Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Baku, Azerbaijan | Wed, 06/11/2008 8:00 PM
An international women's conference Wednesday in Baku urged all the governments to increase the participation of women in all areas of decision making and peace-building processes.
The two-day conference entitled thethe Role of Women in Cross-Cultural Dialogue" ended with the adoption of the Baku Declaration, which called among other things that women must actively participate in strengthening intercultural dialogue and expressed the confidence in family as the basis of development of any society.
"(We) Call on all governments to increase the participation of women in all spheres of decision-making, as well as in peace- building processes with a special emphasis on conflict
resolution," the declaration said.
"(We) Agree to promote the role of women in mass media aiming at valorizing their image as well as their achievements in ensuring the intercultural dialogue."
The conference, which was attended by 350 participants -- including several first ladies -- from all the continents, expressed its common concern on increasing cases of intolerance and xenophobia in the name of racial, ethnic, religious and gender differences.
"(We) Call on all governments and civil society actors to spare no efforts in promoting sustainable dialogue, tolerance, justice and peaceful co-existence," Baku Declaration said.
The participants also emphasized the importance of women's education as well as women's contribution to reshaping the collective imagination and overcoming stereotypes and prejudices.
"Stress the importance of providing the women every educational opportunity as a guarantee of sustainable future for all generations," it said.
The declaration also called on the governments to ensure the prevention of the use of cultural and spiritual values and beliefs for political purposes.
Baku Declaration received kudos from several participants.
"It's good. Women are in the best position to actively participate in cross-cultural dialogue. I hope there will be some follow up action on Baku Declaration," Laura Schuurmans, a participant from Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the conference.
Laura, who presented a paper on the Tolerance & Global Harmony in the Twenty- First Century" at the forum, also lashed at the proponents of the clash of civilizations between the West and the Muslim World.
"There is no such clash of civilizations, merely lack of understanding between the two worlds caused by cultural and religious differences which have been ignored over and an extended period of time," Laura said.
According to Laura, the idea of civilizations was exploited by some political leaders and radical groups and was portrayed as a religious war.
Another participant from Ireland, Margreet Wewerinke, felt that they should have included human rights in the Baku Declaration.
"Baku Declaration is okay. But they should have included human rights issue in that," she said.
The conference announced the establishment of the Baku Forum, which was aimed at turning the intercultural dialogue into a continuous process and agree to continue its activities in the framework of the next Forum to be held in 2010 in Baku.
The conference had explored challenges of globalization in the context of intercultural dialogue, issues of cultural identification, universal system of human values and issues of religious tolerance.
"The conference is a successful one. Azerbaijan, which has a centuries-old history of tolerance, is the right place to organize this kind of meeting," Laura said.
Azerbaijan first lady Mehriban Aliyeva in her capacity as the president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation organized the international forum with the cooperation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO). (**)
