International Day of Tolerance 2021; November 16th

For the observance of the International Day for Tolerance 2021, UNESCO calls upon everybody to celebrate diversity and the inalienable right to difference, which gives depth to our societies and establishes peace in the minds of men and women.

 Message from

Statement by Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Day for Tolerance 2021; November 16th.

 In his Open Letter to the Youth, Amadou Hampâté Bâ called on humanity to work towards mutual understanding by every means possible, so that "our differences, rather than separating us, become complementary and a source of mutual enrichment".For 75 years now, our Organization has been pursuing this ambition by harnessing the common goods of humanity that are education, science, culture and information to build peace in the minds of men and women. And this International Day is an opportunity to stress the topicality of our shared commitment to defending and promoting tolerance and mutual understanding. Almost two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fault lines that divide and disfigure our societies are still pushing us apart and exacerbating distrust. It is therefore necessary to reaffirm the basic values of humankind, which we uphold in both theory and practice.This is particularly true of the work that we are doing to make education a place where students, as citizens of tomorrow's world, learn empathy, the nature of dialogue and respect for others and oppose hatred and intolerance in both form and substance.This work must reach far beyond the classroom to encompass all spheres of society. Our Organization thus works day to day to defend and promote cultural and linguistic diversity and diversity of knowledge, especially indigenous knowledge, so that all these outlooks and ways of seeing the world can open up new vistas for humankind through dialogue and exchange.As we can read in the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance signed on 16 November 1995 by the Member States of UNESCO, "Tolerance is harmony in difference."On this International Day for Tolerance, UNESCO calls upon everybody to celebrate diversity and the inalienable right to difference, which gives depth to our societies and establishes peace in the minds of men and women.