Today, at 10:00 a.m., the Farnesina is hosting the International Conference “Protecting Religious Communities – Investing on youth as the major players of a new season of rapprochement, dialogue and peaceful coexistence among peoples”, organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) in association with the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI).
At the presence of high representatives of Institutions and of different religious faiths, the Conference will focus on the theme of religious freedom and its absolute centrality in foreign policy, with special attention on the role of young people as the new promoters of dialogue and peaceful coexistence among peoples.
“Young people must be the privileged interlocutors of our political and cultural actions to protect religious communities and religious freedom,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Angelino Alfano. He went on: “Religious freedom is an essential principle in human cohabitation and in the relations between States, in addition to being a fundamental human right and…defending this right is one of the loftiest tasks of foreign policy.”
The Conference programme includes the announcement of the establishment of the Observatory on religious minorities in the world and on the respect for religious freedom.
The conference will open with the welcome of the Secretary-General of the MAECI, Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, followed by contributions by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, and by the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, Msgr. Paul Gallagher. The closing remarks will be entrusted to the President of ISPI, Ambassador Giampiero Massolo.
