The Secretary-General’s mandate for the HLG focused on three points: 

• To assess emerging threats to international peace and security, in particular from those political, social, and religious forces promoting extremism;
• To identify collective actions at the both the institutional and civil-society levels to deal with these trends; 
• To recommend, before the end of 2006, a viable programme of action for States, international organizations, and civil society aimed at fostering better understanding between societies.

During its deliberations, the HLG held five meetings: in Palma de Mallorca (November 2005), Doha (February 2006), Dakar (May 2006), New York (September 2006, and Istanbul (12-13 November 2006). The Doha meeting coincided with the cartoon crisis, which led the Secretary-General to convene—on the eve of the HLG meeting—a High Level Event about the crisis attended by the Secretaries-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League, and the Foreign Ministers of Spain, Turkey, and Qatar. At the end of this event, a joint statement was issued which had a major impact both in Islamic countries and in the West.

At the last HLG meeting, held in Istanbul in November 2006, the Group ended its deliberations and presented its Final Report to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the presence of the President of the Government of Spain and the Turkish Prime Minister. Later, on 18 December, the Secretary-General of the United Nations presented the Report and its recommendations to the international community, opening up the new, current phase of our Alliance.

The HLG Report is based on a series of guiding principles:

• A multipolar perspective;
• The need to reaffirm rule of law and multilateral networks; 
• Full respect for human rights under any circumstances;
• The principle of democratic governance;
• Condemnation of terrorism in all its forms.

Moreover, it recognises the major role that religion plays in the relationship between the West and the Arab-Islamic world, although ruling out the idea that the breakdown in mutual perceptions stems from religious factors.  Rather, it points out that, essentially, a series of political issues is what lies beneath the negative perceptions that sometimes exist in the Islamic world regarding the Western world:

• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has acquired symbolic status, so that it will be difficult to move forward in promoting the Alliance’s objectives if simultaneous progress is not achieved in the political solution to this conflict, which has already been going on for several decades;
• The military presence of Western countries on Muslim lands; 
• The perception of a double standard in the application of multilateralism and the defence of human rights.

The HLG report also recognises that the difficult situation in which the Muslim world finds itself cannot be attributed solely to outside interference.  There is a dialectic between progressive and reactionary forces, and these societies are increasingly conscious of the consequences derived from authoritarianism and conformism in an increasingly interdependent and open world.

Highlights among the political recommendations included in the report are: 

• Drafting a White Paper on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; 
• Express support for International Compacts for Iraq and Afghanistan;
• The need to promote, in the Islamic world, full participation of nonviolent political parties in the political process, whether religious or secular in nature.

The HLG mandate established that the Report should include specific action responses.  Therefore, its Part II features a long series of thematic recommendation regarding the four fields identified by the HLG: Education, youth, migration, and the media.  These recommendations are essentially aimed at governments, international organizations, and civil society.

An essential aspect of the report regards the follow-up mechanism that is to supervise the implementation of these recommendations, and which is essential to giving continuity to the initiative. The Report recommends:

• The Appointment by the Secretary-General of the United Nations of a High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, who will in charge of supervising its implementation; 
• Holding an annual Alliance of Civilizations Forum, which will be the point of encounter for establishing different partnerships based on the Alliance’s principals, with the voluntary participation of States, international organization, civil society, and the private sector;
• The creation of an Alliance Fund, and an Office to support the High Representative.