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Rationale

As the magnitude, length and complexity of conflicts increase around the world, culture’s role in conflict prevention and reconciliation must be fully acknowledged and systematically integrated into UN actions. Within a post-conflict and/or reconciliation context, cultural diversity should be harnessed as a capital for social cohesion and stability that can help reduce communities’ vulnerability to external shocks, rather than a threat or an instrument for division. Such soft power of culture can be unleashed notably through building on the significance of heritage sites and museums, as places of exchange and knowledge that can enable a better understanding of cultural identity and cultural diversity and lead to the appropriation, safeguarding and transmission of cultural and heritage values, identities and memory that can help regain selfconfidence and unity. As a critical condition for cultural diversity to flourish, the protection of cultural rights is equally central to sustaining peaceful and inclusive societies, building on existing achievements and mechanisms, notably embedded in the UNESCO Culture Conventions and in strengthening synergies between culture and education. Looking forward, expanding policy discussions on individual and collective cultural rights as well as strengthening related policy and legislation frameworks can lay a critical foundation for harnessing the power of culture for peacebuilding and dialogue.

Areas of focus

i) Cultural rights for social cohesion, peacebuilding, and security; ii) Preventing violent extremism (PVE) through strengthened synergies between education and culture; iii) Rehabilitation and recovery of historic and urban centers; iv) Conflict prevention and mitigation; v) Intercultural dialogue and education.

Expected outcomes

• Strengthen efforts to define the scope, legal framework and enforceability of cultural rights to sustain peaceful, diverse and inclusive societies;
• Encourage the integration of culture in humanitarian and development response, including into reconstruction and recovery strategies and interventions to foster people-centered and placebased approaches in conflict-affected areas and in areas hosting displaced persons;
• Promote culture and education as critical tools for conflict prevention including violent extremism (PVE), and poverty reduction by raising awareness among youth through tools and training to tackle disinformation and hate speech, in the digital environment; as well as by promoting an enabling environment for job creation; 6
• Strengthen policies legislation and multilateral cooperation mechanisms to fight the instrumentalization of culture and to ensure that conflicts do not target culture, thus undermining the stability of societies;
• Foster intercultural dialogue within the international community to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence, wider respect for diversity, freedom of expression, tolerance, thus fostering inclusive societies through culture-related activities.