Intercultural understanding, tolerance and solidarity

Since its foundation UNESCO has worked to develop dialogue between cultures which is an essential element in building a culture of peace. The importance of this dialogue is underlined in UNESCO's constitution which recognizes that peace must be founded upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.
UNESCO activities for cultural pluralism and intercultural dialogue include:

• programmes of intercultural understanding and international projects of schoolchildren;

•international exchanges of experience in multicultural societies and fostering multilingualism and cultural expression by minorities and indigenous people;

•promotion of values that consolidate intercultural dialogue for peace, securing the participation of women and young people;

•creation through intercultural projects of new opportunities for dialogue and exchange between cultural areas.

The Associated Schools Project (ASP) is a pillar of UNESCO's educational activities for intercultural understanding, tolerance and solidarity. Acting by means of teaching guidelines, handbooks and other materials, pilot projects on a sub regional or regional basis, seminars and workshops for educators and students, the ASP promotes the teaching of peace, justice, solidarity and intercultural co operation, through links in over 120 countries with some 3,200 schools, at pre school, primary and secondary level, as well as teacher training institutions.

Helping to preserve the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples, UNESCO supports programmes which train their leaders to design projects and represent their communities in dealings with national and international institutions. Related programmes promote bilingual education, contemporary indigenous literature, promoting of crafts, and enhancement of traditional knowledge regarding environmental protection. The Mundo Maya programme supports the development of Maya Peoples in a number of Central American countries.
There has been growing recognition in recent years of the important role of cultural tourism' in increasing understanding between peoples. This includes not only exposure to other cultures but the sharing of ideas and experiences, through research, seminars, cultural activities and dialogue. UNESCO's Silk Roads Project, along with a number of other such regional projects, epitomizes this dimension of intercultural exchange.
Four international expeditions - the Desert Route, the Steppe Route, the Maritime Route and the Nomad's Route - have been made since the Silk Roads project began in 1990. A fifth, retracing the Buddhist Route through Nepal, India, Pakistan and Central Asia to China is now being prepared. At each stopping point, the members of the expedition meet with local experts as well as the local populations and visit sites, museums and monuments. Activities such as research programmes, exhibitions, publications and the setting up of research centres and institutions (for example, the International Institute for Central Asian Studies in Samarkand) have been stimulated by the expeditions.
The Silk Roads project has inspired a number of related projects which aim, by promoting a better awareness of history through serious scientific and historical analyses, to eliminate the ignorance which constitutes an obstacle to peace in the world. One of them, the Slave Route, launched in the framework of the

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