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	Dialogue vital tool to foster understanding among different faiths by United Nations News   The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has stressed the vital role of inter-religious communication to combat intolerance and discrimination and to promote understanding among people of different faiths.   “Regular encounters between individuals and groups, if conducted on an equal footing and with a long-term perspective, foster a better mutual understanding across religious divides,” Heiner Bielefeldt, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, told the UN General Assembly body that addresses social, cultural and humanitarian issues.   He told delegates that inter-religious communication has an important role to play in efforts to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes that lead to resentment, fear, paranoia, hatred, hostility, violence and human rights abuses.   Dialogue between different groups can take the form of concrete events such as public conferences or ceremonies, as well as long-term forums or projects, noted the expert. It can take place at a grass-roots level or at the level of religious leadership, or a combination of both. Communication can be formally institutionalized or evolve spontaneously.   Mr. Bielefeldt noted that certain conditions have to be met for communication to be productive. In addition to being conducted on an equal footing and with a long-term perspective, communication should go beyond “brief, superficial handshakes,” as well as identify common interests and lead to cooperation on concrete projects, he said.   “The State has a responsibility,” he added, highlighting its role in promoting inter-religious communication, based on respect for every human being’s freedom of religion or belief.   States can encourage inter-religious communication by publicly expressing their appreciation for well-defined dialogue projects, and also provide financial subsidies to such projects.   He also stressed the need for the participation of women in formal inter-religious dialogue projects.   Ban issues call for religious leaders to foster dialogue between cultures.   Religious leaders have a vital part to play in promoting dialogue between different cultures and societies, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an international gathering of leaders.   Mr. Ban said that “when we build a culture of understanding and uphold human dignity, we build a better world.”   He noted that “we live in a changing and interconnected world,” where local events can have an impact globally and international events can also have a local impact.   “Globalization continues to transform societies, bringing gains but leaving too many untouched and discontent. These 21st-century facts compel us to strengthen cooperation – to expand the space for dialogue.”   The Secretary-General stressed that “religious leaders, have an essential role to play in ensuring that the values of equality, tolerance and mutual respect, which lie at the core of all the world’s religions, are defended, promoted and used to truly enrich societies.   “You can encourage dialogue. You can foster contacts and create conditions that will lead to sustainable peace, social justice and cultural cohesion.”
	Recording and documenting the casualties of conflict by Oxford Research Group   The Oxford Research Group International Practitioner Network is a project to facilitate productive communication and collaboration between casualty recording organisations worldwide, and to give their work greater public prominence.   The principal platform for the network is a website, everycasualty.org which provides a showcase for each participating organisation, and is a one-stop source for information on conflict''s casualties worldwide and the organisations that record them.   There are an increasing number of organisations, many locally-based, operating in zones of current or recent conflict working to collect, record, and ultimately memorialise the casualties of conflict.   However, the predominant feature of their work is that each has been operating in relative isolation, devising solutions in an ad-hoc manner, being largely unaffected by the work that is going on elsewhere.   There has been a clearly expressed need for a platform to allow such organisations to network productively with each other to share common problems, solutions and aspirations.   The Oxford Research Group begun to facilitate and provide the leadership and administrative support for a global practitioner network whose purpose is to empower and strengthen the effectiveness of practitioners who often operate in relative isolation, and often in difficult and dangerous circumstances.   In November 2009, the twenty founding members of the international practitioner network released its first joint communiqué on the goals of and principles behind the network.   In September 2010 we were awarded a grant by zivik (Institute of Foreign Cultural Relations) of the German Federal Foreign Ministry to establish a new website: www.everycasualty.org, as a vehicle for on-line communication and collaboration between network members.   The site, which went live in early 2011 contains regularly updated news and comment on casualty recording worldwide, detailed information about each network member, and a secure facility for network members to participate in discussions with one another on issues of importance and concern to the members.   This will assist the network to: uncover and address key problems and needs of practitioners; accelerate the sharing and development of good practice; nurture an effective and credible platform for global advocacy to establish the recording of all casualties as best practice; increase the resilience of practitioners’ projects by linking them with peers and a set of good practices which lends authority and moral (and where necessary advocacy) support to their work.   * For more details visit the link below. Visit the related web page
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