The event is designed to feed the debate launched by the Director General of UNESCO on the need for a new humanism for the 21st century by drawing on the Confucian tradition. It aims to enable personalities of world-renown to share their views with representatives of Member States, UNESCO, intellectual and scientific communities, civil society, the media, and the general public.

The Forum will be opened by the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova; the Executive Director of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, Xu Lin; and the founder of the Nishan Forum, Professor Xu Jialu.

Other speakers scheduled to take part include: former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin; Michel Camdessus, Honorary Governor of the Banque de France and former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Sabiha Al Khemir, founding Director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha (Qatar); Aminata Traoré, President of the Forum pour un autre Mali, former Minister for Culture and Tourism of Mali; Jacques Attali, Chair of A&A, an international consulting firm, founder and President of PlaNet Finance; and philosopher and historian Tu Weiming, Professor at the universities of Harvard and Beijing, a major proponent of Neo-Confucianism.

Debates will focus on three main themes:

- harmony through diversity and the demands of a globalized world;

- harmony through diversity and dialogue between cultures; and

- harmony through diversity and the New Humanism

More information : Site of Forum



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Contacts :

Agnès Bardon, UNESCO Press Service,
Tel: +33 (0) 1 45 68 17 64, a.bardon@unesco.org