Church United Nations liaison addressing full session says Adventists applaud integrating religious freedom and human rights into school education.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church applauds integrating religious freedom and human rights into school education.
Speaking at The International Consultative Conference on School Education in Relation with Freedom of Religion and Belief, Tolerance and Non-Discrimination in Madrid, Spain, November 23-25, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher, U.N. liaison director for the Adventist Church, supported the intent of the conference in working to prevent religious conflict and discrimination through education for tolerance and mutual respect.
“To seek to prevent the rise of religious freedom violations and intolerance is surely as significant as seeking to redress such actions once they have occurred, and we applaud all such measures that seek the betterment of humanity and the mutual respect of different groups within our many societies,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher, one of eight Adventists present, explained the great interest of the Adventist Church in both religious freedom and education and its continuing contributions in these areas, commenting that “the importance of inculcating principles of religious freedom in educational curricula is to us so clearly apparent that we have long taught along these lines.”
Hosted by the Spanish Ministry of Justice in conjunction with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the conference was attended by 500 delegates from national governments, religious communities, and non-government organizations.
“The conference provided a wonderful opportunity to speak directly with top leaders such as the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, former Irish Prime Minister; the U.N. special rapporteur Prof. Abdelfattah Amor; and the chairman of the Human Rights Commission Dr. Leandro Despouy,” said Gallagher.
In his statement to the conference, Gallagher also said “We look forward to some definite and practical proposals resulting from this conference that will provide the basis for recommendations for the integrating of principles of religious freedom and human rights in curricula for all national education systems.”
Both Loma Linda University and Montemorelos University, Adventist institutions, provided in-depth materials for the conference detailing Adventist methodologies for teaching religious freedom, human rights, and tolerance. For the full text of the conference statement, refer to
http://unliaison.adventist.org/madrid.html
