Third Academic Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Azerbaijan

UNESCO’s Third Academic Forum on Intercultural Dialogue will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 1st May 2019, before the 5th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue (2-3 May 2019). The Academic Forum will focus on "Interreligious dialogue and the governance of religious diversity". For the first time, it will convene a mixed group of UNESCO Chairs, renowned external experts, and members of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Religion and Development with a view to concluding with a set of recommendations to UNESCO on potential future action in the area of interreligious dialogue.

Religious diversity is emerging as one of the more complex and difficult challenges facing many contemporary societies, in particular those with rising levels of ethic, cultural and religious mixing.

It is against this background that the Academic Forum will focus on the inter-related questions of inter-religious dialogue and the governance of religious diversity.

The Forum will provide a platform for presenting and discussing current inter-religious and inter-faith practice with critical analysis of the optimal conditions for the pursuit of such community-based initiatives. The deliberations of the presenters and the various stakeholders in this forum will focus on the required elements of successful inter-religious dialogue and its role in mitigating against both radicalization to violent extremism as well as rising levels of right wing populist ideologies.