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1 Paris 2001 Conférence générale 31e session Document d information General Conference 31st session Information document Conferencia General 31 a reunión Documento de información Генеральная конференция 31-я сессия Информационный документ א*()'&א$#"! א& 0(1 /(א.-,+*()א&%$#"! *23$45)*62#( Û y Û inf 31 C/INF October 2001 Original: English/Arabic/ Spanish/Russian Address by Mr Ahmad Jalali Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of the Islamic Republic of Iran to UNESCO on the occasion of his election as President of the General Conference at its 31st session Paris, 15 October 2001

2 31 C/INF.12 In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Madam Chairperson of the Executive Board, Mr Director-General, Distinguished Heads of Delegation, Honourable Ministers, Allow me to begin by thanking the Chairperson of the Nominations Committee and all the Member States of UNESCO for the confidence they have shown in me, against the background of the current international situation, by electing me as President of the General Conference at its 31st session. I should like to welcome the heads of all the delegations participating here. I wish also to thank Ms Moserová for her sincere endeavours in presiding over the General Conference at its 30th session. During her introductory statement two years ago, this wonderfully warm personality mentioned a phrase which I shall always remember: Whoever violates the human dignity of another destroys his own. Whoever elevates the human dignity of others enhances his own. I should also like to express my gratitude to you, Madam Chairperson of the Executive Board, for your serious and productive performance during the past two years, and I should like to thank you, Mr Director-General, for your indefatigable efforts to reform UNESCO s Secretariat and make it more able to fulfil the expectations of the twenty-first century. I assure you of my full support and sincere cooperation in your endeavours. This is the first gathering of government representatives at a ministerial level since the recent tragic events; it is for this reason that this gathering has a particular significance, and it may prove to have profound consequences for international relations. In the twentieth century, in spite of tremendous strides in science and technology, the global community underwent shocking waves of war and violence. The United Nations declared the closing year of the twentieth century the International Year for the Culture of Peace and, upon the proposal of my country, it designated the opening year of the twenty-first century and the third millennium as the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. The global consensus on this designation reflects a sense of urgency experienced by the effective and collective consciousness and wisdom of humanity as it has left behind a violence-ridden century. It is unfortunate, however, that further bloodshed and despondency opened the new century and the new millennium. In 2001, the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, the machinery of terror and violence refused to cease operation for a moment, and forces of ignorance, atrocity and arrogance comprising together the anti-culture of terror continued to prey upon many an innocent people. The recent terrorist attack perpetrated against American citizens typifies a most violent and atrocious instance of

3 31 C/INF.12 page 2 such crimes. On the basis of the unequivocal and firm principles we adhere to, we have all condemned it. Despite the existence of developed education systems all over the world, millions of people remain trapped in the labyrinths of suspicion, mistrust and accumulated hatred, and still fail to appreciate how efficient the culture of dialogue can prove and how delightful creative diversity can be. We have now witnessed what scale of destruction this failure can bring about. It is expected that UNESCO will grant top priority in its programme to the eradication of this failure and the imminent dangers it poses. In order to accomplish this task, it is imperative to foster a sense of spiritual and ethical unity among various nations, civilizations and societies. Such unity appears ever more vital today and no alternative to it seems feasible. Should the pillars of this unity not be erected upon active dialogue with the aim of eradicating misconceptions, an impending clash of civilizations will threaten the common heritage of human culture and civilization. In spite of the great advances in communications and information technologies, the situation of the world reminds me of a tale cited by the great Persian poet, Rumi, which is also to be found in other forms, in Hindu and Buddhist stories and tales and even in lands further east in various Asian cultures. An elephant was being exhibited in a dark house. Many people were entering that darkness in order to know what it was. As seeing it was impossible, each one tried to feel it in the dark with the palm of his hand. Someone s hand fell on its trunk: he said, This creature is like a water pipe. Another touched its ear: to him it appeared to be like a fan. When another felt its leg, he said, I found the elephant s shape to be like a pillar. Similarly, whenever anyone heard a description of the elephant, he understood it only in respect of the part that he had touched. They started to contradict one another. Despite this total disagreement, they were not essentially enemies; rather, the real problem was that the elephant in its totality greatly exceeded the capacity of the palm, the sole instrument they relied upon to perceive it. What is the solution? As long as the darkness remains, we cannot replace the problem with harmony and solidarity. Rumi suggests that, if there had been a candle in each one s hand, the contradictions would have been removed from their judgments. Excellencies and dear friends, our situation today is as if we were entering such a dark house, in whose darkness there is no hope for peace and harmony. Let us expect UNESCO to be that candle, if we wish for peace; as we read in its Constitution, peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. How each religion and culture perceives the truth and the values which uphold its society is most precious for that culture and has an absolute sense within its confines. But that does not mean that the other parts of the elephant are unreal. In this age of global communication and interpenetration of religious and cultural ideas, it is essential to keep sight of the total anatomy of the elephant while remaining attached to the part that we, as a particular culture, have experienced. For some time on the international scene political and economic factors have been of paramount importance, pushing cultural and religious elements aside as if they were of no

