FORUM: Human Rights Sub Commission 1

ISSUE: Combatting Cultural Intolerance in a

Globalized World
STUDENT OFFICER: Rufaro Kasukuwere
POSITION: President Chair

Introduction
Along with outright injustice and violence, discrimination and
marginalization are common forms of intolerance. Education for
tolerance should aim at countering influences that lead to fear and
exclusion of others, and should help young people develop capacities
for independent judgement, critical thinking and ethical reasoning. The
diversity of our world's many religions, languages, cultures and
ethnicities is not a pretext for conflict, but is a treasure that enriches us
all.
On the day of its fiftieth anniversary, 16 November 1995, UNESCO's
Member States adopted a Declaration of Principles on Tolerance.
Among other things, the Declaration affirms that tolerance is neither
indulgence nor indifference. It is respect and appreciation of the rich
variety of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of
being human. Tolerance recognizes the universal human rights and
fundamental freedoms of others. People are naturally diverse; only
tolerance can ensure the survival of mixed communities in every region
of the globe. But with proper tolerance people of different cultures can
truly get along.

Different cultures of today’s society have different interpretations of

human rights. They also tend to tie their interpretations to with their
values. In such a globalized world, providing peaceful coexistence is
becoming difficult, but not impossible.

Definition of Key Terms

Cultural Intolerance
a very broad concept including unfounded negative attitudes towards
people, their lifestyles, opinions, interests, feelings, customs and beliefs.
On the one side, intolerance is based on prejudices against different
social and ethnic groups and individual representatives of these groups.
But, on the other side, intolerance increases such stereotypes in society
and provides favourable conditions for them.
Racism
Means the belief that factors such as race, colour, language, religion,
nationality, national or ethnic origin justify contempt for a person or
group of persons, or the notion of superiority of a person or group of
persons.
The concept of racism includes all ideologies, prejudices, behaviour,
action, structures or institutionalised practices which result in a
discriminatory attitude towards a person due to the fact that s/he is
different or the mistaken opinion that discriminatory relations between
individuals or groups of individuals are morally or scientifically
justifiable.
Thus, at present the concept of racism is based not only on differential
treatment of a person due to his/her belonging to a particular race.3 At
present at the heart of the concept of "racism" lies any differential
treatment of a person only due to the fact that s/he has a different
ethnic background, mother tongue, skin colour or religion.
Tolerance
Lack of prejudices against other people, ability to accept other
lifestyles, culture, religion, interests and feelings. A tolerant person
perceives people of different religious, ethnic, racial and other
affiliation as equals.
Direct Discrimination
This takes place when in a similar situation treatment of one person has
been or could be worse than towards another person due to race or
ethnic origin.
Indirect Discrimination
This takes place when a seemingly neutral factor such as a provision,
criterion or practice puts representatives of one race or ethnic origin in
a particularly unfavourable situation in comparison with other persons
if only such provision, criterion or practice is not objectively justifiable
with a legitimate goal and if it is not proportional or necessary for the
attainment of such a goal.
General Overview
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”
(Article 1).
“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be
made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status
of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be
independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of
sovereignty.” (Article 2).

The concept of equality and protecting peoples rights is something that

is embedded in todays contemporary democracy, so states should aim
to make sure that cultural discrimination does not happen but yet
articles 1 and 2 from The Declaration of Human Rights seem to ignored
today. Tolerance can only be recognized through recognition of the
declaration human rights, as a foundation.

Major parties and countries involved

UNESCO
United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization 2,
(UNESCO) is one of the largest of the UN agencies. The major
emphasis of its work is promoting and protecting cultures and diversity
all over the world. This organization does this by generating both
technical guidelines regarding its main fields of expertise and by doing
groundwork in assessing the situation in regards with respect for
different cultures. Many of the already existing reports and treaties
concerning measures to protect the rights to cultural diversity of
national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, have had their
inactive from UNESCO. UNESCO also reports regularly on violations
against cultural diversity and minorities.
OHCHR
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights 3 (OHCHR) is the UN agency most responsible of overseeing
and monitoring the human rights commitments of the UNs member
nations. In general the agency works to protect and uphold human
rights around the world. It does this by generating reports regarding
the state of human rights and spreading general knowledge of what are
human rights. Often the job of the OHCHR is to speak out for
violations made against the core international treaties that protect
human rights. For example, the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights 4 is one of the key treaties that the OHCHR
monitors.
CANADA
Canada can be examined as one of the best examples how a nation
may thrive by embracing multiculturalism. It was the first country on
earth to adopt multiculturalism as an official government policy in
1971. The Canadian model proves how vitally important it is to not just
acknowledge cultural diversity and minority rights, but to actively
work in order to achieve success on this field. Canada has most
definitely benefited greatly from its approach and Prime Minster
Justin Trudeau has recently reinforced his countries commitment to
multiculturalism, in this time when it has become less fashionable.
Key Issues
The biggest main key issue when it comes to combatting cultural
intolerance is the lack of education people have towards the different
cultures. The lack of education can be the resultant factor in why
people end up being ignorant in accepting those who culturally
different.Another key issue is that many young people when growing
up are not exposed to the types of different cultures, thus unwilling to
accept. Such issues require the careful integration of what diversity is
through different means because clearly there has not been enough.
Some people are still ignorant or unwilling to accept the idea of
equality. Promoting equality and the idea that we are all equals no
matter what background or upbringing a person has is something that
has not been done enough of.

