European Intercultural Dialogue

Promoting intercultural dialogue contributes to the core objective of the Council of Europe, namely preserving and promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

The First Summit of Heads of State and Government of member states (1993), which affirmed that cultural diversity characterised Europe’s rich heritage and that tolerance was the guarantee of an open society, led to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1995), the establishment of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance and the launching of the European Youth Campaign against racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and intolerance (“All Different – All Equal”).

The Third Summit of the Heads of State and Government (2005) identified intercultural dialogue (including its religious dimension) as a means of promoting awareness, understanding, reconciliation and tolerance, as well as preventing conflicts and ensuring integration and the cohesion of society.

This was fleshed out in the “Faro Declaration on the Council of Europe’s Strategy for Developing Intercultural Dialogue”, adopted by the Ministers of culture later that year.

DESCRIPTION OF THE YOUTH EXCHANGE

The project “European Intercultural Dialogue” discusses the rise of nationalism in Europe and its negative impact on minorities and immigrants.

It argues that nationalism is based on dehumanizing discourses that blame minorities and immigrants for a variety of problems, and that these discourses lead to exclusionary policies and violence.

The project also discusses the importance of intercultural learning and counter-nationalistic narratives in combating nationalism. The youth exchange project described in the text aims to foster cultural rights, intercultural learning, and counter-nationalistic narratives among young people. It will bring together young people from 6 countries where nationalism has been on the rise in recent years.

The project will target youth from both privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds, and it will provide them with opportunities to learn about different cultures and to develop critical thinking skills.

The project is designed to help young people resist the appeal of nationalism and to promote intercultural dialogue.

Objectives

• • To stress the significance of cultural rights and intercultural learning-dialogue as means to prevent ethnic conflicts and youth radicalization.
  • To underscore how youth-led initiatives can discourage nationalism and radicalization and further foster intercultural dialogue at the grass-roots level in multicultural societies such as Spain, Serbia, Hungary, Rumania, Germany, and Turkey.
  • To foster inclusion, acceptance, and respect for other cultures among participants that will be attending the youth exchange as direct beneficiaries.
  • To equip youth with knowledge and help them acquire inter- cultural competencies to counter nationalistic discourse that leads to hate speech/crime, violent extremism, and radicalization.
  • To encourage youth participation in civic life as a way to champion and practice intercultural learning and dialogue in the communities they live in.
  • We trust that through the activities foreseen to take place under this project youth coming from the countries mentioned above shall be cautious of their role in championing intercultural dialogue and countering nationalistic discourses in their communities.

Duration of the project: 11 months (1st June, 2023 – 30th April, 2024)