Italy hosts UNESCO's international forum on Mediterranean

UNESCO is holding an international forum on the Mediterranean "Multaqa" this September 17-20 in the Italian city of Agrigente.

The forum will be attended by the directors general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization "UNESCO" and of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization "ALECSO."

The forum is expected to set up a Mediterranean council on culture and a group against violence in the Mediterranean. The two bodies will muster scientists, artists, writers, intellectuals, and journalists.

"While the Mediterranean can appear as a space suffering from contradictions and tensions, environment degradation and violence linked to nationalism or extremism, UNESCO prefers to see in it a space of hope where, behind the diversity of peoples, a sharing of a common destiny," said the UNESCO chief.

He added that the UNESCO's Mediterranean program is endeavoring to create a space of hope that evolves around two major axes: the establishment of a culture of peace and the promotion of the region as an eco-cultural area.

The will to associate the civil society and its components (cities, universities, NGO's) and to take into account the complexity of the concerned societies has led the UNESCO Mediterranean program to adopt flexible structures. Operating like a network of networks, it works with over 600 organizations, cultural centers, universities, institutes and municipalities from the 22 countries bordering the Mediterranean.