Serageldin Appointed as Alliance of Civilizations Ambassador
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Alexandria—
On behalf of Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, President Jorge Sampaio, UNSG High Representative of the Alliance of Civilizations and Former President of Portugal informed Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria of his appointment as Alliance of Civilizations Ambassador.
In his letter to Serageldin, President Sampaio said, “Your knowledge of the origins of the Alliance and of the context in which the initiative emerged, your contribution to the High-level Group report, which forms the basis for the Alliance’s Implementation Plan and its further efforts, along with your wide-ranging experience in building bridges across cultures, will, no doubt, allow you, as a distinguished AoC Ambassador, to strengthen the work of the Alliance and promote its objectives”.
Established in 2005, at the initiative of the Governments of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the United Nations, Serageldin participated in the launching and development phase of the Alliance as one of 18 members of the High-level Group of the Alliance of Civilizations, a group which was composed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan. The High-level Group held five meetings between November 2005 and November 2006 and presented a report analyzing the increase in cross-cultural polarization and making a set of recommendations to counter this trend.
On 26 April 2007, Ban Ki-moon appointed Jorge Sampaio to represent the Alliance of Civilizations, and to head the implementation phase of the Alliance. The Alliance aims to improve understanding across cultures and religions and to counter the influence of extremism and its threat to world peace.