A/66/156 F. Addressing adverse side effects 53. Calls for interreligious dialogue have recently attracted increasing attention in international forums, including in the United Nations. For good reasons, such calls typically receive broad or even unanimous applause. It is important, however, to be aware of possible adverse side effects that may occur and to develop appropriate coping strategies. The following remarks do not relate only to State-initiated or State-supported dialogue projects, but may also have a bearing on other forms of interreligious communication. 54. It has been observed that focusing on interreligious diversity may lead to an underestimation of intrareligious diversity, with a possible negative impact on internal pluralism as well as “dissident voices” within the participating communities. 18 A telling metaphor frequently used to describe the general purpose of interreligious dialogue projects is the “building of bridges”. This metaphor seems to imply the possibility of clearly locating the discussant groups on two opposite sides of a river or a valley. Moreover, it is often said in this context that sustainable bridge-building presupposes “solid pillars” in the sense that a clear awareness of the respective religious identities is required on both sides of the bridge. This metaphor is revealing in that it obviously presupposes a bipolar juxtaposition of “us and them”. Indeed, even dialogue projects that are designed to prevent a “clash of civilizations” sometimes operate implicitly on the basis of a global map of predefined religious and cultural groupings that are thought to be rigid and inflexible. Against such misperceptions, the Special Rapporteur would argue that we should not construe an antagonistic scenario of “us and them” living on different islands. On the contrary, we very much live on one common mainland with multifaceted layers of interconnections, identities and complexities not based solely on religion or belief. 55. The relevance and degree of intrareligious diversity should never be undervalued. To avoid the danger of underestimating or even downplaying pluralism within religious or belief communities, a good combination of intra- and interreligious communication is advisable. Only on the basis of such a combination is it possible to do justice to the real diversity of human beings in questions of religion or belief. This must also include a substantive and substantial participation of women, who unfortunately continue to be marginalized, especially in high-level interreligious dialogue events. The Special Rapporteur would like to reiterate that dialogue projects would greatly benefit from the views of women. Moreover, women from different religions or beliefs have been very effective human rights advocates in situations of communal tensions (see A/HRC/10/8, para. 19; A/HRC/13/40, para. 61; and A/HRC/16/53, paras. 35-36). 56. Another problem connected with the underestimation of internal diversity is a possibly too-stereotypical picture of other religious communities. The apparently assumed bipolar pattern in metaphors such as “bridge-building” seems indeed to imply that the addressees of interreligious dialogue are generally located “on the other side” of the bridge. Thus, in the intention of reaching out widely across imagined divides, it may happen that somewhat “unusual” manifestations of minority beliefs receive undue attention because they may appear to be more attractive for outreach purposes than less salient religious manifestations. It is a __________________ 18 11-41943 The same is true for intercultural or inter-civilizations dialogue projects. 19