My reflections on the conference.

I had the most amazing opportunity to participate in The London International Human Rights Congress 2011. There were lectures, seminars and panel discussions that featured leading figures from international politics & diplomacy, academia, civil society, and the private sector. The conference mediated different perspectives on immigration and integration and it deepened my own awareness of the complexity of human rights.

Discussions varied from politics, economy, media, genocide, integration, womens rights, rules of sports and the Olympics in London 2012, the Arab Spring, legislation, UN, white mans burden... and so many other difficult topics, themes, areas and points. There were speakers and participants of very different backgrounds, who felt very passionate for what they were doing. An input of a discourse between people from different societies and different professional areas, who share the same dream of becoming a global citizen who believes in unity of human kind and live in peace with another, cannot result in anything else than good output. I learned a lot from this conference and today I feel the urge of encouraging people to believe in striving for human rights in a world where violations against human rights is happening all the time and all around. To highlight the importance of universal value of being same human kind, some quotations that put emphasis on accepting other religions in an inclusive manner, believing in a universal reconciliation between humanity and the divine, are gathered below:

"The Bahá'í teachings state that since all humans have been created in the image of God, God does not make any distinction between people regardless of race, color or religion. Thus, because all humans have been created equal, they all require equal opportunities and treatment. Thus the Bahá'í view promotes the unity of humanity, and that people's vision should be world-embracing and that people should love the whole world rather than just their nation. The teaching, however, does not equal unity with uniformity, but instead the Bahá'í writings advocate for the principle of unity in diversity where the variety in the human race is valued." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalism)

"Hinduism embraces universalism by conceiving the whole world as a single family that deifies the one truth, and therefore it accepts all forms of beliefs and dismisses labels of distinct religions which would imply a division of identity." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalism)

"In Sikihism all the religions of the world are compared to rivers flowing into a single ocean. Although the Sikh Gurus did not agree with the practices of fasting, idolatry and pilgrimage during their times, they stressed that all religions should be tolerated and considered on equal footing." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalism)

"I believe in the fundamental Truth of all great religions of the world. I believe they are all God given and I believe they were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that if only we could all of us read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoint of the followers of these faiths, we should find that they were at the bottom all one and were all helpful to one another." - M K Gandhi

"The path that leads to peace will be, no doubt, long and arduous, but we cannot even begin the journey until we pass through the gate. Above the gate is the required universal affirmation: "On the path that leads to peace we are all members of one human family, brothers and sisters one of another." -Knapp Rev. Ron Knapp . . . Unitarianism