“ Humanism has to be globalised .”
-Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka
The NUNC initiative organized by Ambassador Ion de la Riva (Permanent Delegate of Spain to UNESCO) and the Spanish Delegation to UNESCO took place on 14 th and 15 th November, 2011 at UNESCO headquarters. This two day seminar consisted of a series of symposia on the role of New Humanism in the context of the challenges that Science, Culture and Communication are facing in the new Digital Era.
NUNC concentrated upon issues that are most immediate and vital to both our species and to the biosphere. The initiative fixes its aim upon understanding a complex and swiftly changing evolutionary horizon that will differ radically from anything that we have so far imagined or encountered.
Inaugurated by Director Bokova, the event gathered dignitaries as well as renowned scientists, artists and professionals of all horizons around a series of interdisciplinary and intercultural round tables focusing on the most pressing aspects of the human past and future. Present among the conference participants were: Prof. Cristovam Buarque (Brazil), David Nelson Gimbel (historian, USA), Fatou Diome (writer, Senegal), Apolonio Ruiz Ligero (economist, Spain), Dario Valcarcel, (managing director of Estudios de Politica Exterior S.A., Spain), Eric Altmayer (producer, France), David Bravo (lawyer, Spain), Bella Thomas (writer and journalist, UK), Maria de Sousa (scientist, Portugal), Adela Cortina (philosopher, Spain), Prof. Dominique Miller (psychoanalyst, France), Alaska (musician, Spain), Isabel Coixet (journalist and film director, Spain), Isabel Aguilera (former Director of Google Spain), François Malye (journalist, France), Sameer Padania (Human Rights specialist, UK), Fabio Gandara (May 15 th Movement, Spain) and Mercedes Mila (journalist, Spain).
The Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Sri Lanka to UNESCO, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, participated in the 3 rd session on “Science and Humanism” held on November 15, 2011. Along with other eminent panelists such as Spanish philosopher Victor Gomez Pin and French professor Dominique Miller, Ambassador Jayatilleka expressed his views on “The Human and the Post-Human paradigms: are the ethical limits of science an obstacle to our evolution?”. Speaking on sciences and ethics, Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka emphasized on the need to have a socio-economical experiment: “T he challenge is to imagine an order, a social structure, a system and economic arrangement which is humanistic; which place man and the biosphere at the center.” He concluded by saying that humanism has to be new in the sense that “humanism has to be globalised”.
Permanent Delegation of Sri Lanka to UNESCO
Paris
15th November 2011
