Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World
Charter of Human Responsibilities

INVITATION
to an intercultural dialogue

Responsibility

Dear friend, 

	Of late, the notion of "human responsibility" has acquired a new and challenging meaning.  
Individual responsibility, collective responsibility… responsibilities proportionate to the possibilities which are open to us.  Human responsibilities… indeed, but how do people with diverse cultural backgrounds conceive of them ?

The project of framing a Charter of Human Responsibilities, initiated by the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World and supported by the Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer,  is particularly relevant to our times.  The idea was approved by the World Assembly of Citizens, organized by the Alliance in December 2001 in Lille, France.  The draft text for such a Charter was then submitted to a broader circle of participants in the Alliance for further comment.  The results led to a final text (attached).

Since then some 40 people, covering around 25 languages started to work on translations of the Charter into culturally appropriate versions. 

One of the recommendations of the World Assembly of Citizens in Lille was to add to the multilingual and multicultural Charter an intercultural glossary.  The background of this suggestion was that it was felt necessary to specify cultural interpretations of some key notions used in the Charter, starting with the concept of "responsibility" itself.  This intercultural glossary will not be a simple annex.  It will provide the essential ground material for an intercultural dialogue on the Charter of Human Responsibilities.

You are most welcome to participate in this project so as to allow the Alliance to again distinguish itself by its tangible way of taking cultural diversity seriously. 

The attached document entitled RESPONSIBILITY, Intercultural glossary position paper sets out the process.  You will find specific questions concerning your own language.  
I would be particularly grateful to you for answering these questions at your earliest convenience.  Your personal effort will contribute to a collective exercise which in a concrete  manner will bring out the diversity that enriches us and will define carefully what we have in common.

Once the reactions to these questions have been analyzed, you will receive a draft synthesis for comments.

With every best wish, 

Edith Sizoo
e-mail : edith.sizoo@wanadoo.fr
address : Les Mousseaux		71220 La Guiche		France
Tel./fax : 00 33 385 24 68 72