“Inter-Religious Consultations for Creating Educational Strategies to Maintain & Promote Conditions for Supporting Freedom of Religion or Belief”
This project, beginning in 2002 and reporting in 2005, was the work of our former UN representative in Geneva, Dr. John Taylor. It was given by us the shorthand label ‘the Round Tables’ to convey the absolute parity of all participants…
In part it was support for the preventive strategy of the U.N. in promoting education for tolerance. IARF initiated a series of four workshops /consultations to carry forward the recommendations of the important UN International Consultative Conference held in Madrid in 2001 on School Education in Relation with Freedom of Religion & Belief, Tolerance & Non-Discrimination.
The four workshops were:
- A Muslim-Christian dialogue, June 2002 in Geneva. Participants from several countries made recommendations to promote education about each other’s religious traditions.
- A meeting of educators from five religious traditions, October 2002 in India, focused on the theme of rebuilding common cultural heritage in multi-religious societies in Asia.
- A meeting of educators concerned with African Traditional Religions, South Africa, 13-15 January 2004.
- A consultation titled “Affirmation & Appreciation of Indigenous Values & Spirituality and their Transmission in Schools”, Costa Rica, 19-23 November 2004, explored ways to dispel intolerance towards religious & cultural minorities in Central & South America, and to examine innovative ways in which secular & private school teaching can help re-discover the contributions of these peoples.
Our final report is here:
Round Table Dialogues – Final Report (PDF 24 pages)