United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

”Humanity is like a tree. The branches are vast and diverse, but the roots are the same.”
– Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili

Khalili Foundation’s Partnership with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC)

“The Khalili Foundation, renowned as a leading champion for the promotion of intercultural and interfaith harmony, exemplifies the tireless commitment of individuals and organisations to fostering unity in diversity. Sir David Khalili, a global figure known for his dedication to peace and unity, shows through his work how the arts can help us in our quest for a more harmonious world.”
HE Mr Miguel Ángelo Moratinos
High Representative, UNAOC

MoU signing between the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the Khalili Foundation at the 9th Global Forum in Fez, Morocco November 2022

UNAOC and the Khalili Foundation Foundation have agreed to cooperate in the implementation of projects and events including but not limited to:

• Promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue;
• Fostering social inclusion, combatting xenophobia and hatred;
• Implementation of the United Nations Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites;
• Sharing best practices and knowledge in the areas of work of mutual interest;
• Institutional cooperation for the support of projects and events, including extending invitations to events.

House of Peace Exhibition (coming soon)

In a 1950s letter from the American President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Roland L. Redmond, President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eisenhower wrote: “Art is a universal language and through it each nation makes its own unique contribution to the culture of mankind”. This sentiment has resonated with me since I was a boy, and indeed inspired me to collect, conserve, research, exhibit, and publish the art we are now blessed to be a custodian of. Art has the power to transcend all differences in politics, religion, race, or gender and should be harnessed to foster intercultural understanding and promote peace.

This is why at the Khalili Foundation we have spent many decades conducting what I like to call ‘Cultural Philanthropy’ – the act of giving and sharing not just through conventional financial means, but also through the production and distribution of cultural knowledge. Through the sharing of art, my hope is that a bridge can be built between nations and communities to better understand each other, to see each other clearly through the ever-increasing complexity of our world. By sharing and exhibiting art, we can remind humanity of our shared culture, of the things which make us all human.

In 1998, to echo this idea of expressing unity through art, I initiated a project that I called the House of Peace. It involved commissioning the outstanding British artist Ben Johnson to create five large paintings that would offer different views of the holy city of Jerusalem in all its diversity, in the hope that together, they can remind all who look at them of our shared heritage within its walls.

This was a direct intervention on my part, one could say, to create something which would finally express this flame that was ignited in me as a young boy. This flame was the desire to see the world brought together, to show humanity that everyone has a place, and that sharing our cultures and faith traditions with each other is the ultimate path to embracing our differences. After all, embracing one another is what art, in my view, can ultimately achieve. ‘We are angels/ who have but a single wing/and we can only fly/if we cling to one another’ as Luciano De Crescenzo wrote in Thus Spake Bellavista. My hope, and my dream, is that through art we could bring about this embrace.

Of course, it is natural for us to work closely with the international community towards this aim – and what better institution than the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), which was set up precisely to address the polarisation between societies and cultures. We are proud and honoured to work with UNAOC to share our common vision of interfaith and intercultural harmony at a time when such a reflection is so desperately needed.

Professor Sir Nasser David Khalili

Founder and Chairman, Khalili Foundation

About UNAOC

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) was established in 2005, as the political initiative of Mr. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary- General and co-sponsored by the Governments of Spain and Türkiye.

A High-Level Group of experts was formed by Mr. Annan to explore the roots of polarisation between societies and cultures today, and to recommend a practical programme of action to address this issue. The Report of the High-Level Group provided analysis and put forward practical recommendations that form the basis for the implementation plan of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

On 7 January 2019, H.E. Mr. Miguel Ángel Moratinos assumed the position of Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, succeeding H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, who succeeded H.E. Mr. Jorge Sampaio.

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations High Representative and Secretariat are based and operating from New York, while a regional office has been operative in Geneva since 2021. The Alliance maintains a global network of partners including states, international and regional organisations, civil society, groups, foundations, the academe, and the private sector to improve cross-cultural relations between diverse nations and communities.
UNAOC has five main areas of action: Education, Youth, Migration, Media, and Women as peace mediators. UNAOC project activities are fashioned around these five core areas, which can play a critical role in helping to reduce cross-cultural tensions and to build bridges between communities.

For more information about UNAOC, please visit www.unaoc.org.

CONTACT:

director@khalili.foundation

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