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High profile events

Today, the concepts and strategies on a Culture of Peace have evolved. Rethinking peace and designing new modalities for its achievement at the international, regional, national and local levels therefore become an absolute necessity. To meet this target, the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova has initiated new forums to foster reflection and debate on the requirements for making peace a tangible reality for all in the twenty-first century.

Gathering eminent decision-makers, intellectuals, artists, business people and religious dignitaries from all regions of the world, these are innovative framework for instilling forward looking perspectives for designing and programming of UNESCO’s future actions for building peace through projects and activities geared toward tolerance, respect, mediation, intercultural dialogue and the rapprochement of cultures for a lasting peace in the our diverse and globalizing world.

Important initiatives in this regard includes, but are not limited to the following :

 Awareness Raising Campaigns:

Exhibitions for enhancing mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence

Prizing outstanding contributions to peace:

Networking for enhancing mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence

Observing relevant International Days:

 

 Some Strategic Partnerships

  • “Do one Thing for Diversity and Inclusion” with the Alliance of Civilization

A world campaign was launched by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and UNESCO, together with a group of partners to “Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion”, at the occasion of the UN World Day for Cultural Diversity and Development (21 May).

It is a call to take ONE relevant action that promotes diversity and inclusion - from experiencing another culture through film, food or museum, to learning about other cultures or countries, or dedicating time to volunteer for that cause. It works via a dedicated Facebook Page, serving as a platform for people around the world to share their experiences through posts, videos, pictures.

  • Promoting a World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue with the Government of Azerbaijan 

The Baku Forum is a global initiative that addresses challenges of intercultural dialogue in its various aspects regarding conceptual frameworks, governance, policy and practice. It helps tackling the barriers to dialogue and faced concretely how it can best be pursued in diverse contexts.

The forum provides a relevant platform for sharing of good practices and innovative approaches to enhance intercultural understanding. It gathers representatives from different countries and from all continents, including international organization, NGOs, media representatives, scholars, experts, etc.

This Forum is placed under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in cooperation with UNESCO, UN Alliance of Civilizations, UN World Tourism Organization, Council of Europe, ISESCO, and North-South Center of the Council of Europe.

More about the Baku Forum

  • Building a Youth Peacemaker Network with UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Forest Whitaker within the International Institute for Peace (IIP)

The Youth Peacemaker Network (YPN) was jointly launched by Forest Whitaker and UNESCO Juba on 12 December 2012 in Juba, South Sudan. The YPN began its initial roll-out by holding its first training for young women and men from Jonglei, the most conflict-affected state of South Sudan. The training held from 12-15 December 2012 at UNESCO Juba, and covered conflict resolution, leadership, peace and community building, and mediation skills.

The Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI) jointly with UNESCO Juba seeks to bring together young people across South Sudan’s 10 states that are motivated to be leaders in peace-building and act as agents of positive change within their communities:

More about this project and other relevant initiatives

Collaboration between UNESCO and the International Institute for Peace

 

Writing Peace, an exhibition for thinking and sharing peace across time and space

When we think of peace, we project a certain representation which includes symbols amongst which written forms are important vectors of communication. So, how is “peace” written in any given system and what significance is attached to it? What have we been told and taught about it? What have we thought, discovered, experienced and felt? How have we, in turn, disseminated the written form of the word and the declaration involved in the voicing of its spoken form? Writing the word “peace” is no trivial matter, nor should it be. It is a song, sometimes a shout, amid the ocean of humankind’s hopes; it is an ode to freedom and to people’s will to coexist.

The Writing Peace exhibition is an invitation to an appeal to creativity in spreading its message through thoughts and words in a variety of languages in order to share its values in the best manner possible. The scripts portrayed and presented chronologically have been selected because they are part of the mosaic of writing systems existing in today’s world. Naturally, they represent only a small fraction of the vast wealth of writing systems of the past or the present, without mentioning the oral traditions.

Inaugurated on 21 September 2012, on the occasion of the International Day of Peace, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, it aims to raise awareness on the various forms of transmission of culture and heritage down the ages, and the convergence of values conducive to peace.