The Conference of International Non-Governmental Organizations of the Council of Europe held a Forum in Istanbul on March 24-25, 2011 to answer the question ‘How can non-governmental organizations confront the new multicultural challenges?’ Thomas Uthup, Research and Education Manager of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, participated as an expert in the Forum. He was one of two guest speakers in a workshop on “Living Together: Social Integration of Young People from Immigrant Backgrounds.” In his talk, Mr. Uthup provided a brief overview of the UNAOC, showed a short award-winning video from the Plural Plus 2010 competition and suggested a few areas of action with illustrations of good practices drawn from UNAOC programs.
Workshops on “Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Thought,” and “Identity and the Other” along with several plenary sessions contributed to the objectives of the Forum.
The Forum was convened as a way to
a) Give a civil society dimension to the implementation of the Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue and the Council’s activities in intercultural dialogue and the multicultural challenges facing European societies.
b) Highlight the new multicultural challenges facing European societies.
c) Identify best practices in NGO work within the field of intercultural dialogue to contribute to a planned Toolkit for the practice of intercultural dialogue.
According to Mr. Uthup, “The programs at the UNAOC – in transversal areas and in the areas of media, youth, education and migration – that recognize good practices in intercultural dialogue were very relevant to this forum.”
The Forum was held as part of the Turkish Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with COJEP International and with the support of the Council of Europe.