La Courneuve, France, 13 December 2019 – The High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNOAC), H.E. Mr. Miguel Ángel Moratinos, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with La Courneuve, a French city located in the northern suburbs of Paris, represented by its mayor, Mr. Gilles Poux.
After meeting with local youth and social workers, Mr. Moratinos delivered a warm address, in which he congratulated the city for its commitment to fostering intercultural dialogue. He also announced that UNAOC and La Courneuve are working together to develop a capacity-building programme to enable local youth to use media in the promotion of multiculturalism and interfaith dialogue and combat stereotypes, fake news, and hate speech.
UNAOC has worked on expanding the scope of its engagement with local actors to include municipalities, which are often in the frontlines in addressing challenges related to intercultural and interreligious tensions that may erupt within diverse communities.
La Courneuve is a multicultural city where 80 percent of the population is of foreign descent, and about a third of the population is under 25 years old. It is a melting pot where youth with cultural and religious backgrounds from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Asia, live together and interact every day.