Wednesday, 27.02

Official Opening

Speaker: Michael Spindelegger, Ban Ki-moon, Vuk Jeremic, Jorge Sampaio, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser , José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil , Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Heinz Fischer, Ghida Fakhry Khane

As an official inauguration of the Forum, this session will feature high level personalities: President of Austria, Emir of the state of Qatar, Prime Minister of Turkey, Foreign Minister of Spain, Incoming High Representative of the UNAOC, the High Representative of the UNAOC, President of UN General Assembly, Secretary-General of the UN, Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria.

Moderator: Ghida Fakhry Khane

Opening Statements

Speaker: Gjorge Ivanov , Traian Basescu, Princess Rym Ali, Zeinab Badawi

Moderator: Zeinab Badawi

Opening Session

Speaker: Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Marty M. Natalegawa , Irina Bokova , Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri , Bill McAndrews, Zeinab Badawi

Politics, business, civil society, religious communities as well as academic circles, professional organisations, youth, and the media are all jointly in a position to shape a new agenda for living together in diversity and dialogue. Shared responsibility, and with it responsible leadership, is needed; leadership that understands the complexity of the world we live in and integrates value-based and ethical decision- making as well as the cross-cultural bridge-building in both the medium- and long-term perspective.

Featuring Youth Representative: Ms. Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Founder and President, Youth Without Borders

Moderator: Zeinab Badawi

BOS 1: Addressing rising restrictions on religion: law matters!

Speaker: Heiner Bielefeldt, Brian J. Grim, Trond Bakkevig, Mustapha Ben Jaafar, Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Heidi Rautionmaa, Father Nabil Haddad

What have States to do, to uphold the universal human right of freedom of religion, thought and conscience in a context of growing diversity and pluralism? The starting point for defining the application of freedom of religion or belief must be the self- understanding of human beings – thereby, the concept of human dignity is a normative reference. Against the backdrop of signifi- cant political changes in many countries, this break-out session will also elaborate on the relationship between constitutional protections and the various dimensions of the right to manifest one’s religion or belief.

Rapporteur/Moderator: Heiner Bielefeldt

BOS 3: Back to the basics: freedom of the media matters!

Speaker: Alison Bethel McKenzie, Galina Sidorova, Frank La Rue, Dunja Mijatovic, Hadi Adanali, Gulya Akhundova, Martine Ostrovsky, Sylvie Coudray

The availability of information contributes to economic, social and political development and has the potential to provide a basis for conflict resolution and dialogue, if people are allowed to effectively exercise the human right to freedom of opinion and expression. This panel will focus on the defence of everyone’s right to the exercise of the freedom of expression and information, including the issue of the safety of journalists. It will also touch upon the promotion of the effective exercise of freedom of expression and information through teaching and education.

Rapporteur: Alison Bethel McKenzie

Moderator: Sylvie Coudray

BOS 5: Communicating better by drawing on the evidence about immigration – contributing to a new narrative on migration

Speaker: Christian Strohal, William Lacy Swing, Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie, John D. Skrentny, Iryna Ulasiuk, Ali Aslan

The need to promote a better understanding and a data-driven approach, concerned with the economic, social and cultural impact of migration, in order to properly address widespread public concerns over migration issues will be at the centre of this panel. Debates will focus on sharing best practices in policy interventions as well as in civil society action in various countries, aiming at depoliticising migration. Furthermore, the need to challenge discriminatory descriptions and incorrect statements in the media will be discussed.

Rapporteur: Christian Strohal

Moderator: Ali Aslan

BOS 2: Living together at ease in a landscape of religious diversity and differences: education matters!

Speaker: Heiner Bielefeldt, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Ibrahim Abubakar Jega, Shulamith Koenig , Faisal Bin Abdulrahman Bin Muaammar, Khalek Awang, Floriane Hohenberg, William Vendley

Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18, 2011 on “Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatisation of, and discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief”, calls for “strengthened international efforts to foster a global dialogue for the promo- tion of a culture of tolerance and peace at all levels” through, inter alia, “education and awareness-building”. This session takes into consideration existing guidelines and gives room  to share best practices and discuss how to take action, in order to implement these recommendations.

Rapporteur: Heiner Bielefeldt

Moderator: William Vendley

BOS 4: Diversity of media content

Speaker: Alison Bethel McKenzie, Malu Viana Batista, Milica Pesic, Patagaw Talimalaw, Galina Petriashvili, Pascale Thumerelle, Mario Lubetkin

The media and cultural industries have enormous respon- sibility in promoting cultural diversity by shaping the perceptions of present and future generations. This panel will discuss the topic from two perspectives: First, the role of governments in ensuring that a sufficient variety of information, opinions and programmes disseminated by the media is available to the public. Second, best practices developed by the media industry towards boosting support for cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.

Rapporteur: Alison Bethel McKenzie

Moderator: Mario Lubetkin

BOS 6: Diversity, multiple identities and social inclusion. Best practices in integration.

Speaker: Christian Strohal, Loren B. Landau, Hass Dellal, Howard Duncan, Ibrahim Kalin, Prof. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Policies that promote the integration of migrants hold the greatest promise to maximise the economic and social benefits of migration and minimise tensions, in particular during eco- nomic crisis. Integration is viewed today as the sum of policies and practices that allow for societies to close the economic, social and cultural gap between non-migrants and migrants and their descendants. Of course, there is still much discussion on how to achieve this goal – the panel will present aspects and tools of successful integration policies in different contexts.

Featuring: Michael Girardi, Director, Federal Ministry of the Interior, Austria

Rapporteur: Christian Strohal

Moderator: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown