Dr Hans-Martin Hinz
Member of the Executive Council of ICOM


Sustainability Conference, Vietnam
January 9 – 12, 2006
Call for Papers
(deadline October 15, 2005)



To my very honored colleagues from ICOM,

From the 9th to the 12th of January 2006 the second international Conference
on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability will take
place in Hanoi and in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. The first conference on the
topic of sustainability, the decade theme of the United Nations, was held in
February 2005 in Hawaii.

Within the context of the conference in Vietnam the museums are to present
the subject “Heritage Development - Cultural Diversity - Responsible
 Tourism” under the aspect of sustainability. The intention is above all
that representatives of the regional organizations of ICOM, but also
representatives of ICOM national committees with experiences in
international activities as well as experts within our organization who have
been involved with the topic, collaborate on this conference. This is also
to be seen as a contribution to the 60th anniversary of ICOM.
The conference is co-chaired by Dr. Dang Van Bai, Director of the National
Department of Culture and Heritage and President of ICOM-Vietnam and
Professor Amareswar Galla, PhD, Vice President of ICOM and Director,
Sustainable Heritage Development Programs, Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies, The Australian National University.

As the convener of the museums’ part of the meeting I’m calling for papers
on the special theme of the conference mentioned above. Please keep in mind
that the substance of the paper should make it clear how museum work
achieves or should achieve sustainability within the field of education.

The supporters of the conference in Hanoi and Ha Long Bay are the national
Ministry of Culture and Information, the Province of Quang Ninh, the Hanoi
office of UNESCO, ICOM-Vietnam and the Australian National University as
well as the Globalism Institute, Melbourne. The conference organizer is the
Australian company Common Ground.
Information about the conference can also be found at
www.sustainabilityconference.com.

The background to the conference is: in December 2002 the United Nations
General Assembly, based on the recommendation of the Johannesburg World
Summit for Sustainable Development, declared a world decade for „Education
for Sustainable Development” (ESD) for the years 2005 to 2014. For this
purpose the UNESCO developed a framework for the draft International
Implementation Scheme (IIS) and presented it to the UN General Assembly in
2004; it received formal confirmation from the UNESCO Executive Board in
April of 2005. In many countries in the world, plans of action are being
developed. The conference in Vietnam forms a part of this young tradition.

Essentially what the education for sustainable development comes down to is
helping people all over the world gain the skills to actively shape their
future. Broad-mindedness, foresight, and the ability to work
interdisciplinarily and orient oneself around a commitment to sustainability
should ultimately lead to present and future generations attaining and
creating a world worth living in.
It comes down to imparting ways of acting that will let people develop more
awareness and identify with their own living environment, from which
political action should be derived.
This ultimately affects all areas of life, from economy to ecology, from
education to culture.

Museums can play an important role in the education for sustainable
development, in that with their exhibits and activities they present
residents and visitors opportunities to come to terms not only with their
own culture and history but also with foreign cultures. In this way the
people ultimately improve their knowledge about their own living environment
and that of others and reflect upon different positions and perspectives,
which contributes to self-assurance, strengthens identities and ideally
enables them to use what they’ve gained to understand the past and the
future more consciously, thus putting them in a position to be able to shape
the future. Thus the work of museums can contribute to the education for
sustainable processes.

For the conference in Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, 16 lecture periods of 30
minutes each are available to ICOM (20 minutes for presentation plus10
minutes for questions from the audience).


I would ask you to please,

1) inform me relatively soon – by October 15, 2005 at the latest – of your
interest in a presentation and to write which topic you would like to
present on the complex of sustainability and in the fixed time period of 20
minutes. Please state the objective and give me a short summary of the
contents.

After the selection of topics I can assure you of an answer as soon as
possible. My email address is: [log in to unmask] (this is my address at the German
Historical Museum in Berlin).

2) also, parallel to notifying me of your interest, the conference organizer
has requested that you also fill out the attached Presentation Proposal Form
and email it as soon as possible to the Conference Administrator, Ms.
Bronwen Robson ( [log in to unmask] ). This will ensure that your
interest is visible for all involved and the conference is easier to plan.

The costs of travel to Vietnam and accommodations cannot be carried by ICOM.
The organizer is offering all-inclusive accommodations packages. More
information can be found at: www.SustainabilityConference.com

Due to the relatively short time left before the event and for organizing
the presentations of papers, I would remind you once more of the deadline,
October 15, 2005.

I remain, with kind regards, yours sincerely,

Hans-Martin Hinz
September 8, 2005

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the
archives at:  http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html