Opening Remarks By
H.E. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser
The High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations
at the PLURAL+ Awards Ceremony
UNHQ – 9 November, 2017

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to welcome you to the 2017 PLURAL+ Award Ceremony. Since 2009, UNAOC and our partners at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have worked together to recognize young filmmakers addressing the topics of migration, diversity, social inclusion and the prevention of xenophobia.

We are very proud of this successful partnership resulting in a successful project.

I take this opportunity to welcome to the ceremony my dear friend Ambassador William Swing , Director General of IOM. Amb Swing is participating in person in this year’s ceremony which we are organizing for the first time here at the UN Headquarters.

PLURAL+ recognizes youth as powerful agents of social change.

The short videos created and produced by these young people provide them with a platform in which they can express themselves freely on migration, diversity and inclusion. Their voices and the images they put together in those videos aim at promoting tolerance, understanding and acceptance in their communities at large.

In today’s world, we face the challenge of the growing fear of the “other”. Fear breeds exclusion and polarization. But we can do better. These young people show us the way.

In that context, we have added this year, in collaboration with the department of Public Information , a new category to the awards dedicated to “the Prevention of Xenophobia”. I am pleased to welcome to our ceremony Ms. Alison Smale, Under Secretary General for Global Communications. I hope we can continue to strengthen our collaboration .

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Over the last nine years PLURAL+ has received over 1,500 video entries from young people from all over the world.

With the support of PLURAL+ wide network of more than 50 partner organizations we have been able to recognize these young video producers and provide multiple ways to have their work screened and discussed in dozens of festivals, cinemas and broadcast on television networks throughout the world as well as on the Internet

Building a bridge between cultures and identity groups lies at the heart of the mandate of UNAOC. PLURAL+ represents one of the strongest building blocks of that bridge. Combining a focus on youth with an appreciation for the power of visual art, I am particularly proud of this project and the young people we are so happy to support.

I would like to congratulate all the young video makers receiving PLURAL+ awards tonight . I once again express my gratitude to IOM and all PLURAL+ partners supporting the global outreach of these very inspiring videos

I hope you will enjoy the videos presented here tonight.

Thank you.