President of Tunisia launches the Arab Forum for Education for intercultural citizenship
Moncef Marzouki, President of Tunisia
By Doaa Soliman
February 25, 2014 – In the presence of His Excellency Moncef Marzouki, President of Tunisia, the Anna Lindh foundation in cooperation with the UNESCO club Bardo, launched the Arab Forum for Education for intercultural citizenship in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, in the framework of the Dawrak Programme.
“We need to teach young people the pride of the complex and multiple identities. We, as Arabs, have demonstrated that we can build a democracy based on human rights and openness,” said H.E. Marzouki in the opening ceremony of the Forum, which runs from February 24 until March 1st, 2014, with more than 60 participants and experts from all over the Arab world. H.E. also added: “We must avoid religious and secular extremism which tears the social cohesion and feeds one another.”
the Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Andreu Claret
Meanwhile, in his opening remarks, the Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Andreu Claret, applauded the historical exercise of dialogue and civic participation that allowed the Tunisian people to reach a democratic constitution. He stressed that “the Tunisian experience of dialogue and participation is an example for all Euro-Mediterranean societies, where the issue of living together in diversity is a major challenge.”
The event stresses on the idea that education for intercultural citizenship, is key to achieving social cohesion, and is as important as the culture of co-existence, and is most crucial in times of transition that many Arab countries are going through at the moment.
The Education for Intercultural Citizenship Forum attempts to put foundation for social cohesion endeavors and setting role model in the Arab countries in the field of advocacy, as well as introducing the concept of human rights and intercultural citizenship in the curricula of formal and informal education in the Arab world .
