Rabat – Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita reiterated the country’s commitment to tolerance and coexistence during a conference at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.
The virtual ministerial conference on “The Responsibility to Protect” welcomed the attendance of foreign ministers from various countries across the globe and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In his statement, Bourita emphasized King Mohammed VI’s peaceful vision for Morocco.
Morocco earned its reputation as “an exception in the Arab world” by promoting tolerance and coexistence between nations and religions, embracing cultural diversity, and conveying messages of peace and respect.
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To attain UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Bourita continued, multilateral cooperation is essential.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, “we have a particular responsibility to join our efforts,” he stressed. He called on the international community to revive its attachment to the Responsibility to Protect project, which the UN adopted at the 2005 World Summit.
The global political commitment received the endorsement of all UN member states. The project has four key concerns: Preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.
If there is one lesson nations must learn from the health crisis, Bourita concluded, it is that states should not act alone.
Tolerance in Morocco
International observers have long praised Morocco’s exceptional level of tolerance towards people of different cultures, religions, and nationalities. Morocco has solidified this image with its promotion of tolerant Islam through the training of imams, in a campaign to help fight extremism in the Sahel.
Most notably, Morocco embraces the role of Judaism in its national heritage.
When Morocco adopted a new Constitution in 2011, King Mohammed VI illuminated the kingdom’s attachment to its Jewish heritage.
The preamble to the Constitution states that the unity of Morocco, “a sovereign Muslim State,” is “forged by the convergence of its Arab-Islamist, Berber and Saharan-Hassanic components, nourished and enriched by its African, Andalusian, Hebraic and Mediterranean influences.”
