International Tolerance Day: Need to accept and respect diversity in Modern world

The world will celebrate International Tolerance today and it is imperative to respect and accept diversity in modern society. It is this declaration that initiates, one year after, the proclamation of the International Day for the tolerance by the General Assembly of the United Nations with the resolution 51/95.

Hyderabad: As the world celebrates International tolerance day today, the need to respect, accept and appreciate diverse world cultures is more important than ever. The world is leaning towards conservativism and re-strengthening their border. The message of tolerance needs to be given a chance to change the current social scenario which is filled with hate, fear and discrimination.

It is this declaration that initiates, one year after, the proclamation of the International Day for the tolerance by the General Assembly of the United Nations with the resolution 51/95. This date was chosen to celebrate the adoption anniversary of the Declaration.

The UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence rewards significant activities in the scientific, artistic, cultural or communication fields aimed at the promotion of a spirit of tolerance and non-violence. The Prize was established in 1995 on the occasion of the United Nations Year for Tolerance and the 125th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.

It was also the year when UNESCO Member States adopted the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance. The creation of the Prize has been inspired by the ideals of UNESCO’s Constitution that proclaims that “peace, if it is not to fail, must be founded on the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind”

How Can Intolerance Be Countered?

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.

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. 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.

Fighting intolerance requires access to information- Intolerance is most dangerous when it is exploited to fulfil the political and territorial ambitions of an individual or groups of individuals.

Hatemongers 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 hatemongers 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.

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.

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 possess 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.