Lesson 3: Cultural heritage and respect for diversity

Diversity, Tolerance and Inclusion

By preserving cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, through internationally adopted instruments, the international community acknowledges the importance of these expressions and recognizes their diverse appearance and meanings.

Claude Lévi-Strauss, French ethnologist and structuralist, spoke in favour of the equality of cultures and interpreted diversity as being the result of different “geographical, historical, and sociological circumstances”.

The 2001 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions focus on the freedom to practise one's own culture.

2001 Declaration defines that “Culture takes diverse forms across time and space. This diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of the identities of the groups and societies making up humankind”.

Diversity of cultural expressions, such as the intangible cultural heritage, represents a source for mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence.

On 16 November, 1995 the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance was adopted and signed by UNESCO's Member States. Since then on 16 November, the International Day for Tolerance is celebrated. Based on Universal human rights and fundamental freedoms, the practice of tolerance was agreed to represent the
moral duty and virtue to secure peace. According to the Declaration, the tolerance means “respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human”.

Tolerance and diversity are mutually dependent. Diversity, as a constitutive element of our social reality, requires tolerance in order to persist. Tolerance is meant to be not simply bearing ‘the Other’ but also actively familiarizing oneself with the difference, actively acknowledging cultural diversity and respecting it.