World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue

Global Forum on Intercultural Competence 2026

Global Forum on Intercultural and Global Competence, UNESCO, 20-23 April 2026 (was held online; resources now available online).

At the 2026 Global Forum on Intercultural and Global Competence held online between 20 and 23 April 2026, UNESCO participated to share the breadth of its experience in intercultural dialogue – bringing together insights from youth-led initiatives, field-based work and concrete policy tools developed across education, social and human sciences, peacebuilding and the digital sphere.

At a time of increasing polarisation, rapid technological transformation and rising geopolitical tensions, the Forum focused on a question that is becoming increasingly concrete for policymakers: how do institutions work across difference?

The opening youth plenary made the gap between institutional expectations and practical support visible in concrete, grounded terms. Five young leaders from UNESCO’s Youth for Peace: Intercultural Leadership Programme – Charlotte Courtois (France), Juan Cristiani (Uruguay), Sarah Noble (Canada), Noor Jehan Docrat (South Africa), and Ahmed Essam Haroun (Egypt) — drew on projects spanning inclusive education, community health outreach, climate and environmental action, youth arts initiatives, and peacebuilding in local communities.

Despite having different contexts, the young leaders’ experiences converged. Establishing trust takes time. Misunderstandings are often structural, not just interpersonal. Dialogue works when it is sustained, not one-off. And in many cases, institutions expect these capacities to exist without providing the support to develop them.

The following day showed how these challenges are being translated into concrete resources for institutions and policymakers. In higher education, UNESCO presented More than Welcome: Intercultural Integration of Migrants in and through Higher Education as a framework universities can use directly. The focus is on what happens after access: how students interact, how teaching is organised, and how institutions connect with their wider communities. By setting out five practical principles, the initiative helps universities move from enrolling diverse students to creating environments where that diversity leads to exchange, learning and social cohesion.

In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, the Intercultural Dialogue for Conflict Transformation policy brief series addresses a distinct set of pressures. Developed with four leading peacebuilding partners and informed by more than 25 country case studies, the series demonstrates the value of embedding dialogic approaches in the design and implementation of peace processes. Across four dimensions of conflict transformation, namely social cohesion, prevention, transitional justice, and reconciliation, the briefs show, through concrete examples, how dialogue can help rebuild trust, address grievances and support locally led pathways to durable peace and social resilience.

6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue (Azerbaijan)

6th World Forum on Intercultural dialogue, Baku, Azerbaijan, 1-3 May 2024.

The 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, operating under the theme “Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity,” is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, co-sponsored by the government of Azerbaijan, UNESCO, UNAOC, and other organizations. The primary objective is to explore the critical intersections between dialogue facilitation, cooperative frameworks, leadership efficacy, and the complex dynamics of interconnectedness, all in the service of advancing global peace and security. A number of the panels are being recorded, and are being made available on UN Web TV.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz participated in the first of these World Forums, and wrote about it at the time, including photos.

2nd World Forum Intercultural Dialogue

The 2nd World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue will be held from May 29 to June 1, 2013 in Baku, Azerbaijan in partnership with UNESCO, UN Alliance of Civilizations, UN World Tourism Organization, Council of Europe, CoE North-South Center and ISESCO. The opening ceremony and the lst East-West Ministerial Conference will take place on May 30, 2013.

The program of the upcoming forum implies several sessions and side events to be prepared and led by partner organizations, including the celebration of “Do one thing for Diversity and Inclusion,” Intercultural Innovation Award ceremony for Central Asia, Black Sea and Mediterranean regions, 1st Alumni Meeting of the “Emerging Leaders Network,” the workshops “Intercultural Dialogue through History Teaching: Best Practices and Challenges,” and “Urban policies for diversity in 21st century: the Intercultural Cities paradigm,” the sessions of “Tourism as a key driver of mutual understanding and tolerance among cultures,” “The New Era of Globalization: Hybridity of cultures in a changing world” and “Capitals of Culture: Trends and roles, intercultural dialogue through faith and science,” etc.

The 1st World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue was held on April 7-9, 2011, also in Baku. More than 500 representatives from 102 countries and many international organizations, NGOs, media representatives, scholars, experts, etc. participated. Details about that event, and this Center’s participation in it, available here.

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World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue – Report

On April 7-9, 2011, the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. I gave a presentation entitled: “Dialogue about Dialogue: Taking a (Meta)Communication Perspective on the Role of Women in Intercultural Dialogue.” All presentations will be posted to the Forum site in the near future, and published in a proceedings volume.

The World Forum was supported by the UN Alliance of Civilizations, UNESCO, Council of Europe, North-South Center of the Council of Europe, ISESCO and Euronews. Building on several prior events, the Forum highlighted intercultural dialogue as one of the most pressing challenges that the global community faces today. The forum addressed conceptual, governmental, policy and practical aspects of intercultural dialogue, providing an opportunity for sharing good practices and making new connections. In addition, since the event was hosted by the President of Azerbaijan, we were all treated as guests of the state, and went everywhere with a security escort. Highlights were the formal entertainment and elaborate banquets on both Thursday and Friday evenings. Upon our arrival, we were given not only the usual conference program, small notebook and briefcase labeled with the conference information, but also dozens of brochures and a guidebook about Azerbaijan. When we returned from closing ceremonies, a gift package was waiting, with a small handmade carpet and hand-painted silk scarf (local craft specialties), a mug and local tea, as well as a bronze plaque noting our participation. In fact, there were so many presents that I mailed them back to the US rather than carry them around with me for the next several months.

