APS : Thursday, 16 May 2019
PARIS- Algeria called on Thursday, in Paris, for further efforts and actions promoting the living together in peace in the world, as well as dialogue and acceptance of diversity.
“Our responsibility, as institutions, civil society and citizens, is to increase efforts and actions through the implementation of policies and programmes promoting the living together, dialogue and acceptance of diversity,” affirmed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) the secretary general of Foreign Affairs Ministry Rachid Beladehane, on the occasion of the International Day of Living-Together in Peace, celebrated every year on May 16.
He underlined that “the Algerian people, with their history, values and sacrifices, share the deep conviction that the living-together in peace constitutes an appropriate response to the forms of intolerance, hatred, discrimination and rejection of the others which had unfortunately increased in the world in the past few years.”
The International Day of Living Together in Peace, he underlined, was instituted by the United Nations in 2017. The resolution related to this day, outcome of Algeria’s initiative, was adopted by consensus by 193 member countries of the United Nations.
The objective of the resolution (72/130) of the UN General Assembly is to encourage “an ongoing mobilization of the international community’s efforts in favor of peace, tolerance, inclusion, understanding and solidarity.”
In this respect, Foreign Ministry’s secretary general added that this day “is meant to be both a rejection of all forms of extremism and a response to the community tensions, terrorism that Algeria had to face alone and in the indifference of the international community for a decade,” pointing out that it will continue combating it forcefully and with conviction, but “without relinquishing the values founding its history and path based on forgiveness, acceptance of the other and living together.”
“Strong with this conviction and imbued with the values of living together, Algeria, which is at peace with itself, hosted in Oran, which is the first of its kind in a Muslim country, on 8 December 2018, the beatification ceremony of 19 Catholic clerics who were tragically assassinated by terrorists in the 1990s,” he said, noting that Algeria, through this harmony between Muslims and Christians “expressed and affirmed its commitment to peace, openness, dialogue and co-existence between the religions, as well as the common willingness to continue preventing and fighting against violent extremism.”
