Year of dialogue among civilizations to enhance diversity: UN official
The United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, to be marked in 2001, will offer an opportunity to celebrate diversity worldwide, according to the top UN official charged with leading the commemoration.
Giandomenico Picco, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Personal Representative for the Year, told reporters in Vienna today that the Year aims for "a dialogue between those who perceive diversity as an element of growth and betterment and those who perceive diversity as a threat."
Picco made his comments as the first meeting of the Group of Eminent Persons of the UN Dialogue Among Civilizations, established by the Secretary-General last September, got under way at the UN International Centre in the Austrian capital.
The Group, which is meeting in Vienna through tomorrow, is charged with producing a report to be presented to the Secretary-General by late summer 2001, which he, in turn, will submit to the General Assembly. The Assembly will hold a debate on the issue on 3 and 4 December 2001.
