{"id":111689,"date":"2018-05-21T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=111689"},"modified":"2018-05-19T20:07:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T19:07:17","slug":"world-day-for-cultural-diversity-dialogue-and-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/05\/world-day-for-cultural-diversity-dialogue-and-development\/","title":{"rendered":"World Day for Cultural Diversity, Dialogue and Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In December 2002, the United Nations General Assembly, in Resolution 57\/249, declared that 21 May each year should be the World Day for Cultural Diversity, for Dialogue and Development. The Day was created as a response to the destruction of the Buddha statues of Bamiyam in Afghanistan in 2001.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus the day has a double theme.\u00a0 The broader aim is to create an enabling environment for dialogue and understanding among cultures. Achieving a true rapprochement of cultures must be nourished by a culture of peace and non-violence and sustained by respect for human rights.<\/p>\n

The second theme, closely linked to the destruction of the Buddha statues is the protection of the cultural heritage of humanity at the time of armed conflict. In light of the subsequent destruction of UNESCO selected heritage of humanity sites in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Mali, I will stress the protection aspect by looking at the post-World War I efforts of Nicholas Roerich as an example of non-governmental mobilization.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the bridge of Beauty will be strong enough for crossing from the banks of darkness to the side of light<\/em>.\u201d
\n— Nicholas Roerich<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the spiritual visionaries of the 1920s-1930s was Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) a Russian and world citizen, a painter and researcher into cultures. Nicholas Roerich had lived through the First World War and the Russian Revolution and saw how armed conflict can destroy works of art and cultural institutions.\u00a0 For Roerich, such institutions were irreplaceable, and their destruction was a permanent loss for all humanity.<\/p>\n

Thus, he worked for the protection of works of art and institutions of culture in times of armed conflict.\u00a0 He envisaged a \u201cBanner of Peace\u201d that could be placed upon institutions and sites of culture which would protect them, as the symbol of the Red Cross is supposed to protect medical workers and medical institutions in times of conflict.<\/p>\n

Roerich mobilized artists and intellectuals in the 1920s and early 1930s for the establishment of this Banner of Peace.\u00a0 Henry A. Wallace, the US Secretary of Agriculture and later Vice-President was an admirer of Roerich and helped to have a formal treaty introducing the Banner of Peace \u2014 the Roerich Peace Pact \u2014 signed at the White House on 15 April 1935 by the 21 States of North and South America in a Pan American Union ceremony.\u00a0 At the ceremony, Henry Wallace on behalf of the USA said \u201cAt no time has such an ideal been more needed.\u00a0 It is high time for the idealists who make the reality of tomorrow, to rally around such a symbol of international cultural unity.\u00a0 It is time that we appeal to that appreciation of beauty, science, education which runs across all national boundaries to strengthen all that we hold dear in our particular governments and customs.\u00a0 Its acceptance signifies the approach of a time, when those who truly love their own nation will appreciate in addition the unique contributions of other nations and also do reverence to that common spiritual enterprise which draws together in one fellowship all artists, scientists, educators and truly religious of whatever faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Second World War, UNESCO has continued the effort, and there have been additional conventions on the protection of cultural bodies in times of conflict \u2014 such as the Hague Convention of May 1954, though no universal symbol such as the three red circles proposed by Nicholas Roerich has been developed.<\/p>\n

Conserving a cultural heritage even in times of peace is always difficult.\u00a0 Weak institutional capabilities, lack of appropriate resources and isolation of many culturally essential sites are compounded by a lack of awareness of the value of cultural heritage conservation.\u00a0 On the other hand, the dynamism of local initiatives and community solidarity systems are impressive assets.\u00a0 These forces should be enlisted, enlarged, and empowered to preserve and protect a heritage.\u00a0 Involving people in cultural heritage conservation both increases the efficiency of cultural heritage conservation and raises awareness of the importance of the past for people facing rapid changes in their environment and values.<\/p>\n

Knowledge and understanding of a people\u2019s past can help current inhabitants to develop and sustain identity and to appreciate the value of their own culture and heritage. This knowledge and understanding enriches their lives and enables them to manage contemporary problems more successfully. It is important to retain the best of traditional self-reliance and skills of rural life and economies as people adapt to change.<\/p>\n

Traditional systems of knowledge are rarely written down: they are implicit, learnt by practice and example, rarely codified or even articulated by the spoken word.\u00a0 They continue to exist as long as they are useful, as long as they are not supplanted by new techniques.\u00a0 They are far too easily lost.\u00a0 It is the objects that come into being through these systems of knowledge that ultimately become critically important. The objects that bear witness to systems of knowledge must be accessible to those who would visit and learn from them.<\/p>\n

As Nicholas Roerich said in a presentation of a draft of the Pact, largely written by the French jurist Dr George Chklaver \u201cThe world is striving toward peace in many ways, and everyone realizes in his heart that this constructive work is a true prophesy of the New Era\u2026We deplore the loss of the libraries of Louvain and Oviedo and the irreplaceable beauty of the Cathedral of Rheims.\u00a0 We remember the beautiful treasures of private collections which were lost during world calamities.\u00a0 But we do not want to inscribe on these deeds any words of hatred.\u00a0 Let us simply say: Destroyed by human ignorance \u2014 rebuilt by human hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus for the World Day, let us work together to preserve the beauty of the past and create beauty for future generations.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ren\u00e9 Wadlow is a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation\u2019s Task Force on the Middle East, president and U.N. representative (Geneva) of the Association of\u00a0World\u00a0Citizens,<\/em> and <\/em>editor of <\/em>Transnational Perspectives. He is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December 2002, the UN General Assembly declared that 21 May each year should be the World Day for Cultural Diversity, for Dialogue and Development. The Day was created as a response to the destruction of the Buddha statues of Bamiyam in Afghanistan in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":111690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}