The Forum was opened by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, His Excellency Mr. IIham Aliyev. The plenary panel on which I participated was “Women as Key Agents of Intercultural Dialogue.” This panel was co-chaired by Dr. Katérina Stenou (Director, Cultural Policy and Intercultural Dialogue, UNESCO, and member of this Center’s Advisory Board) and the First Lady of Azerbaijan, Ms. Mehriban Aliyeva (she is also President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador). Rapporteur for the panel was Ms. Pramila Patten (CEDAW expert). The other panelists were: Ms. Hijran Huseynova (Chairperson of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs, Azerbaijan); Ms. S.Y.Orlova (Deputy chair of Council of Parliament of Russian Federation), Ms. Rachida Dati (Mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris), Ms. Concepcion Olavarrieta (Chair of the Mexican Node of the Millennium Project), Ms. Mbarka Bouaida (Member of Parliament, Morocco), and Mr. Alexander Ageev, (General Director of Institute of Economic Strategies, Department of Humanitarian Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation). Respondents to the panel included several ministers of culture, as well as Dr. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari (Director, The Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women’s Status, Bar-Ilan University, Israel), Dr. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf (publisher of Casava Republic Press, based in Abuja, Nigeria), and Ms. Natalia Molebatsi (performance poet and storyteller, based in South Africa).

The majority of the Forum’s participants were ministers of culture or other politicians (and I did meet a few, including Ms. Irina Cajal-Marin, Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Culture in Romania, and Mr. Ali Elamin, Director of the Minister’s Office for Sudan). Others were CEOs of NGOs or non-profits (and among those I met were Ms. Wajiha Haris, President of Scheherazade, in Bucharest, Romania, Dr. Catherine Fieschi, Director of Counterpoint, just separated from the British Council, in London, Ms. Lila de Chaves, President of Heritage & Museums, in Athens, and Mr. Peter Gorgievski, CEO of Global Dialogue Foundation in Moonee Ponds, Australia). There were also a number of people connected to one of the international organizations co-sponsoring the event (I met several, including Mr. Hans d’Orville, Assistant Director-General for Strategic Planning of UNESCO in Paris, Dr. Liubava Moreva, Program Specialist for Culture in UNESCO’s Moscow office, and Ms. Neslihan Demirkol Sonmez, representing the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO; as well as Dr. Mir Asghar Husain, of the North-South Centre Think Tank for the Council of Europe). There were even a few other faculty present (I met Dr. Darla K. Deardorff, Executive Director of the Association of International Education Administrators, based at Duke University in the US). And these are only some of those with whom I exchanged business cards – I am looking forward to continuing conversations with dozens of people as a result of the event.

Two other events occurred simultaneously with the Forum, an academic conference (“Traditions and prospects for intercultural dialogue in CIS countries: culture, education and communication”), as well as the first convention of the Global Youth Movement for the Alliance of Civilizations, and so I met some individuals from each of those events. For example, Ms. Emilia Katosang (Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Palau to the UN) and Ivaylo Stoimenov (a Bulgarian journalist) were both part of the GYM meeting; Prof. Samir Sleiman (cultural anthropologist in Lebanon, and Editor in Chief of Le Debat) presented at the academic conference. I also met several of the many international journalists covering the event, including Mr. Mohammad Malick, of The News, in Pakistan, and Mr. Ghassan Ali Osman, covering the event for Sudan. And, like most of the presenters, I was interviewed for Azerbaijani television. The audience was so large (600-1000, depending on whether participants of the 3 events overlapped at the same event or not), that two screens were used to ensure everyone could view the speakers. Look for images of Katérina Stenou on screen, and then being interviewed in the gallery included below.

Ms. Samaya Mammodova and Ms. Chinara Shakarova, two English majors studying in Baku, were assigned to help the dozen participants from the USA. Since I had a few hours free Saturday morning, after the conference concluded but before leaving for the airport, they took me on a personal tour of Icheri Shekhar (the old city in Baku). A few photos are below, for those who have not yet been to Baku themselves, along with photos of the conference.

My thanks to Katérina Stenou for my invitation to participate in this fascinating event. And thanks to Neslihan Demirkol Sonmez for 2 of the photos included below (the one of the dinner celebration, and 4 of us talking).

Euronews video coverage of the event is now available online. (I’m included, but as part of a conversational grouping, so look carefully!)

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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The Government of Azerbaijan is organising a “World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue”, to be held in Baku from 7 to 9 April 2011. The initiative has the support of the Council of Europe, including the North-South Centre, UNESCO, the UN Alliance of Civilizations and ISESCO. Building on previous events on this theme held in the Azerbaijani capital – known as the “Baku process” – and on the corpus of work developed by the stakeholder organisations in recent years, the Forum highlights the fact that intercultural dialogue is one of the most pressing challenges in the world today.

The Forum will address the conceptual, governance, policy and practical aspects of the challenge of intercultural dialogue. It will tackle issues such as the barriers to dialogue and the diverse contexts in which it can be pursued. It will also provide an opportunity to share good practice and launch new initiatives. A wide range of practitioners and experts in the field of culture will attend the Forum, from global leaders and public figures to prominent intellectuals and activists. The synergy between political leaders and officials, experts and practitioners will be encouraged by the scope for informal networking organised around the event.”

(Original from http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/culture/CDCULT/Newsletter/newsletter2_en.asp)