Jeddah, 16^th May 2024: In commemorating the ‘International Day of Living Together in Peace 2024,’ the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) highlights the importance of upholding the universal human rights norms and principles as the shared human heritage that brings peoples from different religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds together. While many regions across the world are witnessing rising levels of hate speech and discrimination, including Islamophobia, the Commission stressed that the International Day of Living Together in Peace is a reminder about the imperative for accepting differences, embracing diversity, and having the ability to listen to, respect and understand each other. The Commission called upon all stakeholders to use this opportunity to promote a culture of tolerance, inclusion, and reconciliation. It is upon these foundational values that we can build a sustainable world of peace, solidarity, and harmony, the Commission added.
The Commission underscores that Islam laid the foundation of a culture steeped in the principles of equality among all human beings regardless of caste, color, creed, or religious beliefs. The human diversity is a reflection of the Divine concept of Unity in Diversity. The same principles are being vividly upheld in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Vienna Declaration and Program of Action and ISESCO Islamic Declaration on Cultural Diversity and Cultural Strategy for the Islamic World. Therefore, acceptance and respect for cultural pluralism are not based on any expediency or opportunism, but it has come from Islam’s pristine universal teachings of equality of entire mankind, and are the foundation of living together in peace in the contemporary world.
The Commission recalls that the notion of living together in peace is at the very core of the International Human Rights Law, as stated in the preamble of the UN Charter which reads: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind…” However, peace is not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice, sustained by a culture of compassion and a disposition to dialogue. This idea is embedded in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Covid-19 global pandemic and its economic aftershocks have only reinforced how interconnected we all are, living together in a global village. Peace, prosperity and planet are three links in the same chain.
This International Day provides a moment to reflect on specific actions that we can take to reach across lines to promote human rights for all, harmony, rapprochement and inclusion. In this regard, the Commission reiterates its call to all OIC Member States and the international community to strengthen collaboration and joint efforts to promote and protect human rights, while working together to achieve development for all as there is no peace without development, and there is no development without peace.