What are the barriers to ICD?

There are many barriers to intercultural dialogue, including:

• Power and politics
• Discrimination, poverty and exploitation, particularly of marginalised and disadvantaged groups, which inhibits participation
• Racism, xenophobia and intolerance
• Differing histories and memories
• Difficulty in communicating in several languages
• Lack of resources and commitment by organisations to invest in on-going dialogue
• Incentivising participants to share their experiences of the impact of dialogue beyond the lifetime of the ICD project
• Ensuring a multiplier effect so that the benefits of dialogue go beyond individuals into families, communities and beyond

To address the above issues it is important that ICD approaches are underpinned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.