Attaining justice, equality and tolerance in people-to-people relationships.

Following the debate on the notion of a clash of civilizations in the mid-1990s and the celebration of the year 2001 as the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, also marked by the events of 11 September 2001, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “Global Agenda for Dialogue among Civilizations” (resolution 56/6 of 21 November 2001) and assigned UNESCO the lead role within the United Nations system. The Global Agenda provided inspiration and a common framework for future action, stating, inter alia, that dialogue among cultures and civilizations is a process aimed at attaining justice, equality and tolerance in people-to-people relationships, whose objective is to bridge the gap in knowledge worldwide about other civilizations, cultures and societies, to lay the foundations for dialogue based on universally shared values, and to undertake concrete activities, inspired and driven by dialogue, especially in the areas of education, cultural diversity and heritage, science and communication

 In the following years, UNESCO redefined and sharpened its own contribution to dialogue. A series of international conferences was held to raise awareness among decision-makers and civil society stakeholders with a view to promoting the principles of dialogue, strengthening international cooperation and adopting the approach of constructive pluralism. However, it was widely felt that activities must move beyond general principles and agreements, towards concrete approaches and practical programmatic activities. 

Several steps were taken to that end: (a) the focusing on activities as defined by the International Ministerial Conference on Dialogue among Civilizations, held in New Delhi, India, in June 2003; (b) a move from the global to the regional arena, exemplified by the “Regional Forum on Dialogue among Civilizations”, held in Ohrid, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in August 2003; and (c) the emphasis on the need for multi-stakeholder involvement, including civil society, at various levels as well as the need to mobilize the entire range of UNESCO mechanisms and networks – field offices, National Commissions, Chairs and Fellowships. These experiences were consolidated in 32 C/Resolution 47 of the General Conference on “New perspectives in UNESCO’s activities pertaining to the dialogue among civilizations and cultures” adopted by the 2003 General Conference, which henceforth provided a broad framework for UNESCO’s action. These new perspectives were particularly well captured in the Rabat Commitment, adopted in June 2005, which aimed to identify concrete and practical steps in various domains of UNESCO, which the organizations participating in the “Conference on Fostering Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations through Concrete and Sustained Initiatives” (Rabat, June 2005) pledged to pursue, jointly and individually from 2006 onwards, and which has since then spawned a number of individual and joint actions by the partner organizations, thereby strengthening international cooperation. A follow-up Conference, scheduled to take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2008, is currently under preparation. In 2006, at the request of UNESCO’s Member States, the Director-General developed a Plan of Action for the promotion of the dialogue among peoples and UNESCO’s contribution to international action against terrorism. The Plan of Action focused on five major themes of intersectoral action: 

(i) Promoting reciprocal knowledge of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity; 

(ii) Building a framework for commonly shared values;

(iii) Strengthening quality and values education;

(iv) Countering violence and extremism; and 

(v) Fostering dialogue for sustainable development.  

In 2007, the General Conference adopted the Medium-Term Strategy (2008-2013), which is structured around five overarching objectives, one of which is “Fostering cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace”. This objective seeks to elucidate conditions which will enable UNESCO to demonstrate its comparative advantage in the promotion of cultural diversity and its corollary, dialogue among civilizations and cultures. In January 2008, UNESCO also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the newly created Alliance of Civilizations, in order to maximize their complementary role.