Regional Cultural Capital

The idea of annual "cultural capitals" grew out of a 1982 United Nations conference whose delegates agreed that a broad definition of "development" must include a cultural dimension. It is culture, they concurred, more overtly than economics, that aspires to nurture the good of humankind. In 1986, the United Nations General Assembly declared 1988 to 1997 as the World Decade for Cultural Development and designated UNESCO as the lead body.

Among the more than 1000 projects undertaken by the UN's member countries was the Regional Cultural Capitals Program, which started in Europe to give a boost to cultural efforts in cities such as Glasgow, Manchester and Barcelona.

The World Decade for Cultural Development was extended with the Regional Cultural Capitals Project by the Executive Board of UNESCO during its 144th session in Paris 1994.

Originally aimed at the Latin American and Caribbean region holding a representative series of artistic and cultural events focusing on one city so as to offer the citizens of each country the opportunity to become acquainted on their own soil, with the diversity and wealth of regional culture.

The Arab region followed the example and designated Regional Cultural Capitals since 1996.

1996 Cairo, Egypt

1997 Tunis, Tunisia

1998 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

1999 Beirut, Lebanon

2000 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

2001 Kuwait City, Kuwait

2002 Amman, Jordan

2003 Rabat, Morocco

2004 Sana'a, Yemen

2005 Khartoum, Sudan

2006 Muscat, Oman

2007 Algiers, Algeria

2008 Damascus, Syria

2009 Jerusalem, Palestine Authority

2010 Doha, Qatar

Link

Arab Capital of Culture in Wikipedia.

Stamp catalogue - 1997

Tunisia 15 July 1997

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last revised: 7 June 2009