Lebanon a Land of Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures
The Lebanon
a Land of Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures Initiative (LDC) is a
Notre Dame University- Louaize civil society action. It aims at compelling the
UN His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations and
the Member States to designate Lebanon a Land of Dialogue among Civilizations
and Cultures and to establish an international center for this purpose in Lebanon.
One of the tools to persuade the UN to make the designation is a petition that
we have launched on June 13, 2014.
The petition's link is:
We are encouraging people from all over the world, Lebanese and others, to sign the petition and to share it with their contacts to sign it as well.
So far, we
have successfully obtained 3,300 signatures from around the world, we need
6,700 votes to reach our target of 10,000 signatures.
Your signature will make a difference because the world needs a place where
dialogue takes place not on the macro levels but also on the micro levels - on
the levels of people in their daily lives as it is the situation in Lebanon. Your
signature will give people hope and strengthen their resilience not only in the
Middle East, but also around the world for an alternative to disputes,
conflicts and wars. The Middle East needs Lebanon to be this space especially
for South-South dialogue and your signature will make it happen.
In his address to the UN General Assembly on the Dialogue
between Cultures and Religions (Item 45: Culture and Peace) on November 12th, 2008,
His Excellency, President Michel Sleiman, stated that "the philosophy of
the Lebanese entity is based on dialogue, reconciliation and coexistence".
He declared that the Lebanese people would like Lebanon to "become an
international center for the management of the dialogue of civilizations and
cultures and consequently a global laboratory for that inter-entity
dialogue". Like St. Pope John Paul II, Ayatollah Muhammad Mahdi
Shamseddine, the Muslim-Christian Summit at the Maronite Patriarchate in
Lebanon and hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon and around the world, we
believe that Lebanon is more than a country it is a message of freedom, a model
of pluralism and a special space for dialogue and coexistence of different
cultures, ethnicities and religions. We also believe that Lebanon's vocation is
to embody this message and to strive to live it and to promote it despite all
the challenges and the obstacles faced.
The campaign is a Notre Dame University Initiative supported by Lebanese people,
friends of Lebanon, people of good will, civil society advocates and
organizations who believe that Lebanon is a land of dialogue and needs to
be internationally acknowledged as such by the UN and its member states.
Our aim is noble and Lebanon's existence depends on it.
Dr. Guita Hourani, Director of the LDC Campaign
To sign the petition, please click the link below: