For their Excellencies the Ambassadors of the UNESCO Member States

The CCIC:

• Concerned by the international news and its implications for the future of peace,

• And building on the Founding Declaration of UNESCO’s Member States “that since wars begin in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace must be erected”,

 

• And recalling the “Declaration of the Right of Peoples to Peace” and the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Preamble states that “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbaric acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of man”.

The CCIC:

• Welcomes the decisions of the Security Council of the United Nations dated 19 September 2014 “condemning attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (DAECH) and associated armed groups “.

• Welcomes the contribution made by the international community to the efforts of the Iraqi government to strengthen democratic institutions, and thus effectively fight against terrorism.

The CCIC urges political leaders in UNESCO Member States :

– To take the urgent measures necessary to neutralise those responsible for abuses and stop the barbaric acts incompatible with respect for the dignity of the human being,

– By developing the legal tools to qualify and punish but also to prevent them in their various manifestations;

– By promoting in all schools, from kindergarten to higher education, for girls and boys, an effective education for the rejection of hatred, an education for peace.

The CCIC encourages different spiritual and religious communities and NGOs attached to the service of human rights to support its efforts to publicise its bold rejection of all forms of intolerance and discrimination.