Previous attempts to solve this issue

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-
URL_ID=13175&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Possible Solutions
1. Fighting intolerance requires law:
Each Government is responsible for enforcing human rights
laws, for banning and punishing hate crimes and discrimination
against minorities, whether these are committed by State
officials, private organizations or individuals. The State must
also ensure equal access to courts, human rights
commissioners or ombudsmen, so that people do not take
justice into their own hands and resort to violence to settle their
disputes.

2. Fighting intolerance requires education:

Laws are necessary but not sufficient for countering intolerance
in individual attitudes. Intolerance is very often rooted in
ignorance and fear: fear of the unknown, of the other, other
cultures, nations, religions. Intolerance is also closely linked to
an exaggerated sense of self-worth and pride, whether
personal, national or religious. These notions are taught and
learned at an early age. Therefore, greater emphasis needs to
be placed on educating more and better. Greater efforts need to
be made to teach children about tolerance and human rights,
about other ways of life. Children should be encouraged at
home and in school to be open-minded and curious.
Education is a life-long experience and does not begin or end in
school. Endeavours to build tolerance through education will
not succeed unless they reach all age groups, and take place
everywhere: at home, in schools, in the workplace, in law-
enforcement and legal training, and not least in entertainment
and on the information highways.

3. Fighting intolerance requires access to information:

Intolerance is most dangerous when it is exploited to fulfill the
political and territorial ambitions of an individual or groups of
individuals. Hate-mongers often begin by identifying the
public's tolerance threshold. They then develop fallacious
arguments, lie with statistics and manipulate public opinion
with misinformation and prejudice. The most efficient way to
limit the influence of hate-mongers is to develop policies that
generate and promote press freedom and press pluralism, in
order to allow the public to differentiate between facts and
opinions.

4. Fighting intolerance requires individual awareness:

Intolerance in a society is the sum-total of the intolerance of its
individual members. Bigotry, stereotyping, stigmatizing, insults
and racial jokes are examples of individual expressions of
intolerance to which some people are subjected daily.
Intolerance breeds intolerance. It leaves its victims in pursuit of
revenge. In order to fight intolerance individuals should become
aware of the link between their behavior and the vicious cycle of
mistrust and violence in society. Each one of us should begin
by asking: am I a tolerant person? Do I stereotype people? Do I
reject those who are different from me? Do I blame my
problems on ‘them'?

5. Fighting intolerance requires local solutions:

Many people know that tomorrow's problems will be
increasingly global but few realize that solutions to global
problems are mainly local, even individual. When confronted
with an escalation of intolerance around us, we must not wait
for governments and institutions to act alone. We are all part of
the solution. We should not feel powerless for we actually
posses an enormous capacity to wield power. Nonviolent action
is a way of using that power-the power of people. The tools of
nonviolent action-putting a group together to confront a
problem, to organize a grassroots network, to demonstrate
solidarity with victims of intolerance, to discredit hateful
propaganda-are available to all those who want to put an end to
intolerance, violence and hatred.

What do you hope for the room to achieve

I hope for my room to write resolutions thinking that it could
really affect people in the real world. My hope is for people to
openly express their country’s views on this topic and for
people to listen to their views. I hope for those in my room to
enjoy debating this topic in a enthusiastic and engaged
manner.
Lastly, I wish for the delegates in my room to come having have
done their research thoroughly, ready to lobby and merge.

Bibliography

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-
sciences/themes/fight-against-discrimination/promoting-
tolerance/
http://www.oicun.org/uploads/files/articles/Article%20By%20Am
b%20Orhun.pdf
http://www.mfa.gov.lv/data/file/e/Cultural_Diversity_and_Toleran
ce_in_Latvia.pdf