Mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen, We live in a world with an rich ethnic, cultural and religious diversity which we have to treasure, but learn to live with as well. We must accept these differences and tolerance is not the same as indifference. It is easy and politically correct to profess tolerance, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
The concept: tolerance, implies that we have to accept people who have values that differ from ours, and vice versa. It implies also that we take the effort to understand each other, that we include each other in the community we share. The question is: are we really able and willing not just to associate, work and do business with our “own kind of people” but get rid of divisiveness, of excluding mechanisms, stereotyping, sick jokes, condescending behaviour or hate speech?

I want to show you a TV spot of “Tolerance Unlimited”, broadcasted with financial support of my ministry on public and commercial t.v. channels. Young people are specially targeted through TV-stations like TMF, MTV, the Box, and FOX. The spot aims at making you wonder how the world could have been, had the personalities in it not been cut off from the world by violent manifestations of intolerance. Most of them are well known world wide; the last one is an ordinary Dutchman , Joes Kloppenburg.

Four years ago he was kicked to death in the streets of Amsterdam. Because he tried to defend a homeless person. Intolerance makes victims in our streets, on our doorsteps.

<<.... spot tolerance unlimited ....>>

Of course governments should spent a lot of effort on human rights education, holocaust-remembrance, or - like in the Netherlands - a slavery monument, to raise awareness. We can develop policies for social inclusion and empowerment of minorities, but even then we have to face the fact that racism is persistent and that we also need criminal law to combat racism and discrimination.

Faced with modern manifestations of racism, like racism on the internet, governments should unite to prohibit this. I have summoned this at the conference in Strasbourg last October. History has shown the dreadful results of unrestricted incitement of hatred. We cannot remember the Holocaust and at the same time neglect the risk of multiplication of racist attitudes through the internet. We must be vigilant. I will return on this topic in the seminar on legislation.

Since racism doesn’t stop at the borders of a country, we cannot limit ourselves to national solutions. We should create a global network against intolerance, exchange information about remedies against discrimination and multiply good examples. I am pleased that we gather at an important conference like this, or the UN world conference against racism later this year.

In two days time the Netherlands will take over presidency of the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. The main event during our presidency is the Amsterdam Conference on Remembrance from the 2nd until the 5th of May, in the city of Anne Frank.

You are most cordially invited.