News

On 2-4 May in the Spanish city of Cordoba, Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Šarūnas Adomavičius is attending the conference “Religious Freedom in Democratic Societies”. Vice-Minister Š.Adomavičius highlighted the importance of the freedom of religion. According to the Lithuanian diplomat, the human history confirms that there can be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions, and no peace among the religions can prevail without a dialogue.

The Vice-Minister said that in this context the topic of religious freedom in democratic societies was especially important. The religious freedom is possible only in a democratic society that respects all human rights.

Lithuania’s representative also stressed the long-standing traditions of religious freedom and tolerance, peaceful coexistence of all religious communities in Lithuania and distinguished the role of the Catholic Church in fostering the national Lithuanian identity and in restoring the Lithuanian statehood.

Vice-Minister Š.Adomavičius drew attention of the participants to the growing role of religion in Europe and entire world, highlighted the importance of interreligious dialogue, the role of religious communities, their leaders and international organizations. The Vice-Minister stressed the significance of the civil society, media and education when creating an environment of religious tolerance and non-discrimination.

The conference brings together representatives from all the EU member states and candidate countries, the EU institutions and international organizations.

In the framework of the conference, experts are discussing the issues of religious freedom: religious pluralism, the role of religious leaders in developing the culture of peace, prevention of religious radicalism and extremism, cooperation in promoting interreligious dialogue.

The conference was organized by the current Spanish EU Presidency (Spain’s foreign and justice ministers), as well as the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

It is expected that this high level conference will make recommendations, which will serve as guidelines for further actions of the EU countries and the Alliance of Civilizations under the auspices of the United Nations in this area.

Alliance of Civilisations, which was created in November 2005, aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions, and to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.

Lithuania actively participates in the activities of the Alliance of Civilisations and joined its Group of Friends in 2006. Currently, all EU members are part of the Group of Friends.

The 3rd Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations will be held on 27-29 May 2010 in Rio de Janeiro. The first two Forums of the Alliance of Civilizations took place in Madrid in 2008 and in Istanbul in 2009.