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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 13704 | 29 January 2015
Identities and diversity within intercultural societies
1. The Committee of Ministers has carefully
examined Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2049 (2014) on “Identities and diversity within intercultural societies”
and has forwarded it to the relevant committees and bodies for information
and comments.
2. In the current context of cultural diversity in Europe, the
development of democratic stability is vital for building inclusive
societies based on respect and mutual understanding. The Committee
of Ministers therefore welcomes the support which the Parliamentary
Assembly provides for the Council of Europe’s intergovernmental
work to deal with the challenges of diversity in Europe and beyond.
3. The Committee of Ministers would inform the Assembly that
the Programme of Activities for the 2014-2015 biennium provides
for the preparation of an overview of the activities that exist
in the Organisation in the area of diversity. This exercise ties
in with the proposal made by the Assembly in paragraph 3.1.1 of
its recommendation. Moreover, a range of innovative and cross-cutting
activities and tools have been developed, in particular in the field
of the digitisation of culture, the development of competences for
democratic culture and intercultural dialogue, as well as tools
for linguistic integration and policies and practices for teaching
about religions and non-religious beliefs in intercultural education.
4. With regard to co-ordination between current monitoring and
information database systems (paragraph 3.1.2 of the recommendation),
it should be underlined that links do exist between some of these
systems (in particular, between the Compendium and HEREIN) and that
other databases, for instance that of the North-South Centre in
the field of global education, have been established. The Assembly
also recommends the setting-up of an “early warning system” designed
to avoid conflicts related to culture and to deal with current issues.
In this respect, the Committee of Ministers considers that the Organisation’s
standard-setting acquis and relevant monitoring mechanisms already
cover these issues to a large extent.
5. Lastly, the Committee of Ministers is pleased to inform the
Assembly that co-operation with the European Union in the areas
mentioned by the Assembly is well developed and that several Council
of Europe programmes in the field of diversity, education for democratic
citizenship and human rights education, including those conducted
by the North-South Centre for global education, are joint actions
with the European Union. The Committee of Ministers is committed
to deepening and broadening this co-operation.