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Religious Liberty in Action

Adama Dieng, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General succeeds to Mary Robinson as the new president of the honorary committee of AIDLR.

Religious Liberty in Action

Bern, Switzerland.CD-EUDNews, M.Fernandez, C.Cozzi.

In one of the previous interviews, Liviu Olteanu, Secretary General of AIDLR,  started to sharewithEUDNews readers a bitof the background of the AIDLR. 

In this article, he will describe some of the major events organized by him or in which he has participated. 

“I can express my deep thanks to God for all the people He helped us to meet or who He directed onto our pathduring these 73 years, since 1946, that formed a part of the brilliant and committed history of the AIDLR.

Having the position of former President of the Honorary Committee, working with the AIDLR since 1946 were: Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Schweitzer, Rene Cassin, Paul-Henry Spaak, Edgar Faure, Leopold Sedar Senghor and Mary Robinson.  

The AIDLR also had good cooperative relations with the following former UN experts on religious freedom: Dr. Abdelfattah Amor, Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt, and currently cooperates with our friend, the Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr Ahmed Shaheed, and with many other ministers and ambassadors, religious leaders, and scholars, among others. 

The list of our friends is a large one and it doesn’t end here. Since its beginning, the AIDLR has consideredit a priority and a necessity to organize and participate inconferences, symposiums and international summits and events - where debates take place on the challenges and trends on human rights, peace and security, religious freedom and freedom of conscience, and where the AIDLR can monitor the global panorama of concerned issues, and exercise its influence on behalf of non-discrimination and freedom of conscience and religion for all people.  

All these meetings - organized at or by international, regional and national organizations, governments, parliaments, universities, interreligious organizations, etc.-are one of the most important tools and priorities that contribute to an open door policy towards organizations and key actors who have the same DNA on the defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms. 

All these meetings help us to be in touch with relevant and prestigious international personalities, policy-makerswho, by their competence and positions of influence - either as Heads of State, ministers, ambassadors, religious leaders, scholars, judges, advocates, civil society actors, the media or NGOs-,can support the defense of human rights, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience for all people.”

The current President of Honorary Committee of the AIDLR

In July 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Adama Dieng of Senegal as Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the United Nations Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide.

 H.E. Antonio GUTERRES, the UN Secretary General who took office on January 2017, reconfirmed Adama Dieng and expressed his desire for Mr. Dieng to continue hisappointmentas the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide.  

In July 2017, at the UN Headquarters in New York, H.E. Antonio Guterres UN Secretary-General launched the ‘Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence that Could Lead to Atrocity Crimes’, a strategic and global project initiated and developed over the years by Mr. Adama Dieng. 

“I am very pleased to announce that the AIDLR has appointed Mr Adama Dieng to be its next serving honorary committee president, and that he accepted this role,” confirmed Olteanu. “I am so pleased that he will be bringing this extensive knowledge and background to work with the AIDLR, fostering the AIDLR’s values on defending dignity of every human beings and promoting religious freedom for all people over the coming years.”  

Before his appointment as United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Mr. Adama Dieng served as Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2001. He began his career as Registrar of the Regional and Labour Courts in Senegal, and served as Registrar of the Supreme Court of Senegal for six years. Mr. Dieng worked for the International Commission of Jurists, as its Secretary-General. He was appointed as Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General to Malawi in 1993, and as the United Nations Independent Expert for Haiti from 1995 to 2000. 

As legal and human rights expert, Mr. Dieng has, throughout his career, contributed to strengthening the rule of law, fighting impunity, and promoting capacity building of judicial and democratic institutions.

“I share with you a summary of the official letter from the UN Under-Secretary-General Dr. Adama Dieng, expressing his acceptance to be the new President:

«Dear Liviu, Please allow me to express my profound appreciation to you and to the International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty (AIDLR) for your letter of 19 April 2018 inviting me to become the President of the Honorary Committee of the AIDLR. I accept this invitation with humility and with pleasure. I consider it an honor and privilege to have been considered for this most important role. I believe that the role will not only allow me to work with colleagues to further the good work you are doing but also allow us to build upon the great work of those who have previously held this position in the service of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as they relate to your organization’s mandate. I stand ready to offer my service to advance the very best that your organization has stood for since its inception in 1946. My dear Liviu, I reiterate that I am honored to receive this invitation and willing to serve in this role. Yours sincerely, Adama Dieng, Under-Secretary-General Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide »

It is important and crucial to meet relevant people and key actors at important moments. “Many years ago,”expainedLiviu Olteanu, “I had the‘chance’to meet Adama Dieng for the first time in New York, at the UN Headquarters, where I heard and very much appreciated his speech. From the very beginning, we discovered a kind of synergy of common goals, objectives, international plans and initiatives, and an interest in talking together on topics such as fundamental freedoms and human rights, peace and security, non-discrimination, persecution or genocide. 

That meeting was the start of our friendship. Since that time, we met many, many times and we joined and cooperated together at the UN in Geneva, New York, and Vienna, and at other international conferences and global missions.” 

In September 2015, Liviu Olteanu was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy to the International Conference in Treviso (Venetia) organized together with the UN. At that conference, he delivered a keynote speech during the official dinner. Some years later, in 2016, in Madrid, Liviu Olteanu organized the Second International Conference on ‘Human Rights and Religious Freedom’. The event wascosponsored by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, and included participants such as the Minister of Justice of Spain, ambassadors, religious leaders, worldwide scholars, judges and lawyers, international NGOs, and also Mr. Adama Dieng, who was invited as a keynote speaker.  

The First AIDLR International Conference. 

The First AIDLR International Conference was organized in Madrid, in 2014. It was a conference based on the framework named « Dialogue Five »,accordingly titled for the invitees, namely « the five » key (categories of) actors to work and coordinate together on all the relevant global issues: « diplomats, politicians, religious leaders, educators, and civil society representatives ». 

That new paradigm was launched in Madrid in the presence of Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, who congratulated all those actors for coming together as a solution for global problems. “This pattern, according to Bielefeldt, has to be copied at the international and regional level.”