The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia emphasized that the world community has now become involved more than any time before of tackling the phenomenon of violence, religious fanaticism, extremism and hatred among nations and peoples. In a speech before the Human Rights Council's 22nd session in Geneva today, Dr. Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, President of Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Council, underscored the importance of the initiative of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for dialogue among the followers of religions and cultures which he presented in 2008 in Makkah and the subsequent conferences of Madrid, New York and Geneva. Dr. Al-Aiban, who leads Saudi Arabia's delegation to the session, said the efforts of the Saudi monarch were crowned with the opening of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Center in Vienna in November 2012 aiming at rejecting zealotry, spreading the culture of tolerance and co-existence, respect of cultural and religious diversification, and promotion of humanitarian dialogue seeking to draw the common factors among human races, cultures and beliefs. Saudi Arabia also reiterated its call for the issuance of a UN resolution criminating whoever defames divine religions, prophets and messengers and enacting the relative tough punitive measures against them. In this regard, Al-Aiban drew the attention of the world human rights advocates that the Palestinian people are still suffering from the lack of a sovereign independent state. Instead, they are facing Israel's fierce occupational practices, including abrupt arrest, killings, torture, displacement and demolition of homes, he explained. He voiced his country's well-known position calling for the activation of the UN pertinent resolutions on the Palestinian issue, including the call to enable the Palestinian people have an independent state with Al-Quds as its capital, lift of the siege, stop the settlements, and release prisoners from Israeli jails. --More