4 31 C/INF.12 page 3 significance. It seems that now these neglected elements, which remain very real, are reasserting themselves with a vengeance. We can no longer look at the world and try to solve its existing problems without taking into full consideration powerful religious and cultural forces which play a central role in the lives of countless human beings. Dear friends, during the same period that a promoter of colonialism in Europe wrote in his poetry: East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, another European poet, Goethe, in his East-Western Divan penned the lines: To God belongs the Orient! To God belongs the Occident! Northern as well as southern lands Rest in peace within his hands. The first two lines are an exact translation of the Quranic verse: Wa allah al-mashriq wa l-maghrib. For that great poet, East and West were not two distinct geographical regions, but rather two of the world s intellectual and cultural poles; in order to understand the one, it is necessary to understand the other. This is not simply a matter of satisfying one s curiosity about the other culture, but a necessity that our future path depends on. When we speak of civilizations today, it is essential to remember that there is something of each civilization in the other, especially when one speaks of East and West. For example, Islam is present in the West in large communities in both Europe and America, while the West is present in the Islamic world in the form of modernism in its numerous manifestations. The same could be said of China and the West, and to a large extent of Africa, and also of Latin America and the Caribbean. The image that the present relation between civilizations conjures up is more like the Yin-Yang symbol of the Far East than anything else. According to this symbol Yin and Yang complement each other and together form a whole, which is the circle. Moreover, there is an element of Yin in the Yang, and conversely an element of Yang in the Yin. The two cannot survive without each other and together constitute the perfection of the circle. So it is in the case of civilizations of the East and West today. One aspect of this dialogue is the dialogue between tradition and modernity. While we may be obliged to criticize tradition, we must not do so without first understanding it, and the same is true for modernity. The time is ripe for human society to perceive the negative consequences of exclusivist approaches and to formulate ways of involving all the elites and thinkers of various cultures in a process aimed at encouraging both public opinion and the masses to learn to practise dialogue and dialogue for learning. Through these means we can also recognize that the art of listening is a sacred art. Conceptually, terrorism, violence and war target not only rationality but also intellectuality, and we know that these two are not the same. The former refers mainly to a computational power, while the latter refers to the faculty of penetrating appearances and getting at the substance. Fortunately, there are other international institutions which are sensitive to the threat against rationality, but it seems to me that UNESCO is the only competent international and intergovernmental institution which can and should think of facing the conceptual threat against intellectuality.

5 31 C/INF.12 page 4 The question of justice has for centuries engaged the minds of great thinkers and reformers. The more compassion and sympathy spread among people, the more they herald the imminent advent of justice, which makes life more enjoyable. And if justice is really given concrete form and is realized in the context of this virtual ideal city, the main benefit which may be expected is the generation of greater compassion and sympathy between people. We naturally believe that human beings have a propensity for tolerance and that they are keen to love and be loved. That is the distinguishing feature of human nature which enables us to hope that justice will be achieved and compassion will prevail among humankind. History shows us that war can only beget war. War decimates the culture of dialogue, and the most destructive element of terrorism too is its aversion for the spirit of dialogue. The imperative of dialogue among cultures and civilizations is now more palpably urgent than ever before. Having already endorsed this imperative in its Medium-Term Strategy, it now behoves UNESCO to address further dimensions of the efficacy of this concept in the paradigm of international relations, and to pursue its mission more vigorously by formulating theoretical concepts and frameworks to embed this principle in that paradigm. This is exactly the same recommendation as the ones we heard today from President Chirac and President Obasanjo. We have a very serious agenda before us and a very serious responsibility. As an Iranian, in UNESCO I belong to the Asia Pacific group, but as President of the General Conference, I feel myself an African. I feel that I am from Latin America and the Caribbean. I feel myself to be an Arab. I feel myself an Eastern European. I feel myself a Western European. I would like to end my statement with another poem by Rumi: The unique light of the sun in the sky, Becomes a hundred lights in the courtyards. But when walls are removed There will be no light but one. As President of the General Conference, it is my honour to beg for justice and peace. Thank you.