Secure Tolerance

Secure Tolerance — global social and political scientific concept developed by Moshe Kantor, a prominent public figure, President of the European Jewish Congress and President of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.

Kantor described this concept in his Manifesto on Secure Tolerance, for the first time in 2011.[1] After that he developed it in his research “Climbing the Kanridge” in 2019.[2]

According to these works, Security and Tolerance are two states of a society that may be influenced by many factors. Securityis a state when a society and a nation are protected from various threats. Toleranceis the ability of society to incorporate and respect the interests and values of social groups and movements outside established social norms.Secure Tolerance is understood as a way of thinking which recognizes that merely responding to breaches of Tolerance and Security is a passive approach, which does nothing to safeguard either of these essential concepts. Based on this concept, by further developing a thinking on how to make tolerance more secure and fit for purpose, people can ensure universal rights are sustainably protected.

«Secure Tolerance is the state corresponding to optimum levels of Security and Tolerance. This balance, which is specific to each nation and historic time period, provides the framework in which progressive public development policies, also referred as responsible development policies, can be effectively carried out locally, nationally and on a wider scale, in regional or global relations. Such responsible development policies can be related to socio-economic indices of Wellbeing (or Quality of Life)».[2]

Kantor advocates for putting this concept on a legal basis under the framework of Model National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance, and to enshrine the concept of secure tolerance into law, thus going further than the existing anti-racism legislationat the European Convention on Human Rights.[3]