Culture

Protection of Cultural Heritage

During the 32nd General Conference in 2003, the Netherlands was elected a member of the World Heritage Committee & eacute ;. During this 4-year membership, the Netherlands is mainly committed to a credible and representative world heritage system, in which international cooperation and sustainable preservation and management of the world heritage are paramount. Naturally, the protection of world heritage is one aspect of the important role UNESCO plays in the global field in the protection of cultural heritage. For example, UNESCO, partly at the request of the UN, actively contributes to the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict.

Cultural diversity

Worldwide, there are about 6,000 communities with a proportional number of languages. Naturally, these differences lead to diversity in vision, values and norms, beliefs, customs and the way in which we express ourselves. Every year the number of people who migrate grows rapidly, which means that we live in an increasingly heterogeneous society. Cultural diversity presupposes respect for fundamental freedom. In particular, freedom of expression, religion and freedom to participate in a self-chosen cultural society.

At the 33rd General Conference in 2005, after intensive negotiations, the & lsquo; Convention on the protection for the diversity of cultural contents & rsquo; adopted. (Convention on Cultural Diversity for short). The purpose of the Convention is, on the one hand, to obtain general recognition that cultural goods and services have a dual character (cultural and economic) and, on the other hand, to develop measures worldwide to protect and promote these cultural goods and services. The Netherlands is in favor of the promotion of cultural diversity, both at national and international level, provided it does not conflict with obligations within the framework of the EU and WTO.

Intercultural dialogue

In a UN context, the aim is to achieve mutual respect and understanding between different cultures and civilizations through dialogues. The underlying objective is to contribute to peace in the world and the prevention of terrorism. In this context UNESCO has launched the 'Dialogue among civilizations' program. developed. More information about this program can be found here . Knowledge about this is relevant to the Netherlands in the context of citizenship and of the intercultural dialogue between the European Union and Islamic countries. For the Netherlands it is important that intercultural dialogue starts at school.