Strong Social Fabrics and Cohesion
Communities thrive when built on trust, inclusivity and mutual understanding.
Creating Cohesion
UNESCO recognises social cohesion as fundamental to peaceful, open societies, where diverse groups can collaborate effectively and address shared challenges.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, prioritising social cohesion means nurturing respect across cultures, honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and creating spaces where everyone can feel valued and connected in ways that reflect their own identity, while also building and maintaining shared spaces that hold us together as a diverse society.
This involves actively fostering relationships based on trust, respect and reciprocity, enabling diverse communities to deepen mutual understanding through the active exchange of knowledge, stories and perspectives.
What work have we undertaken in this area?
Our work builds on insights gained at the 2019 national Youth Diversity Forum which we organised in partnership with Ngāi Tahu and the Human Rights Commission. The Forum was followed by a Youth Declaration Call For Action (presented at the 40th General Conference in Paris) which called for individual as well as community and institutional change.
We work in partnership with our communities to celebrate and support diversity and social inclusion in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We do this by:
- supporting initiatives by stakeholder and community groups that address discrimination, hate speech, mis and disinformation such as the Race Unity Speech Awards and Hui
- supporting the UNESCO Chair on Dance and Social Inclusion in their work promoting dance as a key means of inclusion
- actively engaging with UNESCO networks and partners to share work and practice, on diversity and inclusion.
- supporting people in Aotearoa to attend and engage in relevant international meetings and forums.
- sharing relevant UNESCO publications domestically, particularly those relating to addressing mis, dis and mal-information, hate speech and conspiracy theories.
