FIRST GLOBAL FORUM ON LEADERSHIP FOR SHARED SOCIETIES: “BUILDING A WORLD SAFE FOR DIFFERENCE” Rotterdam – November 12-14, 2008

Rotterdam (The Netherlands) – The First Global Forum on Leadership for Shared Societies, under the title “Building a world safe for difference”, took place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from 12 to 14 November 2008. The meeting was organized by the “Club de Madrid” and the “City of Rotterdam” and gathered high-level and emerging leaders from government, politics, civil society and other decision-shaping institutions in order to try to help reducing identity-based conflict and to build shared futures where diversity is celebrated for the good of all.

The only religious leader worldwide who was invited to this important meeting was His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, primus inter pares of the Orthodox Church, who was represented at the meeting by His Grace Bishop Athenagoras of Sinope, assistant bishop to the Metropolitan of Belgium.

The Club the Madrid is an organization composed by 70 current and former Heads of State and Government from 50 countries with more than two millennia of collective political experience and that works to strengthen “democracy that delivers”. The Global Forum is a project to a call from leaders worldwide for options and action for a challenge of coexistence. The goal is that political, government and community leaders seek to identify effective strategies and tools that promote coexistence and social cohesion as well as powerful arguments to do so. The leaders want to work on improving social inclusion. With increasing diversity in the world’s nations and communities, and at a time when the pressures of economic uncertainty, energy and climate change crises, and food emergencies threaten social stability, leaders must take action against social exclusion and work to improve social cohesion. The reason of this initiative is that nations, cities and communities are becoming more diverse. Ninety percent of the world’s countries have at least a ten percent minority population. As communities become ever more intercultural, leaders face the challenge of building and maintaining shared societies and a world made safe for difference. By working to promote dialogue, deepen understanding and create opportunity, many leaders are reducing the hate, hurt and humiliation that undermine human dignity. The Forum addressed indeed what may be “the most important conversation of our time”: that of how to manage ethnic, cultural, religious and other identity differences while protecting and preserving human dignity.

At the Global Forum on Leadership for Shared Societies, participants acknowledged the need for effective leadership in promoting coexistence and social inclusion. As such, the Club de Madrid and the City of Rotterdam developed a guide to help leaders in different sectors take action against social exclusion and improve social cohesion. Here, this guide aims to provide strategies and tools for building shared futures where diversity is celebrated for the good of all. By implementing the recommendations in this guide, leaders can work towards creating a world safe for difference and reducing identity-based conflicts. Leaders in government, politics, civil society, and other decision-making institutions need to take on the challenge of managing ethnic, cultural, religious, and other identity differences while protecting and preserving human dignity.

The Opening Plenary Session of the Forum, placed under the theme of “Why Shared Societies?”, took place in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Maxima, the wife of Prince Alexander, successor of the Royal Throne of the Netherlands. In this very session His Grace Bishop Athenagoras of Sinope took part at a panel, together with Mrs. Mary Robinson, Vice President of the Club de Madrid and former President of the Republic of Ireland; Jennifer Mary Shipley, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Mr. Cassam Uteem, former President of Mauritius; Mr. Sadik Harchaoui, Mr. Swanee Hunt and Jeff Johnsons, all three representing civil organizations.

