The document, called the Cascais Declaration, is part of Portugal’s plan to harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and combat hate speech and the spread of lies and misinformation.
During the 10th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in Cascais, Portugal, the signatories of the document included heads of state and government of many countries. This global forum is running from November 25 to November 27.
The manifesto outlines a series of measures aimed at addressing global concerns about the erosion of faith, rising anti-Semitism, nationalism and online hate.
“These are very difficult times,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the opening of the forum on Monday. In such a situation, we need peace”, right now, in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine and elsewhere.
“We need to raise our voices and take action at all levels, in communities, on online platforms and across all cultures and institutions, using all the tools and resources available,” he says.
Highlights of the Cascais announcement
The 25-page document outlines innovative steps and keys to meeting the urgent need for peace.
It emphasizes the need to harness the potential of AI to advance dialogue across cultures and religions, and to combat confusion, misinformation and hate speech, and strengthen the integrity of information.
The Cascades Declaration also emphasized the importance of intergenerational dialogue for peace, sustainable development and human rights.
Also highlighted is the contribution of “sports diplomacy” as a tool for promoting dialogue and the need to support and strengthen the role of women as negotiators, mediators and peacemakers.
World leaders and partners who have signed this Declaration make the following pledges:
- Emphasizes the need to combat all forms of religious intolerance
- Recognition of the central role of inclusive, quality and transformative education in promoting dialogue, peace and human rights
- Recognize the role of religious figures in conflict resolution, mediation and development cooperation.
- Highlighting the positive effects of safe, orderly and legal migration on source and destination countries. This includes positive ideas about cultural diversity, social inclusion and mobility, and promoting creative perspectives among young people, preventing racism and stigmatization and stigmatization of those who are different from themselves.
- Note the agreement for the future, which recognizes and acknowledges the importance of the voices of religious figures and faith-based organizations in fostering a revitalized pluralism and culture of peace.
There is no war, no civilization in Gaza
Several other world leaders, including UN Secretary-General and Senegalese Prime Minister Aminat Toure, spoke at the forum before the declaration was signed. He drew attention to the ongoing war in Gaza.
The Senegalese prime minister said, “In the context of what we see happening in Gaza, where more than 42,000 people have died, most of them civilians, what does civilization mean in the end?”
He asked, “Is this the civilization that ‘if you kill one of my (men) we will kill 34.16 of you’ as we have seen so far where Israel has responded to yet another unacceptable move (the October 2023 Hamas attack)?” “Proportion of people killed shown.”
“Why are the unbearable scenes we see on the television screen not the subject of discussion about civilization?”
He said, there is no other way to manage civilization except through negotiation on the basis of equal rights included in the UN Charter and international framework.
King Don Felipe VI of Spain while addressing the delegates at this global forum said that in the 21st century, diplomacy is an instrument of peace, but its traditional instruments have become obsolete and they must be equipped with new measures, those with more courage, creativity and practicality.
‘Rebuilding trust is very important’
UN chief Antonio Guterres also said in the same spirit that the lack of peace is giving way to a lack of trust, making the work of the Alliance of Civilizations more important than ever.
“Rebuilding trust is a very important task for us,” he said.