Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

A final declaration has been adopted in conclusion of the two-day Baku International Humanitarian Forum that ended on Friday.

The document calls for the public, politicians and scholars to fully support Azerbaijan's initiative to create a special research center covering world multicultural problems.

"A comprehensive and multilevel dialogue held within the Baku Forum gives hope to the possibility of an effective resistance to the current challenges of our time," the declaration said.

It was stressed that its usage is necessary to organize international humanitarian cooperation and to promote effective coordination in this area.

Participants of the Baku Forum stressed the increasing importance of rethinking the concept of multiculturalism and its role in modern society.

They stressed the need for using multiculturalism as an integral part of state policy and its significance for the development of different cultures and the conservation and enhancement of the cultural achievements of humankind.

They also emphasized the need to further development of the multiculturalism philosophical and ethical issues along with media coverage to prevent xenophobia, racism and intolerance.

"We believe that the current processes, encouraging cooperation and understanding, along with increasing tendencies of resistance in various regions of the world must be at the center of scientific activity of the universities, academies of science and appropriate funds," the declaration said.

"We admit that the rapid development of science leads to the formation of a new interdisciplinary scientific paradigm and makes the need to reflect these processes in education, requiring the formation of a single, integrated situation among the new generation in the world.

We stressed the role and importance of converging technologies for the future. We consider it necessary to pay more attention to the development of Nano-, bio-, info-and cognitive technologies and their proper use.

We are aware of the variability of the development processes of each society depending on the specific characteristics of the sociocultural basis. We recognize the growing role of new technologies and social networks, their role in the formation and dissemination of information as a phenomenon having no analogue in previous eras.

We urge international organisations and various humanitarian bodies to systematically initiate forums, conferences, debates and round tables to implement a genuine intercultural dialogue between the countries, civil society and religions designed to cultivate creating an atmosphere of tolerance and preventing the inter-civilisation conflicts," declaration marks.

Forum participants expressed their belief in the need for holding these annual forums and expressed deep gratitude to the Azerbaijani president, the government and all organizers of the Baku International Humanitarian Forum for such a large scale campaign that turned Baku into the center of discussions on humanitarian issues.

About 700 representatives from 70 countries, including 11 Nobel Prize winners, 10 former presidents, heads of numerous countries' governments, ministers, well-known educators, men of science and culture attended the forum.

The forum featured roundtable meetings on themes including humanitarian aspects of economic growth models; converging technologies and outlines of the future; modern mass media and new challenges; the traditional system of values in a post-modernist culture; new approaches to the processes of globalization in the 21st century.

Discussions also covered technologies, modern medicine, and molecular biology; as well as multiculturalism.

The first Baku International Humanitarian Forum under the slogan "21st century: hopes and challenges" took place in October 2011. The forum organizers are Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russia's Vladimir Putin.