Tolerance and diversity - a vision for the 21st century.

• Position: Brief Article

As a new century begins, we believe each society needs to ask itself certain questions. Is it sufficiently inclusive? Is it non-discriminatory? Are its norms of behaviour based on the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all kinds of related intolerance have not gone away. We recognize that they presist in the new century and that their persistence is rooted in fear: fear of what is different, fear of the other fear of the loss of personal security. And while we recognize that human fear is in itself ineradicable, we maintain that its consequences are bot ineardicable.

We all constitute one human family. This truth has now become self-evident because on the first mapping of the human genome, on extraordinary achievement which not only reaffirms our common humanity but promises transformations in scientific thought and practice, as well as in the visions which our species can entertain for itself. It encourages us toward the full reawakening of all its inventive, creative and moral capacities, enhanced by the equal participation of men and women. And it could make the twenty-first century and era of genuine fulfilment and peace.

We must strive to remind ourselves of this great possibility. Instead of allowing diversity of race and culture to become a limiting factor in human exchange and development, we must refocus our understanding, discern in such diversity the potential for mutual enrichment, and realize that it is the interchange between great traditions of human spirituality that offers the best prospect for the...