Azerbaijan Failed to Provide High-Level Presentation at the Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

• 04.26.2016, 17:28
•  Region,  World

moscow-baku.ru

The 7th Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations launched in Baku. The topic of discussions is establishing mutual understanding and overcoming the alienation between people in the polarizing world. According to the organizing committee, there will be 16 break-out sessions and two plenary sessions during the forum, which will discuss priority issues for the United Nations.

"It is all about peace and security, human rights, rule of law and development," the organizers of the event said. According to TASS, a special attention will be paid to the role of religious leaders, women, youth and sport and education in the construction of a modern society. There will also be discussions on the themes of the fight against extremism and terrorism, overcoming the rhetoric of hate and xenophobia.

The two-day meeting which is held under the motto "The coexistence in inclusive societies: the challenge and the goal", will be attended by more than 1.5 thousand representatives from more than 100 countries. Among them are the current and former heads of a number of states, heads of some international organizations, famous politicians, political analysts and experts, parliamentarians, civil society activists, youth and religious leaders, businessmen.

However, Azerbaijan failed to provide a high-level representation at the forum. Only Turkey, Malta and Macedonia will be in Baku at the presidential level. The forum is not attended by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon either. This is the first time that the UN Secretary General is not present at this forum. Many analysts attributed the decision of Secretary General to cancel his participation in the forum to the protest of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, which said on April 20 that it is necessary to cancel the 7th UN Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Azerbaijan, in a country which violates the aims, principles, system of values of the Alliance of civilizations. In addition to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, a number of international non-governmental organizations also called on the UN to boycott the Baku forum. They launched a campaign with the following hashtag #BoycottBaku2016.

Despite the fact that the decision to hold the forum in Baku was made long before the 4-day war on NKR-Azerbaijani border, holding the forum of tolerance in a country where there are political prisoners, gross violations of human rights, destroyed cultural monuments of national minorities and glorified killers, looks at least illogical.

Only a few days have passed since the day Azerbaijan actively disseminated photographs, where soldiers of this country took photos with the head of 20-year-old soldier of the NKR Defense Army, and carried the head to the villages of Azerbaijan with smiles, and today in this very country they carry out the UN event of such a high level ... It causes a lot of questions the answers to which have to give the organizers and participants of the 7th Global forum of the UN Alliance of civilizations in Baku ...