February 22, 2023
The Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue organized an online event “Interfaith Dialogue and Reconciliation: Creating and Sustaining Spaces of Encounter” on 22 February 2023.
Interfaith and interreligious dialogue can create spaces for promoting tolerance, equality and human rights in diverse and multicultural environments. The event explored the challenges and opportunities of interfaith dialogue to foster reconciliation and address issues of xenophobia and discrimination; identified successful platforms, policies and initiatives that support interfaith, intercultural and interreligious collaboration on the local, national and international levels; and discovered how to change the narrative of increasing distrust and “othering” rhetoric. The panellists shared recommendations and best practices in interfaith and interreligious dialogue and collaboration, which can enable us to sustain peace and combat intolerance and discrimination, as well as to create spaces of encounter with one another.
Building on the outcomes of the Global Forum on Civilizations (2022), the panel analyzed challenges, needs, and benefits of interfaith dialogue in an effort to provide a channel of communication among faiths and beliefs in the spirit of tolerance, truthfulness, sincerity, love, and goodwill, without forcing our own paradigms or ideas on others. A follow-up publication, drawing from the discussions and in particular the recommendations and lessons learned from the panel, will be developed and distributed online.
The full video recording of the panel event can be watched here.
