The Seychelles former President James R. Mancham is among a group of distinguished personalities who accepted the invitation of the German Institute for Cultural Diplomacy to attend the International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy 2010 – “Culture, Globalization, and International Relations over the next Two Decades,” which was held in Berlin.
Other key speakers included Mr. Ansar Burney – Pakistan former federal Minister for Human Rights, Philip Murphy – United States Ambassador to Germany, Kalonzo Musyoka – Vice President of Kenya, Francesco Rutelli – former Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Guido de Marco – former President of Malta and former President of the UN General Assembly, Joaquim Chissano – former President of Mozambique, and Kjell Magne Bondevik – former Prime Minister of Norway.
Before going to Berlin, former President Mancham traveled to Belgrade to take part in an International Round-table on the “Importance of Reconciliation and Religious Tolerance for Achieving a Human Security Concept Goals in the Balkans.” The Round-table Conference was organized by the European Centre for Peace Development (ECPD) of the University for Peace established by the United Nations in corporation with Conrad-Adenauer Foundation.
The Round-table was chaired by Professor Takahiro Togo, President of the ECPD Council and Chairman of the Conference. Takehiro Togo is a Professor at Tokai University, Tokyo, who is a former Japanese Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Singapore, and the Republic of Turkey; by the Most Reverend Hocevar Stanislav, Archbishop of Belgrade and Metropolitan; by Mr. Albert Maeas, Ambassador EU, Professor of the University of Namour, Belgium; Mr. Negoslav Ostojik, Executive Director of ECPD; Mrs. Christine Samandari-Hakim, Baha’ie Association of Women for Development, Peace and Unity, New Delhi, India; Ambassador Darko Tanaskovic, Professor University of Belgrade, Serbia; Mr. Azem Vllasi, former President of the Province of Kosovo, and Ambassador Wolfgang Wolte of the Austrian Society for European Politics, Vienna.
In a statement issued from Seychelles, Mr. Mancham said that reconciliation and tolerance are pre-conditions for achieving human security goal of “freedom from fear.” He said that the Round-table considered the impact of the global crisis on achieving the other important human security goal of freedom from want.
Mr. Mancham, who was accompanied by his wife, Ms. Catherine Olsen Mancham, on his world tour, recently also delivered a keynote address at Columbia University in New York on “US Soft Power and Foreign Policy Seen from the Perspective of a Global Citizen.” He said that Seychelles is ideally located to become a center for the study of human security, international integration, and reconciliation.
