HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa chaired, on Saturday, the first edition of the Mediterranean Concert, held at the human rights and alliance of civilizations room in Geneva’s Palace of Nations.
Her royal highness read out the message of HM King Mohammed VI, on the occasion of this event, in which the sovereign underlined that “holding this concert today in the tragic, deteriorating environment prevailing in the Mediterranean provides an opportunity to celebrate, if only momentarily, our most exhilarating values – those of humanism, tolerance, freedom, dignity and mutual respect.”
The sovereign hoped that Mediterranean countries will embrace the Mediterranean Concert and similar cultural initiatives by mobilizing their thinkers and their artists to face up to the proponents of reclusiveness, intolerance and extremism.
In the same vein, HM the King said that Morocco has been consolidating its Arab and African Mediterranean roots, by positioning itself as a bridge between Europe and Africa, between the East and the West.
The history of the Kingdom of Morocco is a celebration of diversity – a key feature of our identity which has always been nurtured by the various dynasties that have existed in the country, in symbiosis with the Moroccan people, the monarch underlined.
HM the King pointed out that the Kingdom of Morocco has wholeheartedly embraced this choice, enshrining it in the preamble to its Constitution, which states that national unity was forged by the convergence of Arab-Islamic, Amazigh and Saharan-Hassani components, adding that it was enriched by African, Andalusian, Hebrew and Mediterranean elements.
The event was initiated by Morocco’s permanent mission in Geneva, the UN and the ONUART Foundation. It was also an occasion for the Moroccan royal symphony orchestra, conducted by Maestro Toni Cuenca, to take the stage along with 14 singers representing countries in the two shores of the Mediterranean who sang “A song for peace in the Mediterranean”.
They are notably Hossam Ramzy (Egypt), Yosra Zekri (Tunisia), Maria del Mar Bonet (Spain), Francesca Schiavo (Italy), Trio Joubran (Palestine), Maria Farantouri (Greece) and Tania Kassis (Lebanon).
Keynote speakers in this event are: Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Fathallah Sijilmassi, Secretary general for the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and Miguel Angel Moratinos, president of the ONUART Foundation.
