Dialogue and reconciliation

Dialogue and reconciliation can be made possible by re-establishing the bonds between the population concerned, its history and its cultural affiliations and helping to restore a sense of common ownership of the heritage that has been damaged or is a source of conflict.

One means of achieving this is to resort to post-conflict mediation which is intended to create the best possible conditions to achieve peace between communities.

Young people must be trained through specially designed information material, especially in written or audio-visual formats, so as to sharpen their intercultural sensitivity and skills. In this way, young people can in turn become cultural mediators, who live and practise cultural diversity and dialogue on a daily basis. In this context, preventive warning mechanisms are vital tools for appeasing or resolving conflicts that are frequently of cultural origin.

Owing to their ability to absorb every influence, and the fact that they take in populations from the four corners of the earth, the world's megacities are a melting-pot in which the richest possible cultural mixes occur. However, these traditional spaces of cultural exchange and innovation also provide the setting for many of the ills of modern society: unemployment, poverty, crime, inadequate infrastructures and services, and environmental problems. Cities must devise citizens’ protection mechanisms and systems to encourage solidarity at a time when such values are called into question by the processes of globalization.

• Post-conflict Mediation