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| Newsletter 05 |
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| The quarterly SHS Newsletter provides information on the work of UNESCO in the field of social and human sciences. |
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| A world order based on human rights and democracy - April-June 2004 (English | Français | Русский) |
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 Terrorism, discrimination and poverty. The debates centred around these three major social issues at the World Human Rights Forum held in Nantes from 16 to 19 May 2004. The Forum, organized by the City of Nantes on UNESCO’s initiative and with the Organization’s support, strived to tackle some of the contemporary challenges facing human rights.
These interdependent challenges are daunting. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 raised hopes for a new international order founded on freedom, equality and solidarity. But when that wall fell, we began to see other walls – poverty, intolerance, indifference and hypocrisy – four walls denying freedom to half of Earth’s inhabitants and trapping them in poverty. Why should it come as a surprise that indiscriminate violence rules when a significant proportion of the world’s population is treated as so much surplus, useless and excluded? We are indeed living in dangerous times characterized by different types of confusion: ideological, identitarian, confusion of values and of priorities. In order to get out of this impasse we need to invest in thinking, and give pride of place to ethics and reason. No one from another planet will be coming to save us.
That is why I was so pleased that nearly a thousand people from 80 different countries came to the World Forum on Human Rights for discussions, debate, questioning and listening, and for sharing their experiences and expertise with a will to move forward on a human rights-based world order. For the first
time, all actors involved – States and NGOs, researchers and activists, rich and poor countries – gathered together on an equal footing. The aim was to create a space of dialogue so that we might move forward together, in a spirit of unity and reason, before going back to the daily struggle.
It took three years of preparation, two more years of planning and a further year of sheer hard work, but I think we succeeded. For four days the City of Nantes turned into the world capital for human rights. This French city is renowned for being where the Edict of Nantes was signed in 1598, thus putting an end to the French Wars of Religion. But it is also famous because of a darker period in its history, as a slave city. As a member of the network of cities for human rights and as organizer of the “Chains of Memory” (1992-1994) operation, Nantes has now made this powerful, symbolic gesture in organizing the Forum.
Nantes city hall hopes that this encounter will develop further and be placed alongside other major gatherings that are trying to make globalization more human. The Dossier in the next Newsletter will be devoted to this event.
Human rights are the foundation of the rule of law and democracy. Through a new programme coordinated by the International Centre for Human Sciences in Byblos, Lebanon, UNESCO intends to help achieve the ideals of democracy. The Dossier in this issue briefly explains this strategy and provides a summary of the conference that recently took place in Byblos on one of the major challenges facing the international community in this field, namely the processes of democratization in post-conflict societies.
Good reading!
Pierre Sané
Assistant Director-General
for Social and Human Sciences
p.3 Ethics First laureate of the Avicenna Prize • Extraordinary session of COMEST • Towards universal norms on bioethics • Water and best practices: five case studies / p.5 Interview Nigel Harris / p.9 Social Transformations Migration and Multiculturalism • Together with migrants • Cities of the South – the role of scientific research in urban development • Highlights of the Asia Youth report / p.12 Dossier Democracy unesco and Democracy: what strategy? Promoting democracy in post-conflict societies – a challenge for the Byblos Centre • Training in citizenship and democracy / p.18 Human Rights A new research network for Latin America • UNESCO at the 48th Commission on the Status of Women • Poverty eradication from a human rights perspective / p.22 Just published / p.24 Next issue The Nantes World Forum on Human Rights • Calendar
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