The Brussels Office of the Baha'i International Community (BIC) participated in a Supplementary Human Dimension Implementation meeting organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), on the topic of Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB).

 

The meeting was an opportunity for participants to take stock of the OSCE human dimension commitments, in the context of freedom of religion or belief and tolerance, and explored the contribution of FoRB to creating conditions for peaceful and secure societies in the OSCE region. 

 

In a session on interfaith and interreligious dialogue and cooperation, one of the central themes explored was how interreligious cooperation is a prerequisite for upholding FoRB, and for creating a culture based on shared values and constructive dialogue. 

 

Tala Ram, on behalf of the BIC Brussels Office, during this session highlighted the need to move beyond encouraging religious communities to merely tolerate each other or to live peacefully side-by-side, to collectively channel the constructive potential of religion for the betterment of humanity. 

 

Along these same lines, Professor Ingeborg Gabriel, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, emphasized the need to focus on the common values that exist between religions and not only on the differences in logistics. This was reiterated by Ms Ekaterina Chitanava, Director of the Tbilisi Tolerance and Diversity Institute, who pointed out the limited nature of religious communities that even implicitly see each other as inferior. “A dialogue,” she stressed, “can only take place between equals.”

 

The meeting concluded with considering the unique role of the OSCE institution in thinking constructively about the relationship between freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief on the one hand, and security on the other.