UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION EXECUTIVE BOARD. Hundred and fifty-fifth Session

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1 Item of the provisional agenda UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION EXECUTIVE BOARD Hundred and fifty-fifth Session 155 EX/INF.7 PARIS, 28 September 1998 Original: Spanish UNIVERSAL FORUM OF CULTURES - BARCELONA 2004 Ten questions about the Forum SUMMARY This document entitled Ten questions about the Forum, was transmitted to the Director-General by the organizers of the Universal Forum of Cultures - Barcelona It is made available to the Members of the Executive Board in accordance with document 155 EX/12 (para. 7).

2 UNIVERSAL FORUM OF CULTURES - BARCELONA 2004 Ten questions about the Forum 155 EX/INF.7 The first Universal Forum of Cultures will be held in Barcelona in The excitement generated by this announcement has already inspired some early pledges of support. In this series of ten questions and answers we explain what the Forum is about: a venture in which everyone is welcome to participate. 1. What is the Universal Forum of Cultures? The idea of the Forum grew out of the need to facilitate dialogue among peoples, cultures and civilizations. The Forum is an invitation to all the world s cultures to make their voice heard in a great celebration of community, to be held in Barcelona in It is an attempt to meet the challenge of the globalization of all human activities, with civil society playing a leading role. It will help to teach tolerance and foster the culture of peace - objectives endorsed by UNESCO since its inception. It will provide an opportunity to put on display the finest aspects of each culture, learn from others, and bring together everything that encourages solidarity, respect for human rights and sustainable development. The Forum invites all voices, languages and religions to gather in Barcelona for a universal festival. All cultures, too. As the Forum slogan says: all the colours of the world. 2. What will the Forum be like? The Universal Forum is a major international event of a new kind. Its purpose is to stimulate dialogue among individuals from all cultures. Debates and symposia on topics of common interest will be held simultaneously with a World Festival of the Arts. There will also be thematic exhibitions telling the story of human diversity. The Forum will be a large-scale festival, an expression of worldwide creativity and a political encounter of global dimensions, promoting new and imaginative forms of participation. It will focus on one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century: intercultural dialogue. The promotion of this dialogue will inform all the Forum s activities and determine the three major themes for debate: cultures and diversity (cultural diversity); cultures and peace (conditions for peace); cultures and sustainability (sustainable cities). The Forum will bring together cultures from around the world, offering them the opportunity to display their creative talents.

3 155 EX/INF.7 - page 2 It will invite them to exchange experiences and compare ideas and beliefs, in a spirit of tolerance and respect which fosters mutual enrichment and promotes co-operation. Accordingly, the Forum will be a gathering of the world community in which each group will contribute its own perspective and explore new ways of living and working in an information society. The principal purpose of the World Festival of the Arts and the exhibitions is to highlight the themes under discussion with historical, artistic and scientific presentations. All the Forum activities will have a common denominator and purpose: to encourage intercultural dialogue, foster a culture of peace and promote sustainable development. 3. Who will participate? Civil society will play the leading role in the Barcelona 2004 Forum. The participants will not be states but the various human communities concerned by the central themes of the Forum and willing to participate in it, and the organizations and bodies that support this initiative. The Forum is open to anyone espousing its reigning spirit of dialogue and tolerance, and to all those who respect the opinions of others, while not necessarily sharing them. Each participating organization will be invited to join in the debates, engage in dialogue with international organizations and put forth proposals. The leading roles will go to those who share the Forum s universal mission: UNESCO and other organizations of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations, universities, transnational corporations, major political and trade-union formations, social movements and religious groups. Young people, the academic and scientific communities, professionals, intellectuals, artists and creators will be encouraged to enrich the Forum with their proposals and to participate actively in the debates and the World Festival of the Arts. A spirit of participation will inform the Forum s preparatory phases, which will be open to all individuals, associations, bodies and communities sharing its goals. In Catalonia, the Forum is supported by the Barcelona 2004 Senate, composed of 4,000 representatives of Catalan society who have responded to the call and agreed to participate in the Forum s activities. Participants will have the opportunity to express themselves in a variety of ways, depending on their possibilities. The Virtual Forum, which is to be an integral part of the Universal Forum, will enable young people in particular to play an active role. 4. Who are the organizers? The Forum is an initiative of the City Council of Barcelona and is fully supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Autonomous Government of Catalonia) and the Spanish Government. This support is reflected in the decision to create an organizing Consortium for the Forum, composed of these three institutions and responsible for preparing and organizing the event. The Consortium is based on the principles that guided the organizing committee of the Barcelona Olympic Games and will be presided over by the Mayor of Barcelona, with two

