Launched in the wake of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2010), the Rabindrânâth Tagore, Pablo Neruda and Aimé Césaire programme aims to promote translations, publications, and creations connected to the three writers. It will also facilitate the dissemination and adaptation of their message. These activities are to be implemented by Member States, public or private institutions.
Tagore, Neruda and Césaire capitalized on art and poetry as irreplaceable vectors of mediation between humans and their environment. Reinventing humanism, it could be better to read and better to hear poetry in all of its forms, and to encounter new languages of expression that reflect peoples' dreams and aspirations, especially those of the youth.
Introduction speech by UNESCO's Director-General