In today’s increasingly diverse societies, UNESCO continues to accomplish every day its fundamental humanist mission to support people in understanding each other and working together to build lasting peace. UNESCO also helps to enable people to create and use knowledge for just and inclusive societies.
Yet, lasting peace rests on a complex and fragile web of daily practices embedded in local settings and the most ephemeral encounters that individuals and communities creatively maintain out of the conviction that they constitute the sustainable conditions for living together in dignity and shared prosperity.
At a time of increasing global challenges and threats, such as inequality, exclusion, violence and sectarianism worsened by local tensions and conflicts which undermine humanity’s cohesion, learning to live together among all members of the global community becomes more topical than ever before.
Individuals become interculturally competent through learning and life experience for successful living in the modern complexity of our heterogeneous world and consequently they become prepared to appreciate diversity as well as to manage conflicts in accordance with the values of pluralism and mutual understanding.
On a daily basis, from its Headquarters and in the Field, UNESCO intervenes to accompany its Member States and all its partners to better understand and address the challenges of our more and more diversified societies, particularly through its intergovernmental Programme for Management of Social Transformations (MOST) as well the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence Programme which include, inter alia, initiatives for democracy and global citizenship, intercultural dialogue, education for peace and human rights and peace-building.
Furthermore, UNESCO seeks to promote the development and the practice of sporting activities, as well as the fight against doping to foster social integration in different cultural and political contexts, recognizing that sport disregards both geographical borders and social classes.
The Organization also works to ensure that health and education are not the privilege of those who are well-off.
“It is not enough to be connected to each other. We also share our solutions, our experiences and dreams in one great community supported by human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
International Conference of National Commissions for UNESCO, Vienna (Austria), 31 May 2012