4 155 EX/INF.7 - page 3 Vice-Presidents, one representing the Spanish Government and the other the Autonomous Government of Catalonia. The Consortium will draw up a co-operation agreement with UNESCO, which unanimously supported the Forum at the 29th session of the General Conference and will be its main partner. A management team is currently determining the Forum s objectives and preparing a series of cultural projects to be submitted to the Consortium for consideration in mid To help it prepare this proposal, the management team has set up an advisory group composed of eminent professionals, scientists and intellectuals. It will also seek the help of international experts, who will be invited to attend a preparatory workshop for the Forum in Barcelona in This workshop, in collaboration with UNESCO, will establish a Panel of Counsellors made up of international personalities who will contribute ideas throughout the preparatory process. The Virtual Forum went on-line in autumn 1998, providing Internet surfers worldwide with information about the Universal Forum and giving them the opportunity to participate in the preparatory work and the debates. The projects to be approved by the Consortium in the year 2000 will constitute the Forum s basic programme, guide the planning and shape the celebration of the event in In keeping with the principle of economic sustainability underlying the Forum, these projects will be self-financing, with funding from sponsors and private sources. With regard to infrastructure, only buildings that can subsequently be used for other purposes will be constructed. 5. Where will the Forum be held and how long will it last? The first Universal Forum of Cultures will be held in Barcelona, making use of the city s network of cultural and civic institutions (Gran Teatro del Liceo, Palau de la Música, the Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum and Olympic venues such as the Palau Sant Jordi). Other cities in Catalonia and the rest of Spain will also be invited to participate in the organization of the Forum. Barcelona will contribute its experience in organizing major events, demonstrated during the 1992 Olympic Games, as well as the infrastructure which enables it to receive some four million visitors annually. The main Forum events will take place in Barcelona, near the sea and along the Besós River, on a newly constructed residential site made available by the re-zoning of the area. The Forum will have the use of the new infrastructures already planned by the three competent authorities (the City Council of Barcelona, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia and the Spanish Government) in their programmes for the city of Barcelona. This new area, an eco-park designed for urban sustainability, will accommodate the principal attractions of the Forum, namely the World Festival of the Arts and the cultural

5 155 EX/INF.7 - page 4 exhibitions. In the concluding stages it will also host the major debates to be organized by community associations and by the United Nations, UNESCO and other international bodies. However, Barcelona s main asset is the willingness of its people to take an active and lively part in international events based on solidarity. As in the case of the Olympic Games, the Universal Forum of Cultures can count on the enthusiastic support of thousands of inhabitants of Barcelona and of Catalonia as a whole. The Forum will open on 23 April 2004, Saint George s day, which has been proclaimed World Book and Copyright Day, by UNESCO. It will end on 27 September, the festival of the Virgin of Mercy, patron saint of Barcelona. During these 150 days, the activities of the Forum will reach their climax: thematic exhibitions, the World Festival of the Arts and thematic and political debates. But the Forum has already begun. Prior to 2004, many preparatory activities will be carried out - meetings, talks, symposia - all of them designed to create a worldwide network in support of the Forum s goals. Key roles in the preparatory process will be played by universities, non-governmental organizations and social movements, especially those involving young people. 6. What are the great debates about? The main debates at the Forum will address cultural diversity, the conditions for peace and sustainable cities as representing three key aspects of the dialogue between cultures. These themes have been chosen for the Forum s debates in the firm belief that they are relevant to present-day concerns having their origin in a period of intensive change. By convening these debates, the Barcelona Forum is taking up the challenge of globalization and plans to show the other side of the coin - involving the cultural creativity of peoples and the complexity of human thought. The Forum is convening this major exercise in collective thinking with an open mind, free from doctrinaire preconceptions, in an endeavour to promote a rewarding exchange between cultures, philosophical traditions and historical experiences and with the determination to provide positive and viable answers to current problems. Mindful that the solution to many of the issues raised is a matter for governments, supranational organizations and the societies concerned, the Forum sets out, above all else, to be a vehicle for channelling proposals to representative institutions. For this purpose, the debates will be organized in accordance with imaginative methods and formats which will make it possible to engage in new forms of democratic participation with the help of the new information technologies. Cultural diversity The Barcelona 2004 Forum will provide a setting for a wide-ranging intercultural dialogue. It sets out to promote communication between peoples and cultures and to combat the prejudices and stereotypes which go hand-in-hand with all forms of xenophobia and racism.

