SPbCU Participation in the Celebration of the International Day of Tolerance
On November 16th a conference devoted to the International Day of Tolerance was held in the St. Petersburg "Oktyabrskaya" Hotel. …The word "tolerance" means patience and giving an opportunity to a variety of people to live out their ideas, traditions, and opinions.Various important leaders participated in this conference, including the chief counselor of the Department of Social Organization Connections in the North West Federal Okrug, a representative of the apparatus on the Rights of Man in the Russian Federation, a representative of the organization on the Rights of Man in St. Petersburg, members of social and religious organizations, scientists and students of religion. People from the organization "Youth for the Rights of Man" spoke and presented short movies on each item of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Man, an anniversary of which will be held in 2008.
Speeches were given by SPCU's Rector, A.I. Negrov, and Pro-rector of Public Relations, I.M. Savich. M. Odincov, the head of the Department on Social Unification and Human Rights in the Russian Federation, noted that "The topic of tolerance is very vital for our society." He said, "Tolerance is realizing the equality between people of different nations, convictions, and confessions. But tolerance doesn’t mean indifference to violation or to stealing the rights of other people."
Igor Shadhan, who is a famous director of documentary films and commissar of UNESCO in the Sphere of Children in St. Petersburg remarked, "Tolerance is not only patience; it is also respect toward another culture and toward dissidents."
Professor Ryahovsky said, "Tolerance is understanding between people. We must not only search for understanding and love, but also give more of it to each other. I don’t want to spend 40 years in a desert like Moses in order to become a free people. Let’s become free faster than that."
At the end of this celebration there was a concert, which was organized by young people from the St. Petersburg band "Caprice."