Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to be here today.

Let me start by expressing my sincere thanks to the Azerbaijani authorities for making this valuable conference possible.

I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate our hosts on the excellent organisation of the event.

Azerbaijan currently holds the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, a first for this country as a member of the Council of Europe. We are grateful for the opportunity to convene this “Exchange” as part of your chairmanship programme. 

Situated on the crossroads of civilisations and the Silk Road, the crossing point from North to South and West to East, Azerbaijan’s tradition of religious diversity is deeply ingrained within its society and trading culture.

For centuries, Buddhist, Catholic and Muslim traders along the Silk Road lived and worked side by side.

This is the seventh “Exchange on the Religious Dimension of Intercultural Dialogue” since 2008, when the Council of Europe started to look more closely into the intricate relationship between religion and cultural diversity.

Since then, we have discussed the teaching of religious and convictional facts in schools; the role of the media in fostering intercultural dialogue, tolerance and mutual understanding; the role of young people in the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue; and — last year — the state of the freedom of religion in today's world, its challenges and guarantees.

When we are concentrating here in Baku on the interaction between culture and religion under the aspect of intercultural dialogue, we are in fact touching upon one of the most elementary levels of the conditio humana.

Probably as long as there has been human species on earth, culture and religion have been bound together, have influenced each other productively and critically.

Religion, like cultural affiliation, is a crucial part of our identity —although not everybody may be “religiously musical”, as the German sociologist Max Weber called it a hundred years ago.

Today, when you enter “culture and religion” into Google, you get almost 14 million hits. In all parts of the world you c an find uni¬versity and research institutes, scientific journals, campaign websites, religious and non-religious associations focussing on this complex yet absolutely fundamental relationship between culture and religion.

I am certain that today and tomorrow we will hear many interesting new insights from the eminent experts of both religion and culture assembled here, and we can look forward to that.

As our continent’s guardian of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, the Council of Europe has developed a particular sensitivity for the role of religion in democracy.

This has been true for a long time already under the aspects of human rights protection and the protection of cultural heritage.

But especially in recent years the international community has become more and more aware of the role of religion also under the aspect of the democratic management of cultural diversity, the need to organise in our society the living together of all its members “as equals in dignity”.

This is the title of the “White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue”, launched by the Committee of Ministers in 2008, which also stood at the beginning of the regular, structured dialogue between our member States, religious communities and non-religious beliefs about the practicalities of intercultural interaction, governance and competences.

The “White Paper” made two important points.

The first is: The important role of religious communitites with regard to dialogue means that there should also be a better dialogue between religious communities on the one hand and public authorities on the other. Religious practice is part of contemporary human life. It therefore cannot and should not be outside the sphere of interest of public authorities, although the State must remain neutral and impartial.

And the second is: There is also a need for dialogue between religious communities themselves – interreligious dialogue in the strict meaning of the term.

Public authorities have no role within interreligious dialogue, they can and should however encourage religious communities and non-religious believers to come together and reflect upon their common task to contribute to a peaceful democratic society, protecting the human rights of everyone and safeguarding the rule of law.

It is crucial that we find ways for people of different faiths and beliefs to co-exist peacefully.

We all know that this is not easy. Across Europe today, we are seeing an upswing in discrimination and intolerance.

Minorities are marginalised and stigmatized, today often more unashamedly than even a few years ago.

Stereotypes and distorted images of minorities have often found their way into mainstream media.

Populist rhetoric and hate speech are beginning to penetrate political discourse and public opinion.

Hatred and intolerance threaten democratic stability and the “deep security” of our continent.

This must not happen.

I am proud that the Council of Europe is pioneering the efforts to tackle hate-speech targeted at religious and other minorities, online and offline.

In March 2013 we launched the “No Hate Speech” campaign, a project with young people to combat hate speech online.

We are very grateful that the Azerbaijani chairmanship is also supporting the “No Hate Speech” movement by organising an important youth meeting next month with the aim of raising the campaign's visibility and consolidating its achievements.

It is clear: we cannot force society to become more tolerant. There are limits to what legal measures can achieve.

The parameters must be set, the ground must be prepared by smart, well-implemented laws defending the basic values that unite us, as the European Convention on Human Rights sets out to do.

But we must also strengthen the vibrant forces of society — the individual citizen, civil society organisations, religious communities and non-religious beliefs in the first place — to engage themselves in favour of a social order that allows for mutual respect.

And we must enable citizens to acquire the necessary competences to live in a culturally and religiously diverse world.

Only then will we be able to benefit from the advantages of our diversity.

Only through dialogue and openness can we chisel out credible compromises to important questions.

Many of you may now think, well, this is all nice and well-intended.

But shouldn’t we rather discuss issues like the developments in the Middle East which have added fuel to the misconception of Islam as a religion of violence?

Shouldn’t we rather discuss extremism like anti-Muslim sentiment voiced by public figures here in Europe? Or the rise of anti-Semitism in some of our member States?

Well, we will no doubt hear more about that during the panel discussions.

I am, however, convinced that we also have the political and moral obligation o look at the very basic foundations of the human ability to deal with other world views, other cultures, other religious convictions, other political opinions, other ethnic origins.

This is what we mean by culture and religion, and the interplay between the two.

This touches upon the most basic levels of our identity.

It is here where we may find the answers to the question how we must organise society so that no one is obliged to resort to violence, hate and discrimination.

It is here where we may find the keys to our ability to secure that Europe remains a region of peace and prosperity.

This, I think, gives our “Exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue” its very specific meaning and significance.

And now I wish all of us some very stimulating, open debates.

Thank you for your attention.