International Symposion on The Cultural Self-comprehension of Nations

(Innsbruck, 27-29 July 1974)

RESOLUTION

The International Symposion of the I.P.O. on the "Cultural Self-Comprehension of Nations," held in Innsbruck from 27th to 29th of July 1974,

RECOGNIZING the value of the aims and concerns embodied in the I.P.O. Statute, among which are: the right of cultural self-realization of all national cultures; the promotion of tolerance towards other cultures; and the support of all cultural entities that have not been given opportunity for free development so far;

CONVINCED of the necessity of efforts to understand better and better other cultures in view of a self-comprehension which is a prerequisite of any global development of the individual and of the group;

ASSUMING that in the modern perilous era the main task and the mission of any cultural foreign policy must be the quest for peace;

DETERMINED to implement with concrete actions, directly and through governmental channels all over the world, the aims and the concerns so defined;

INSTANTLY ASKS UNESCO, and the international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, and member States thereof, to organize systematic and global comparative researches on the different cultures of the world, in view of obtaining clear guidelines for future action;

URGES the member States of UNESCO to make all possible efforts for a more intensive training of diplomats in the field of international cultural co-operation especially through the channels of UNESCO itself, and to develop the cultural aspects of their foreign policy;

INVITES the regional organizations especially those working in the framework of the UN family, to set up or to sponsor the creation of regional Institutes of Culture in other geographic areas of the world, in view to spread a coherent and non-nationalistic knowledge of the cultures of the planet;

IS AWARE of the importance of any initiative aiming to reduce the tensions in the world, especially in those areas where racism in all its forms gives rise to discrimination, exploitation, and denial of the most fundamental human rights;

AND DECLARES its intention not to lose the results of the works of the Symposium, inviting I.P.O. to keep in touch with UNESCO as well as with all participants, in view of permanent and coordinated actions in all parts of the world.