelfattah Amor.


Honorary Committee

The Honorary Committee of the conference is composed of H.R.H. Princess Irene of Greece; H.R.H. Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia; Federico Mayor, former Director General of the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Javier Pérez de Cuellar, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Mr. Despouy.





For further information, please contact the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Palais des Nations, CH - 1211 Geneva 10; tel: +41 22 917 91 80, or +41 22 917 92 42; fax: +41 22 917 90 06.



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