6 155 EX/INF.7 - page 5 The debate on diversity will focus on cultural creativity in a world where the creations of individuals and communities are striving to find a place of their own. It will be a debate on the challenges which globalization poses for culture, on the influences of East and West and of North and South, and on the future of minority cultures and the scope for alternative cultures. The Forum will bring together intellectuals, artists, writers, professionals from the worlds of the theatre and cinema, journalists, academics and experts from all sectors in a vast cultural assembly which will put its findings and proposals to UNESCO. A debate on intercultural dialogue will also have to tackle the problem of languages as an essential factor in human communication and a feature of the cultural identity of peoples. The Forum will propose that a World Congress of Languages be held to discuss their future in the ongoing globalization process. It will be a gathering of scholars, specialists and officials responsible for cultural and language policies, to which representatives of the nearly 5,000 languages spoken throughout the world will be invited. At the same time, the Forum will encourage research into, and the practical applications of, all factors facilitating machine translation, which is a critical issue for the survival of minority languages, and voice recognition by computers. The Forum s aim is to ensure that, in the year 2004, all the debates can be conducted simultaneously in the six languages used by UNESCO (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish), plus Catalan. The Forum will enlist the services of leading telecommunications and computer companies in this project. The conditions for peace The dialogue between cultures advocated by the Forum is intended as a response to the deeply rooted idea that the world is heading for a clash between civilizations which will lead to conflict and war. The Forum does not consider that such a conflict is inevitable and shares UNESCO s view that creating the conditions for peace is the most effective means of avoiding war. In any event, the Forum will follow up conflicts which have a cultural, ethnic or religious component and will endeavour to open up avenues of dialogue between adversaries by inviting them to take part in the deliberations in Barcelona. The debate on peace will place emphasis on the need to instil a spirit of tolerance and co-operation in all social activities, and to enlist education, culture, language and the media in the service of a culture of peace. Considering that peacekeeping and mediation in ongoing conflicts are a matter for the United Nations and the states concerned, the Forum will direct its efforts towards peacebuilding. Under the theme For a culture of peace, the Forum will collaborate with UNESCO in convening at a single gathering non-governmental organizations concerned with peace,

7 155 EX/INF.7 - page 6 institutes specializing in conflict resolution and disarmament, representatives of the United Nations, and supranational military organizations such as NATO and others. Since religious beliefs form part of cultural identity and are a factor in some conflicts, the Forum proposes that a World Conference of Religious Denominations be held, with a view to involving them in the pursuit of dialogue and the creation of conditions conducive to peace. The Barcelona Declaration, signed in 1994 by representatives of the main religious traditions, sets an important precedent for this proposal. The sustainable city Urban development entails, as a matter of urgency, the planet-wide need for sustainable management of large cities, in which more than half of humanity lives. Without cities that are fit to live in and development that is sustainable, it will not be possible to create conditions for harmony, dialogue among peoples and peace. The Forum will therefore pay special attention to the relationship between cities, growth and culture. This will be the third major theme of the debate. This debate will bring together in Barcelona organizations engaged in environmental conservation, ecological movements, representatives of the scientific community and political institutions committed to an all-inclusive vision of urban development. The purpose of the Forum is to associate itself with the thinking which first emerged at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and which continued with the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995 and the Habitat II Conference in Istanbul in In an endeavour to add fresh substance to this thinking, the Forum proposes to act as a focal point for ongoing initiatives and as a catalyst for the activities being carried out by a large number of non-governmental organizations and scientific associations in connection with sustainability. The Forum hopes that the United Nations will hold a summit meeting or conference in Barcelona in 2004 to review the work done since the Rio Conference and define the parameters for sustainable urban growth. Among the participants in this third debate, cities able to provide the Forum with information on their experience of urban sustainability will play a leading role. 7. What is the World Festival of the Arts? The Forum will organize a World Festival of the Arts to illustrate its debates and give an artistic, popular and festive flavour to its commitment to cultural exchanges, tolerance and solidarity. The World Festival, which will be held for 150 days in Barcelona and other places in Catalonia, will consist of events in all artistic fields representing a wide variety of cultures, ranging from established artists and performers to others who are less well known. The

