UN General Assembly
2001

General’s Group of Eminent Persons for its first meeting in Vienna and was honoured by the Secretary- General’s personal participation in last summer’s Salzburg dialogue among civilizations. Austria’s commitment to dialogue has found its expression in a series of inter-religious encounters, especially between Christianity and Islam, over the past 10 years. These encounters have served to identify common values and to project them into the wider communities. For us, such dialogue has the core objective of developing societies’ capacities in preventing hatred, disintegration and politically motivated violence against fellow citizens. Austria’s efforts have also focused on another element of societal development. Long-term strategies of terrorism prevention require a globally shared culture of human rights. Let me mention briefly the growing cooperation between qualified regional institutions for human rights education and learning in Africa, South Asia, the Far East and the Pacific, Europe and Latin America. The proclamation of human rights cities in all of these regions might merit specific attention by the appropriate organs of the United Nations, including the Commission on Human Settlements.