[Commpsych] Fwd: UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity available online

Mon Nov 9 02:53:35 WST 2009

World
Report on Cultural Diversity

The newest World Report of UNESCO is
focused on cultural diversity as a source of renewal for public policies in service to
development, social cohesion and peace.
Cultural
diversity is addressed in terms of dialogue, dynamics, and the new specific
challenges it may pose for languages, educational systems, news and
entertainment media and the business world.
Based
on the analysis of recent initiatives, concrete examples, case studies and
successful practices, this report advances a number of pathways worth exploring
for renewing development strategies in favour of poverty eradication,
environmental action and sustainable, human-centred governance.
The World Report aims to address the
manifold aspects of cultural diversity, critically review common notions and
assumptions, and propose policy-oriented recommendations on topics as diverse
as identities and dialogue, the future of languages and intercultural education,
media pluralism and cultural industries, the business world, local knowledge,
biodiversity, sustainable development, governance and human rights.
A
renewed discussion of cultural diversity – the promotion and protection
of which are supported by an array of normative instruments – is timely
in these times of crisis. The impacts of globalization (and increasing
urbanization and migration) are challenging our very understanding of cultures
and identities. In this sense, cultural diversity is a much more complex
phenomenon than it initially appears, as are the relationships between
globalization and cultural diversity. As these are facts with which we must
contend, it is of utmost importance today to create the conditions upon which
cultural diversity can become the means for ensuring dialogue and peaceful
co-existence, and sustainable and fruitful development.
While
the promotion of cultural diversity has taken on increasing visibility on the
international scene, it often continues to be perceived as a threat to the
cohesion of increasingly diversified societies. Hence, the necessity of
elucidating the conditions upon which cultural diversity can constitute a
positive contribution to realizing the objectives of development and peace.

Thank you for your attention. 

 Contact: 
 Paul de Guchteneire 
 UNESCO 
 Head International Migration Section 
 1, rue Miollis 
 75015 Paris, FRANCE 
 Tel. +33
145683850 
 Fax. +33 145685724 
 Email: p.deguchteneire at unesco.org 
 Web: www.unesco.org/migration 

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