8 155 EX/INF.7 - page 7 possibility of inviting other cities in the rest of Spain to host some of the Festival s activities will be explored. It is planned to hold theatrical performances, film shows and exhibitions of painting, photography and other art forms, bringing together a broad cross-section of world art in a stimulating climate of creativity and competitiveness which will in some instances be recognized by the award of prizes to the best works on display. A leading place will be occupied by music, which is one of the most universal of languages and a means of communication between cultures. The Forum will organize a Festival of World Music which will bring together the full wealth and variety of musical creation in all its forms and styles of interpretation. In its determination to include all the most varied and popular forms of culture, the Forum will also hold international exhibitions of handicrafts, gastronomy and traditional games and sports. The Arts Festival proposal will take due account of the experience acquired by Barcelona and Catalonia as a whole in the planning of cultural events as well as the experience of leading artistic festivals throughout the world. The Festival s programming will feature artistic creations that highlight communication between cultures as a factor in the strengthening of identities. 8. What will the thematic exhibitions be like? The Forum will organize thematic exhibitions of worldwide scope, with the aim of backing up the policy debates and activities with illustrative and educational material. The purpose of these exhibitions will be to demonstrate the exchanges of all kinds that have existed between cultures throughout the course of history in all spheres of human endeavour. Some of the exhibitions will illustrate the difficulties involved in such cultural exchanges and the conflicts and wars they have sparked off, together with the human, cultural, scientific and technological benefits they have brought to all civilizations. The organization of these exhibitions, which will have to cater for innovative formats and multidisciplinary approaches, is one of the Forum s most complex features, yet at the same time one most likely to generate excitement. In order to impart form and content to these exhibitions, the Forum will call on the participation of experts from all over the world, who will contribute ideas from a range of disciplines and cultures. Some of the Forum s exhibitions will be designed to illustrate the many and varied forms taken by the relationship between people and their environment throughout history and will bring out those features which the whole human enterprise has in common. By way of example, some exhibitions may deal with the relationship between people and food, water, energy and nature, as a new way of viewing the world in the light of the great distances that every culture has had to cover in order to survive and develop. Others may be designed to illustrate the main thoroughfares of trade and human intercourse, such as the Silk,

9 155 EX/INF.7 - page 8 Slave or Iron Roads, as an original and thought-provoking approach to the historical interrelationship between cultures. 9. What is the Virtual Forum? The Virtual Forum is the Universal Forum of Cultures - Barcelona 2004 in the cyberspace of the Internet, which draws together an ever-growing human community of millions of people. The purpose of the Virtual Forum is to ensure that the largest possible number of members of this community take part in the Forum of Cultures both while it is being prepared and while it is taking place. The Forum s aim is to ensure that, for the first time ever in a global event of this kind, virtual space will be as actively engaged as the millions of people from all over the world who will be coming to Barcelona. For this purpose, a Virtual Forum has been brought on-line with a view to establishing initial contact on the Net with individuals, associations, companies and institutions expressing interest in the Forum. This venture has benefited from the financial and technological participation of companies and institutions in the information technology sector and the involvement of some of the groups most representative of the virtual community in Catalonia. At the current experimental stage, it is planned to make the Virtual Forum a website by promoting thematic links and interactive services that will be attractive enough to elicit attention as soon as the first debates begin. The Virtual Forum can be a powerful tool for disseminating the contents of the Universal Forum, especially among younger people, as well as a means of making themselves heard and spreading their ideas throughout the Forum. The intention is that the services and links of the Virtual Forum should generate opportunities and proposals, given that the main lines of thinking of the Forum cut across communities of interests that are present on the web. Accordingly, the Virtual Forum will have a Proposals Bank in the form of a database which will make it possible to identify and consult the experiences, ideas and projects arising out of the Forum s dialogues and activities. The idea is to transform expressions of interest into active participation and to promote the creation of a network of volunteer surfers who will be the main actors of the Virtual Forum and will largely determine its form and content. 10. What will be the legacy of the Barcelona Forum? The Universal Forum of Cultures - Barcelona 2004 hopes to leave behind it a legacy of knowledge, expertise, relationships and documentation covering the themes discussed. This inheritance will be instrumental in ensuring continuity and in making it easier for those cities wishing to host similar events in future to undertake that task.

10 155 EX/INF.7 - page 9 The Forum should help to create opportunities for democratic participation and to set up soundly-based networks of experts and other citizens who were involved in its activities. With a view to fostering this aim, the Forum will endeavour to ensure that its initiatives result in a set of proposals from civil society forming a single whole bound together by the culture of tolerance, peace and solidarity. These proposals will take the form of a Declaration of Barcelona encapsulating the contributions made both while the Forum is under preparation and when it is actually taking place. The proposals adopted by the Forum will be addressed mainly to those institutions which are concerned with, and working for, dialogue, peace and sustainability, in particular the institutions of the United Nations system. With all the modesty that its complex themes demand, but with an ambition commensurate with its aims, this first Universal Forum of Cultures aspires to make a constructive contribution to the peaceful and negotiated resolution of conflicts, to dialogue among peoples and to the achievement of sustainable ways of living.