UN Ambassador to Visit Bermuda for Religious Freedom Conference

Silver Spring, Maryland, USA . [IRLA News] United Nations Ambassador Joseph Verner Reed will visit Bermuda March 14-15 to participate in a major religious freedom conference organized by the International Religious Liberty Association.

Ambassador Reed is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), a post he has held for the past four years, and is the president of the Staff-Management Coordination Committee, the highest internal body of the UN.

"We are both delighted and privileged that Ambassador Reed will be participating in this vital conference on religious freedom," comments Dr. John Graz, secretary general of IRLA. "Ambassador Reed serves as the chief organizer of the day-to-day affairs of the UN, and we appreciate his commitment in taking time to be with us. He will be speaking on 'Globalization, the United Nations, and our World,' and we know that this will be of great interest both to Bermudans and the wider world public."

The conference runs from March 14 to 16 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel, and will also include other prominent speakers such as Professor Rosa Guerreiro, UNESCO Intercultural Dialogue Department; Dr. Rosa Maria Martinez de Codes, Department of Religious Affairs, Spain; and Dr. Anatoly Krasikov, Russian Academy of Sciences. Other religious freedom experts from the US and elsewhere will also participate.

"This working conference will tackle the high-profile issues of discrimination and intolerance in the modern world," comments Graz, "and will seek answers through the support and promotion of religious freedom concepts as the most fundamental of human rights."

A press conference is expected to be held upon Ambassador Reed's arrival at the hotel at approximately 5pm on Wednesday March 14. A formal declaration will be released at the end for the conference.

For more information contact IRLA information director Jonathan Gallagher at (301) 680-6686 or at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel from March 13 on.