Overview on the United Nations Alliance of Civilication Summit and Youth Summit in Vienna Feb 2013 given at the UPF Youth Event in Vienna "A New Religious Pluralism?" on November 20th 2012

2. • 21 September 2004
HE José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President of the
Government of Spain, called for the creation of the
Alliance of Civilizations during the 59th Session of the
General Assembly of the United Nations, New York,
USA.
• 13 June 2005
Upon consultations with the Spanish Government, HE
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of Turkey, joined
HE José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as the co-sponsor of
the Alliance of Civilizations initiative.

3. “ What is responsible leadership? Regardless of the context
in which we think of it, the level or any sectoral perspective,
“responsible leadership is geared toward the concerns of
others and asks for what and to whom leaders are
responsible”, as an author puts it. Now of course the key
questions are who “the others” are and what responding to
their concerns entails.
In placing the issue of “Responsible Leadership in diversity
and dialogue” at the core of the Vienna Forum, our take is
that this topic matters in the most relevant way to the
Alliance of Civilizations’ vision and mission.

4. “ Youth, political leaders, lawmakers, but
also business people, philanthropies,
religious leaders, researchers or simply
you, as a citizen, are all invited to
contribute with your experience, your
particular insight, your mindset, your
questions, and your concrete proposals
to address this topical and most
challenging question.
Jorge Sampaio, High
Representative of
the United Nations
Alliance of
Civilizations

5. “ In Vienna, we want to achieve a deeper, more insightful
understanding of what responsible leadership means from
the perspective of the Alliance of Civilizations, what it
represents in its main fields of action - education, youth,
media and migration - how leadership is about change and
transformation and how the principles, values and vision of
the Alliance can help shape a leadership focused on caring
concern for others or a high level of other-regard. I strongly
belief that Vienna can make a difference if you join in! “

6. http://www.youthforvienna5unaoc.at
Tuesday, February 26 Youth Event (9 am - 7 pm),
February 27 – 28 Main Forum

7. Themes
• Promotion, protection and full enjoyment of the
right to religious freedom in a context of religious
pluralism which consists not only of greater
diversity, but also of perceptions of that diversity
and new patterns of interaction among religious
groups;
• Media pluralism and diversity of media content
and their contribution to fostering public debate,
democracy and awareness of diverse opinions;
• Shaping a new narrative for migration, integration
and mobility in the global economy.

8. Education About Religions and Beliefs
The education about religions and beliefs community
includes a network of academic and NGO partners as well
as organizations active in the field of education about
religions and beliefs, intercultural education, and interfaith
harmony.
http://erb.unaoc.org

9. The Education about Religions and Beliefs
program consists of three components.
• A web-based portal for resources on education
about religions and beliefs including civic
education, ethics education, and tolerance
education
• A platform for partners to present research and
findings from theory and practice
• A network to promote the positive role of religion
and interfaith harmony

10. At this stage, our clearinghouse focuses primarily on
school education for the following reasons:
a) It is the stage that is the most important in forming
educated opinions;
b) It is the stage where public policy can have the most
influence, because in many states public funding of
education offers the opportunity to have concomitant
curricular influence; and
c) It is probably the area where resources are available
but scattered across different regions and therefore the
UNAOC mechanism can be particularly useful.

11. Intrinsic to the goal of educating students about religions
and beliefs are the instruments of civic and peace
education, tolerance and ethics education, as well as global
and cross-cultural education. These mechanisms also offer
a different way of advancing the ultimate pillar of education
to "live together," especially in the context of some
societies where teaching about religions themselves may
raise issues of "church-and-state separation."

12. In defining "religion" and "belief," this site follows the
OSCE's ODIHR Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching
about Religions and Beliefs (2007) on this point, which
takes a broad view of "religion" and "belief," encompassing
not only "traditional and long-established religions" of
today's world as well as "less well known and less well
understood systems of belief." It also includes "non-
religious systems of belief," based on earlier United Nations
Human Rights documents (pp. 30-31).

13. Next Events
December 11th, 2012
Media pluralism and diversity of media
content and their contribution to fostering
public debate, democracy and awareness of
diverse opinions;
January, 2013
Shaping a new narrative for migration, integration
and mobility in the global economy.