United Nations
General Assembly
A/RES/55/23
Distr.: General
11 January 2001
Fifty-fifth session
Agenda item 32
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
[without reference to a Main Committee (A/55/L.30 and Add.1)]
55/23.
United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 53/22 of 4 November 1998 and 54/113 of
10 December 1999 entitled “United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations”,
Reaffirming the purposes and principles embodied in the Charter of the United
Nations, which, inter alia, call for collective effort to strengthen friendly relations
among nations, remove threats to peace and foster international cooperation in
resolving international issues of an economic, social, cultural and humanitarian
character and in promoting and encouraging universal respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all,
Noting that civilizations are not confined to individual nation-States, but rather
encompass different cultures within the same civilization, and reaffirming that
civilizational achievements constitute the collective heritage of humankind,
providing a source of inspiration and progress for humanity at large,
Bearing in mind the specificities of each civilization and the United Nations
Millennium Declaration of 8 September 2000, 1 which considers, inter alia, that
tolerance is one of the fundamental values essential to international relations in the
twenty-first century and should include the active promotion of a culture of peace
and dialogue among civilizations, with human beings respecting one another, in all
their diversity of belief, culture and language, neither fearing nor repressing
differences within and between societies but cherishing them as a precious asset of
humanity,
Noting that globalization brings greater interrelatedness among people and
increased interaction among cultures and civilizations, and encouraged by the fact
that the celebration of the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, at
the beginning of the twenty-first century, will provide the opportunity to emphasize
that globalization not only is an economic, financial and technological process
which could offer great benefit, but also constitutes a profoundly human challenge
that invites us to embrace the interdependence of humankind and its rich cultural
diversity,
1
00 56077
Resolution 55/2.