THE CHARTER OF THE UNIVERSAL ACADEMY OF CULTURES Brought together for the first time on 9 November 1992 at the initiative of Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, we announce our intention to meet in order to reflect together on the 21st century and, in particular, on the mixing of civilizations occasioned by the forced or voluntary waves of migration taking place across the planet.   To this end, we agree to found a Universal Academy of Cultures in Paris, composed of men and women dedicated to truth and beauty, and concerned likewise with good, that is with the values that should inspire the new ties of cultural interdependence.   Founded in 1992, 500 years after the discovery of America, it hopes to witness the end of a period which began with the establishment of contacts between all the societies in the world, but has too often been a time in which some have dominated and persecuted the others.   It will conduct scientific research, meetings and creative ventures, and it will encourage, notably through its Annual Prize, all that contributes to the fight against intolerance, xenophobia, discrimination against women, racism and anti-Semitism. It will encourage the combat against poverty and ignorance and against the deliberate degradation of certain forms of life.   It is committed to spreading its ideas through schools, through the media and all the instruments of future knowledge.   United in this shared and urgent goal, the founding members of the Universal Academy of Cultures wish to mobilise to this end all the resources of human intelligence and imagination.