His Grace Bishop Athenagoras reminded the participants that if he was speaking to them, was because they “are aware of the great concern of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the first among equals of the Orthodox Church worldwide, about the very issue of this meeting. That he is not here in person is due to the fact that he travels a lot for advocating to work together on a better world”. (…) “It’s true that the world changes faster and faster. People move easy and continue their life in another country, in another context. That means that the national boundaries separating one country from another are becoming less sharp and clearly defined, and this is happening on many different levels, political, economic, social and even spiritual. None of us are living any more in a monolithic, pan-ethnic cultural milieu; all of us belong to or find ourselves cast into broader cultural currents”. Than he underlined some important issues as we find them in the orthodox theological thinking, as for instance: the true meaning of the person and of personal freedom as seen in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and in the liturgical life. He added also some words about the need of an inter-religious dialogue, saying that “Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, non believers, Christians …; we must answer together the fragmentation of the current age, with the brotherly love and integration taught by our timeless traditions. We must renounce and condemn violence, and we must teach our people the blessings of peace, which is ultimately based on respect for difference”. He presented them – by way of example – some initiative which was taken in Belgium, in Brussels, and at which he takes part as a representative of the Orthodox Church: ‘Hopeful Brussels’. “Hopeful Brussels is a meeting place of leaders from different religious and philosophical traditions, which was established on the belief that multiculturalism is a benefit for society rather than a cause for division. Because, indeed, approximately 45% of the Brussels population is of foreign origin. Moreover, natality is evolving in such a way that within a couple of decades Brussels will truly be a city comprised of minority groups. Each group has its own history, culture, religion, philosophy of life and view of the world. Migrant flows as well as secularization processes forced the religious monopoly which in the past was characteristic of our country and Europe to make way for religious and philosophical pluralism, producing a radical change in the relations between the Christian faith tradition and other religions and philosophies of life. We always want to underline the unique character of every religion and culture, and considering cultural and religious diversity to be an important feature of human society. What we need to do is strongly to promote inter-religious tolerance among younger generations to make them more devoted to dialogue and encourage them recognize universal values”. He finally said some words about sharing. “From our Christian tradition we learned that we must share with our brothers and sisters throughout the world! Since man exists only in relation to something, we must become peace-makers”. (…) “The same is to be said about the environmental crisis of our day. Our Patriarch – known as the “Green Patriarch” – has organized many seminars and symposia on the seas, studying the degradation of seas and rivers”.

A second panel helped to discuss how some conflicts could be solved, as it was the case in Ireland and Mozambique, inspiring the participants with the idea that change is possible. In the panel were former high ranked politicians, as well as a representative of the Community of Sant’ Egidio, who was involved in bringing to an end of the conflict of Mozambique

A third panel was held, on Friday November 14th 2008, around the topic: “taking responsibility”. The aim is to promote the idea that responsibility for building social cohesion has to be clearly located in governmental structures. Among the panellists I mention: Mr Runaldo Ronald Venetiaan, President of Suriname; Mrs Jenny Shipley, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Mrs Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada; and Mr Antonio Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal and current UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

A fourth and last panel took place in the afternoon about “principles and effectiveness”, looking at what kind of leadership is required and how it emerges and can be promoted within society and with support from external actors. What is needed is a balanced leadership that promotes values and principles but also reflects difference. One of the panellists was Mr Kjelle Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway, who talked a lot about the role of religions in building a multicultural society, where dialogue harmony should be the keywords. He said that: “some years ago we thought that religion should play a lesser role in society. Now we see it’s the contrary! We should welcome difference in our society. We should celebrate it! We need to have in every country, in every main city an inter-religious dialogue”. Very important is also to educate young people about all religions.

Participants worked also in small groups, discussing inspiring examples that change is possible and the obstacles one faces in trying to go for change.

The closing session was dedicated to “global call to action” and was chaired by the President of the Club de Madrid, Mr Ricardo Lagos, and moderated by Mr Jorge Dominguez. They invited some members of the Club de Madrid, as well as some participants at the Global Forum, to reflect the content of the discussion during the conference and to review ideas and developments that emerged during the meeting.

The highest moment of the Forum was without any doubt the closing keynote remarks by Mr Bill Clinton, former President of the Untied States and honorary co-chair of the Club de Madrid. He reminded participants about some highlights of the time he was President of the United States, relating them with the needs of today. He mentioned several times the importance of religions for the stability of a peaceful world. The conflict in Sri Lanka learned how much harmony between religions is needed for a peaceful society.

For the closing dinner came also the Ambassadors of Greece and Turkey, in order to support the Greek Turkish Youth Quintet, which was invited to give a performance.