About participation in the round table «Interfaith and interethnic peace as the basis of stability in society»
On February 22, 2023, a round table «Interfaith and interethnic peace as the basis of stability in society» was held at the Minsk State College of Information Technologies. Irina Ivanovna Kovganova, Deputy Director of the National Historical Archive of Belarus, took part in its work. The event was initiated by the Commissioner for Religious and Ethnic Affairs of the Republic of Belarus and the public association «Belarusian Peace Foundation».
The round table was attended by Commissioner for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Alexander Rumak, Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Peace Foundation Maxim Misko, representatives of religious denominations of Belarus and national public associations, city authorities and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus.
The Minsk State College of Information Technologies was chosen for the event not by chance. The educational institution participates in the project «Network of Schools of Peace in the Republic of Belarus» and became one of the first in the country to receive the honorary title «School of Peace». The uniqueness of the college lies in the fact that it teaches intellectual professions to children with disabilities. Since 2022, the NIA of Belarus has been closely cooperating with the college and its administration in the person of the director of the college, Georgy Vladimirovich Kozel.
I.I.Kovganova noted in her speech that the archive is working to identify documents on peaceful coexistence and interaction on the Belarusian lands of different confessional and ethnic groups in various historical epochs. These are documents of Belarusian cities with Magdeburg law, whose magistrates were based on the principles of confessional dualism, acts of foundations (donations of money, movable and immovable property for the construction of religious worship objects), where a donor belonging to one denomination made a donation for the construction of another object, etc.
The participants of the round table noted the importance of such meetings in the Year of Peace and Creation, since representatives of faiths and national diasporas cannot stay away from what society lives by, and must do everything necessary to preserve the peaceful way of life in which everyone wants to live.
The NIA of Belarus, in turn, will speak in the language of documents about the centuries-old experience of tolerance and peaceful coexistence of various ethnic and religious groups in our country, which in the Year of Peace and Creation acquires special importance and special sound.
