<
 
 
 
 
×
>
You are viewing an archived web page, collected at the request of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) using Archive-It. This page was captured on 02:58:28 Dec 30, 2015, and is part of the UNESCO collection. The information on this web page may be out of date. See All versions of this archived page.
Loading media information hide
  UNESCO.ORG The Organization Education Natural Sciences Social & Human Sciences Culture Communication & Information
SHS Home  
Democracy  
Other SHS Themes  
Ethics  
Human Rights  
Philosophy  
Physical Education and Sport  
Social Transformations  
Worldwide  
Africa  
Arab States  
Asia and the Pacific  
Europe and North America  
Latin America and the Caribbean  


 
 
Democracy - Areas of Action
The overall theme of the new democracy programme is "democracy, culture and peace".
It contains three main areas of action:
Fostering comparative analytical research

The generation of new knowledge through analytical empirical research and capacity-building is coordinated by the Byblos Centre. The initial programme of work is focusing on democracy and its relationship with culture. The aim is to conduct comparative empirical research on hypotheses (case studies) about determinants of democracy in order to analyse the compatibility of democracy with the will of the people living under diverse cultural traditions. These studies will be conducted through surveys, opinion polls and analysis of media, focusing on citizens' attitudes to democracy.

The research will later be widened to cover democracy and its relationship to themes such as ethnicity, peace, development, etc. The objective is to achieve a better understanding of the reality of democracy in the world, in particular the way in which democratic principles are understood and practised by the people of different regions.

The Byblos Centre will assist UNESCO's Member States in developing the capacities of researchers, especially young researchers, to conduct empirical research on democracy.

Activities will include the following:
  • Byblos Research Training Programme methodology of empirical research and planning and conducting case studies.
  • Byblos Tutorship Programme for graduate and doctoral students;
  • Byblos Autumn School: This year's topic is "Neo-Realism Confirmed by Facts? Theories of International Relations and International Law under the impact of Unilateralism".
Organizing dialogues on the future of democracy

The Byblos Centre will conduct prospective analysis and foster international dialogues in cooperation with members of the IPDD. The dialogues will be grounded on reflection and research on democratic norms, values and principles and their relationship to the key issues of globalization and development.

The Byblos Centre and UNESCO will organize a series of public conferences to promote international dialogue on democracy. The first conference, entitled "Democracy and Peace," was held in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2003. The series will continue with: Democracy and Social justice (2005) ; The Impact of Globalization on Democratic Development (2006) ; The Juridical Conditions of Democratic Development (2007) ; Democracy and Culture (2008).

Seminars will be organized around the conferences in order to build capacities in different countries. For example: with academics on universalization of democratic principles; with policy-makers to foster ethics of leadership for democratic governance; with business leaders on the relationship between economic development and democracy; with journalists on the role of communication in democratic development.

Supporting democracy in post-conflict societies

The immediate aftermath of ethnic and factional conflict may pose the strongest challenge for implementing democracy. By means of the integrated strategy on democracy UNESCO will contribute more directly to the restoration and/or establishment of democracy through a programme of research and capacity-building.

The aim here is to encourage the promotion of democracy by local actors in the academic community who will make use of the results of the analytical research produced by Byblos and the debate generated by the IPDD.

In March 2004, during a joint meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Byblos Centre and the IPDD, several general recommendations were made for UNESCO's work in three post-conflict countries: Afghanistan, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These included a mapping exercise of existing studies and research on the promotion of democracy in post-conflict societies and research on democracy and culture with special focus on the challenges posed by cultural traditions.




  Email this page     Printable version

 
  Email this page
 Printable version
 
  Resources
Who's who?
   ID: 6785 - guest (Read) © UNESCO 1995-2009 - Terms of Use - Contact - Updated: 2006-01-24 9:35 am