Kazakh President: Religious Leaders' Council to be important instrument of global peace-building
"The meeting of the Council has just finished. "My initiative on establishment of this authority was supported by the previous Congress three years ago. The Council consists of representatives of the leading world confessions as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism.
"In fact, this is the first multi-format working mechanism of interaction between religions," Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
According to him, the establishment of the Council can bring inter-faith dialogue to a brand new, high level.
"First of all, it will allow to establish cooperation with other international interactive agencies. Secondly, a new permanent body with the great potential to become an important instrument for global peacekeeping is being created. Thirdly, it is important to establish a global monitoring of human rights and freedoms of believers. I am grateful to all the leaders of world and traditional religions, which reacted positively to our initiative and agreed to become the first members of the Council," the President said.