Know Your Human Rights

Ottawa Interfaith panel marks 25th Anniversary of UN Declaration

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Ottawa, 25 November 2006: The Ottawa Bahai Centre on Saturday hosted the Capital Region Interfaith Council's (CRIC) interfaith forum on the need for religious tolerance. The forum was organized to mark the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance.

The forum included participants from many faith traditions: Anglican, Baha'i Faith, Buddhist Faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Hinduism, Islam, Jewish Faith, Jain Faith, The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Scientology, Sikh, The United Church of Canada. Panel discussions along with question and answer periods highlighted how various faiths interacted and how they felt religious intolerance should be eliminated world-wide.

Reverend Cathie Mann, representing the Church of Scientology, spoke about the need for human rights education on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the solution for human rights problems.

The tremendous importance of this almost neglected document was recognized in the media release sent out by CRIC. "Over fifty years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights boldly proclaimed the inherent dignity and the equal rights of all members of the human family. Guided by the vision of equality for all, the Declaration enshrined the fundamental right of every human being to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Despite the international community's unanimous adoption of this Declaration and its codification in subsequent instruments of international law, the world bears witness to persistent intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief, the proliferation of violence in the name of religion, the manipulation of religion in the interest of political ideology, and increasing tensions between religion and State policies...

"The freedom to hold beliefs of one's choosing and to change them is central to human development as it makes possible the individual's search for meaning -- a distinguishing impulse of the human conscience." (Freedom to Believe: Upholding the Standard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)"

For more information on human rights and the Church of Scientology in Ottawa, contact Cathie Mann.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at 9:39 AM.