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Round Table: Dialogue among Civilizations United Nations, New York, 5 September 2000 Provisional verbatim transcription

Address by Attiya Inayatullah (Pakistan)

Ms. Inayatullah: I would give more muscle power to information technology if it would give us a level playing field for all in Asia, Africa and Latin America and our youth in particular. It does have limitations and I would therefore like to support what Mr. Koh said. I would look for a dialogue among educators because one is not born to hate. It is in our textbooks and that was an extremely good point which is right within the field of competence of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

I should like to come back to women very briefly. I would ask UNESCO for a dialogue of women's contribution to civilizations. That is important because whether one looks at civilizations descriptively or normatively one will find that woman has been the axis of civilization. She has been the consensus-builder, the healer, the peacemaker, and maybe that is because there is heterogeneity. If one just looks around this room at the women sitting here. There is more heterogeneity there than with the men but there is a homogeneity and our homogeneity is that she procreates. That gives her that healing capacity whereas with men, traditionally X although of course there are exceptions X they are predators, hunters and fighters. If we want a peaceful world then maybe UNESCO can give us that dialogue of women's contributions to civilization.

Mr. Picco: Thank you for considering some exceptions. Ambassador Karvelis.

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