A/HRC/7/19 page 11 34. From 12 to 15 July 2007, the Special Rapporteur took part in the eleventh biennial Open Dialogue of the Association of American Cultures, held in Denver, Colorado (United States of America) and entitled “Global Connections to Cultural Democracy”. His address focused on the key issue of cultural diversity, its use as a historical, intellectual and scientific instrument to create a hierarchy of races and cultures, and the need not only to promote de facto diversity but also to enhance the value of pluralism practised out of recognition and respect for diversity and as a means of promoting it. 35. From 5 to 7 October 2007, the Special Rapporteur visited Perugia (Italy) to attend the seventh session of the Assemblea dell’Onu dei Populi, an annual event organized by the Tavola della Pace association and the Italian Coordinating Body for Local Communities for Peace and Human Rights, which jointly coordinate the activities of over 1,200 associations, local and national authorities, and civic and religious organizations which are committed to promoting human rights. In his address, the Special Rapporteur drew attention to the need for the all-inclusive, rather than selective, treatment of human rights and contrasted the rightful rallying of international opinion in response to the violence in Myanmar with the silence which has greeted the hundreds of victims of political repression in Guinea. He considered that media attention should not constitute the only yardstick for measuring the seriousness of human rights violations and that the main guiding principle must be universality and equal treatment. 36. At the invitation of the Fundación Tres Culturas del Mediterráneo, the Special Rapporteur also took part in a meeting of civil-society organizations to consider the question of discrimination against Muslims in Jaén (Spain) on 8 October 2007. This meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the following subjects in depth: the perception of the Arab and Muslim world in the media; the role of education in promoting tolerance; and coexistence and cooperation between Muslims and non-Muslims. The participants adopted a declaration which was presented at the Conference on Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims, convened in Cordoba (Spain) on 9 and 10 October 2007 by the Spanish Chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). 37. On 6 November 2007, the Special Rapporteur was invited to Washington by the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe - which helps to formulate United States policy on the Helsinki Agreements, inter alia within OSCE - in order to give a presentation of measures to counter crimes motivated by racial and religious hatred in the OSCE region. He spoke about the increasing racist and xenophobic violence, the growing activism of political parties with platforms which encourage racism and discrimination, the strategy followed by these parties and groups of gaining a foothold in government coalitions and even in the European Parliament, their rejection of multiculturalism, their bias against certain ethnic groups of immigrants and their attempts to depict them as criminals. He found that in the countries he had visited the basic ideology underpinning these renewed attempts to stir up racial and religious hatred centred on the defence of national identity and security. 38. On 28 November 2007, the Special Rapporteur took part in a conference on the follow-up to the Norwegian Plan of Action against Racism and Discrimination adopted in the wake of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban in 2001. This conference, which brought together representatives of the Government, civil society, intellectual circles and the media, offered an opportunity to evaluate the impact of the Plan of Action and to debate each of these actors’ future activities in the