UN General Assembly
1982

Economic and Social Council, will prompt other Member States to contribute to the support of this Institute and thereby assure the fulfilment of its important functions. Under the present difficult international circumstances, cultural co-operation-widely debated and defined at the World Conference on Cultural Policies, known as MONDIACULT, organized by UNESCO in August-is evoked to strengthen the ties that exist between peoples. There can be no argument that all cultures have the same dignity and equality; that freedom is necessary to all intellectual and artistic creation; that all patrimonies, be they architectonic, written or oral, need to be protected and that those values are the bedrock of an interdependence freely assumed but carefully preserving identities and receptive to new sources of enrichment. The Dominican Republic, which suffered for a long time from cultural isolationism, now wishes to develop communication in education, science, literature and art, provided such dialogues between cultures are established on a basis of respect and reciprocity, of recognition and a receptiveness that assures interchange in the true meaning of