detailed information about the 4th UNAOC Summer School

1. FOREWORD
I am thrilled to have this exciting opportunity to welcome the
participants of the Guido de Marco Summer School, a joint
initiative by the Government of Malta and the United Nations
Alliance of Civilizations. Aimed at addressing some of the most
pressing challenges to building dialogue and cooperation across
divides in the Euro-Mediterranean area, this Summer School is
focused on very acute issues such as mediation, conflict
transformation and reconciliation as a peace building process.
At a time when there is a violent conflict ravaging one of the member countries of the
Alliance of Civilizations in the Mediterranean and many other societies are
undergoing deep transformations against a backdrop of economic recession affecting
the whole region, it is more than timely for the UNAOC to engage further in equipping
people – in particular young people – with tools for dialogue, conflict prevention and
managing conflicts. Learning how to leave together at ease in a landscape of diversity
and differences remains a big challenge of our century.
Organized in cooperation with the League of Arab States and the North-South Centre
of the Council of Europe, with the special support of the Brazilian Government which
made a generous grant to the UNAOC Summer Schools in 2012, the Guido de Marco
Summer School is part of the Regional Strategy for the Mediterranean, adopted at a
Ministerial Conference held in Valetta in November 2010. It is the expression of the
firm commitment of the Maltese Government towards building peace in the
Mediterranean region through empowering youth and strengthening its capacity to
build a better future.
Welcome you all to the Guido de Marco Summer School!
Jorge Sampaio, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations
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