16 листопада 2009
16 NOVEMBER – INETRNATIONAL TOLERANCE DAY
On 16 November, 1995, member states of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved the Declaration on the Principles of Tolerance and the Plan of Action aimed at promotion of tolerance and respect to diversity. According to Declaration, “tolerance is harmony in difference”, “respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human”.
In 1996 UN General Assembly suggested to observe International Tolerance Day annually on 16 Novembers. During this date intentional community is organizing row of events to draw attention to human rights, making emphasis on unconditional equality of all individuals, regardless of their religion,, ethnic origin, color of skin etc.
Mary Robinson, former United National High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “Tolerance is not wealthness. This is a life style”. Tolerance and respect to diversity should be integral part of each person’s life and also key principle of State policy.
In Ukraine more than two and half years Diversity Initiative, founded by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Representation of International Organization for Migration (IOM) is acting. It is a network of over 50 organizations, interested in popularization of diversity ideas and counteraction different forms of intolerance, including racism and xenophobia.
«What is in common between diversity, democracy and tolerance? Human diversity enables tolerance from passive perception to active respect and democracy does not allow it to be indifferent“, Mridula Ghosh considers Director of East European Development Institute (EEDI),.
In 2009 in Ukraine there is improvement of the situation and decrease of the number of racially motivated crimes. Active position of law-enforcement agencies, in particular Ministry of Internal Affairs (MOI) of Ukraine has positive impact on the current situation. Although human rights activists warn that it is too early to stop on the achieved results and more efforts to be done for final victory over racism and xenophobia.
“May respect for human dignity as well as tolerance and cooperation among cultures and civilizations continue to be the common thread that binds hearts of people together. I take this opportunity to wish long life and continuous progress for all members of the Diversity Initiative, who are working to promote tolerance and other values”, says the President of African Centre Charles Asante-Yeboa.
In order to form in society the atmosphere of tolerance, the IOM Mission in Ukraine – one of “Diversity Initiative” coordinators”, supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), conducted in 2009 All-Ukrainian social campaign “The Color of Skin Doesn’t Matter!”. The campaign proved that all people are “made of the same dough” regardless of ethnic origin, religion, social status, and different interests,. Representatives of different nationalities, who embody the positive image of multi-cultural diversity” became its heroes.
With the help of this social campaign, organizers wanted to prove that the promotion of tolerance is particularly important and informing people about tolerance helps to show the similarity between people and to spread respect to differences.
Within the social campaign, special video- and audioclips concerning cultural diversity and appeal to tolerance towards ethnic minorities of Ukraine were prepared. Music to social clips was written by Pavlo Gudimov, famous Ukrainian artist, gallerist, musician and the Head of NGO “Heart, Don’t Sleep”.
Social campaign “The Color of Skin Doesn’t Matter!” brightly demonstrated that Ukrainian business community, and also media and State don’t stay apart from the problems of cruel attitude towards national minorities in Ukraine, they are not passive in front of racism, xenophobia and discrimination. The example of this support is the fact that campaign was supported by trade center “Hlobus”, McDonald’s Ukraine, Ukrainian TV Channel “5 Channel”, International Satellite Channel “Inter+”, “MTV Ukraine”, TV Channel “Kyiv”, Ukrainian Music Radio “Molode Radio”, Kyiv Underground, airport “Boryspil” and others.
For contacts: Svitlana Slabinska, IOM (+380 44 568 5015), Nataliya Prokopchuk, UNHCR (+380 44 288 9710). More details about the Diversity Initiative find on www.diversipedia.org.ua.
