Sheikh Mohammed dedicates Pioneers Award this year to tolerance heroes

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The initiative will honour both national and international personalities of tolerance.

As the UAE celebrates the Day of Tolerance today, it was announced on Friday that this year’s UAE Pioneers Award will be dedicated to personalities and initiatives in support of tolerance in the UAE.

Announcing the initiative on Friday, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: “Tolerance and the UAE are two sides of the same coin. This year, we will celebrate Emirati pioneers of Tolerance, with the noble values of our society and positive coexistence in our homeland.”

The initiative will honour both national and international personalities of tolerance. The winners will be announced in Abu Dhabi at the annual UAE government meeting, in conjunction with the UAE’s 48th National Day.

Nominations for the award can be submitted through the website, uaepioneers.gov.ae, till November 22. Both UAE nationals and residents can nominate Emirati personalities and initiatives that support the values of a tolerant society and promote cohesion in the UAE society.

Nominations are welcome from success stories that have highlighted the image of the UAE as the capital of tolerance, and celebrate the values of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Father of the Nation.

Sheikh Mohammed tweeted on Friday: “As part of #UAE_Pioneers Award, we will honour role models of tolerance who spread values of peace and coexistence in our country.”

“We invite our citizens and residents to nominate people, projects and initiatives that promote tolerance, using the #UAE_Pioneers and website http://uaepioneers.gov.ae. Our team will select a number of individuals and projects to honour for their work and impact,” tweeted Sheikh Mohameed.

What is the UAE Pioneers Award?

On December 1, 2014, in conjunction with the 43rd UAE National Day celebrations, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, recognised 43 Emiratis with the first UAE Pioneers Award.

The Awards were the culmination of a social media initiative that was launched with a tweet from Sheikh Mohammed’s Twitter account in November 2014. The hashtag campaign prompted Emiratis to nominate fellow countrymen and women who they believed were pioneers in their respective fields.

The social media campaign galvanised the community, with nominations rolling in from all segments of Emirati society. Within two weeks there were more than 137,000 entries, all nominated with the hashtag #UAE_Pioneers.

Seven pillars of tolerance

1-Tolerance in community: The first pillar aims to promote the values of tolerance within family members, and to consolidate them among different cultures, activating the role of UAE community centres to promote tolerant societies.

2-Tolerance in education: This pillar’s objective is to solidify teachings behind the values of tolerance within the education systems .

3-Tolerance at the workplace: The third pillar’s focus is on creating a safe, tolerant, and cohesive workplace across public and private sector institutions and organisations.

4-Tolerance and culture: The promotion of cultural tolerance is the main objective, via the launch of various events and programmes celebrating more than 200 nationalities residing in the country.

5-UAE model of tolerance: This pillar seeks to solidify the UAE as the global capital for tolerance, via a series of initiatives and projects.

6-Tolerance in legislation: The sixth pillar will see the Supreme National Committee for Tolerance work on developing policy, legislation and executive regulations.

7-Tolerance in the media: The media is one of the most important axes in dissemination tolerance and coexistence values via targeted media campaigns and projects, as well as promoting the UAE model of tolerance across media channels and social networking sites.

UAE’s journey  

>December 15, 2018: UAE President declares 2019 as ‘Year of Tolerance’

>February 7, 2019: Ghaf tree announced as logo for ‘Year of Tolerance’

>February 3, 2019: Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State arrives in Abu Dhabi for a historic three-day visit and attend the Inter-Faith Meet.

>March 18, 2019: Abdullah bin Zayed Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Chairman of the Supreme National Committee for Tolerance launches Zayed’s Tolerance Pledge

>15 April 2019: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed met the imams of the two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 50 people were killed in a terror attack last month.

>November 13: World Tolerance Summit was organised in Dubai.