ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: International Day for Tolerance will be commemorated on Sunday at a time when the construction of ‘us’ and ‘them’ are fuelling hatred leading to conflicts among people and nations.

According to a press release issued by the UN Information Centre, the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, in his message for the day, said transformation of societies by globalization, migration and unprecedented mobility continued to raise fundamental questions about the ability of people to live together.

Ignorance and fear of the ‘other’ are still being exploited to stir up hatred and justify exclusion, he said.

“Since there is hardly any corner of the world that is not characterized by diversity, the upsurge of intolerance represents a universal threat to democracy, peace and security,” Mr Annan said.

The UN secretary-general said one of the most important challenges facing the international community was to rid the world of intolerance, a scourge that could have deadly consequences as history had shown all too often. He said tolerance was much more than peaceful coexistence of different cultures.

“It is an active and positive attitude, inspired by a recognition of and respect for the rights and freedom of others.”

Mr Annan said tolerance meant that concern for others must prevail over callousness and contempt, and that an effort to know the ‘other’ took the place of ignorance, blind prejudice and discrimination. It means the vigilant exercise of an ethic of responsibility, concerned with the integrity of the human being and with our allegiance to a humanity worthy of the name.

He said more than a moral virtue, tolerance was a reasoned exercise through which “we can define, together, through dialogue, exchanges and acceptance of difference, the values on which we wish to base our existence”.

He said more than 50 years after the signatories of the United Nations charter resolved to ‘practice tolerance’ and to ‘live together in peace with one another as good neighbours’, tolerance was still the main focus of the UN action.

No modern society can be built or can flourish by cultivating intolerance, he added.

The secretary-general called upon people of the world to pledge to be always open to others, in heart and in mind.