Today, UNESCO is celebrating the 18th World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. Cultural diversity gives our life its richness, its colour and its dynamism. It is a cognitive and intellectual opening and a driving force for social development and economic growth. 

Of course, cultural diversity is not in itself a factor of peace and progress. For this it requires learning, learning about otherness, the ability to shift focus away from oneself, to dialogue and to recognize the value concealed in each culture. 

This World Day is specifically designed to raise awareness of these issues. It invites us to go beyond the acknowledgement of diversity and to recognize the benefits of cultural pluralism, regarded as an ethical and political principle of equal respect for cultural identities and traditions. 

This principle is at the heart of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted by the Organization in 2001, which recognizes cultural diversity as part of the common heritage of humanity, and as a driving force for peace and prosperity. The issues raised by this Declaration, written in the aftermath of the attacks of 11 September, remain highly relevant. 

First of all, there is the need to protect the different forms of cultural expression – languages, arts, crafts, lifestyles – especially those of minority peoples, so that they are not swept away by the movement of standardization that accompanies globalization. These are essential elements for defining individual and collective identities and, as such, their protection falls under the respect for human dignity.

• Complete message
• More about the World Day 2018
• Bibi Russell: Finding magic in fingers - UNESCO Courier, 2, 2018
• Cultural Diversity in Brazil