UNESCO’s Difficulties in Handling Cultural Diversity

O ver the past decades, UNESCO has produced several international cultural conventions, which jointly aim to provide a solid basis for the protection and promotion of cultural diversity. The UN cultural agency declares the promotion of cultural diversity—the “common humanity heritage” according to the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001)—and its corollary, dialogue, one of the most pressing contemporary issues and, for this reason, central to the organization’s mandate. The promotion of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue by way of rhetoric is straightforward. UNESCO’s successive Directors-General have appealed to governments and peoples around the world to respect and protect cultural expressions and engage in cross-cultural dialogue and exchanges. Yet in practice, as the four case studies have demonstrated, the promotion and protection of cultural diversity is confronted with a number of challenges and obstacles, some external and some inherent in UNESCO itself. The organization’s role in handling cultural diversity cannot be properly assessed without analyzing them in the light of what the organization is doing and what it is failing to do and why. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.