Saudi Artist, Ahmed Mater, speaker about cultural diversity and intercultural exchange at the NGO Forum, Riyadh.
IFACCA’s Executive Director, Sarah Gardner, represented IFACCA at the 7th International Forum of NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO on 3-4 May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the 4th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue on 5-6 May in Baku, Azerbaijan.
With the theme, Youth and their Social Impact, the UNESCO NGO Forum was organised in partnership with the Salman bin Abdulaziz (MiSK) Foundation. It was the first forum held since the new guidelines were established for the NGO Liaison Committee. Participating in the Forum were 400 NGOs, from over 70 countries and over 2,000 registered delegates, 70 per cent of whom were under the age of 35 years. Eminent keynote speakers addressed plenary sessions exploring issues such as: Youth Engagement and Its Potential for Social Change, Optimizing the Impact of the Digital Native, Cultural Diversity as an Essential Dimension of Intercultural Dialogue, What Skills for Young People Today, Optimizing the Power of Youth for Peacebuilding, Educating for a Sustainable Future and The Voice of Youth: Their Vision of Social Change.
This was the first such an event in which IFACCA participated since it was admitted as an official NGO partner of UNESCO
With the theme, Advancing Intercultural Dialogue: New Avenues for Human Security, Peace and Sustainable Development, the Baku Forum [http://bakuprocess.az/] involved about 1500 delegates of which over 800 came from overseas.
The World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue has taken responsibility for delivering the global agenda on the Dialogue among Civilisations adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (November 2001), the UNESCO Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), the Islamic Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which was adopted by ISESCO in 2004, Declaration and Action Plan of the Third Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe member states, the Council of Europe White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue (May 2008), as well as the Baku Declaration for the Promotion of Intercultural Dialogue.
Placing intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity higher on the international agenda is critical for human security and a prime responsibility of our time. World Forums organized so far have brought together heads of government, ministers, heads of various international organizations, senior policy makers, cultural professionals, goodwill ambassadors, experts, journalists, practitioners, prominent intellectuals and activists. The World Forums have become an international platform to enable and encourage people, countries and organizations around the globe to take concrete actions to support diversity, dialogue and mutual understanding among nations by raising awareness on the importance of intercultural dialogue worldwide.
Azerbaijan hosted the 1st World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in April, 2011 as well as the second forum in 2013, the third in 2015.
The 4th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue focussed primarily on topics such as the role of faith, religions, migration, human security, sport, education, art, sustainable development, violent extremism, business in building trust and cooperation among cultures and civilizations. The Forum provided a platform to discuss the way forward to build societies based on genuine respect for everyone’s rights including freedom of belief, equal opportunities, and good governance as well as an inclusive framework of tolerance and respect for diversity. By bringing together heads of governments, ministers, heads of various international organizations, senior policy makers, cultural professionals, goodwill ambassadors, experts, journalists, practitioners, prominent intellectuals and activists, the Forum encouraged people, countries and organisations around the globe to take concrete actions to support diversity, dialogue and mutual understanding among nations by raising awareness on the importance of intercultural dialogue worldwide.
As part of the Forum, Ms Gardner also attended the 1st High level meeting of International Organisations at which the keynote speech was given by the First Vice president of Azerbaijan, Meriban Aliyeva. Speakers included the Secretaries General or senior representatives of many key organisations including UNESCO, UN World Tourism Organisation, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, ISESCO, NATO, Council of Europe, Food and Agriculture Organisation, European Union, League of Arab States, The World Bank, OECD, etc.