The joint UNESCO-NGO Commission is a platform for encounters and exchanges which encourage recognition of the other, and it is enriched by the work of the various NGOs that make it up. Prominent among the participating NGOs is the International Council of Jewish Women, represented by Norma Anav, Danielle Obadia, and Iana Zbar.

This Colloquium was an initiative of the ‘Dialogue between Cultures for Peace’ Commission and within the rubric of the Convention on Promoting Cultural Diversity. It brought together experts who presented excellent papers and shared the practical experiences of the various NGOs, before a large and caring audience. Its sessions addressed Multiple Identity issues from different perspectives:

• Political, by Pierre-Henri Chalvidan, Lecturer at the University of Paris XII;
• Legal, by Guy Aurenche, Advocate at the Paris bar;
• Artistic, by Michel Ocelot, Movie Director;
• Religious, by Rachid Benzine, Author of New Thinkers of Islam; and
• Memory, by Nelly Hansson, Director General of the French Judaism Foundation, who was invited by ICJW.

Although awareness of the Multiple Identity phenomenon is recent, it is universal and inherent to the human condition and, according to the speakers, it is associated with all languages, all times, and all conditions. The multiple “I”, ever more omnipresent in our societies, is becoming a major challenge of our time. It is the result of globalization, which encourages the emergence of cultural societies, grouping together communities which often have diverse identities.

Some advocate the right to be different, while others claim the right to resemblance. To accommodate this diversity, a society must be capable of redefining its foundations while remaining true to itself. It must make it easier for individuals to achieve a compromise between culture of origin and host culture in order to be able to agree on common rules. The law becomes involved here as an effective tool for finding solutions for living together, encouraging searching for common references, and enabling the bonds to be consolidated and deepened.

Religious identity, dealt with by Rachid Benzine, is but one facet of Multiple Identity. According to him, religion satisfies three needs, each having its by-products: the need for identity, which can turn to intransigence; the moral need, which is threatened by fundamentalism; and the need for truth, which runs the risk of fanaticism. Beyond that, there are the collective imaginations about which each religion fantasizes, and if there is collision, according to him, it is much more between different religious imaginations than between civilizations.

 “Remembrance” declared Nelly Hansson, “is essential, intrinsic to humanity, but it is also living, fertile, open to an individual life that is as harmonious as possible. However, remembrance that is for me only is of little interest if it does not overflow into living together.” Identity is an on-going construction that traces one’s past towards living together.

For Katérina Stenou, Director, Division of Cultural Policies at UNESCO, “Cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as bio-diversity is for the living world.” In this sense, it constitutes the common heritage of mankind, to the benefit of present generations and future generations. The abundance of ideas and thoughts proposed opens up numerous avenues to be explored: multiple identity and democracy; secularism; religion and living together.

Living together, which is an issue between One and Many, must integrate the three dimensions of the universal, the particular, and the singular.