The International Poetry Prize “Castello di Duino” and the World Youth Forum “Right to Dialogue” are organized as part of the more comprehensive project “Poetry and Solidarity, Language of Peoples”. The project, born out of the enthusiasm and the ideals of Gabriella and Ottavio Gruber, was launched in 2000 and then supported by the Association “Poetry and Solidarity”. The “care of the language”, considered as the main medium of understanding and solidarity (on interpersonal, intergenerational and intercultural levels), is at the core of the entire project. Languages of the soul and languages of the thought are all “experiences of things”, a way to shape the world of relationships, them being considered as values which are inexhausted in their creative work. The Competition has grown over the years to the point that it’s become, according to the UNESCO Italian National Committee (under whose patronage it’s organized), the most important International Poetry Competition among those which address young poets. It’s been honoured with the medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic, and it can rely on the collaboration of Prince Carlo Alessandro della Torre e Tasso (Castello di Duino- Trieste Italia). So far, thousands of people from more than 90 countries of the world have joined the competition, so that we can rely on a real network of young poets, and, more generally, of young persons who are interested in social and humanitarian problems and promote the message of Poetry and Solidarity all around the world. Thanks to the Ibiskos Risolo Publishing House, the profits of the book containing the winning poems along with a selection of other works go to the  Foundation Luchetta-Ota-D’Angelo-Hrovatin, committed to provide care for child victims of war.

The  World-Youth Forum “Right to Dialogue” is a part of the same project.

The Forum:

is created within the network of the International Poetry Competition “Castello di Duino – Poetry and Solidarity Language of the Peoples”, which has so far involved thousands of young people from more than 90 countries all around the world.

It pursues several goals:

• to adfirm the “right to dialogue” as a fundamental right;
• to promote the meeting between different experiences as an essential condition for the right to dialogue: these experiences are intended as referring to the great scope topics that involve various fields of the participants’ cultural background (literature, arts, social engagement, voluntary work), aiming to multiply the suggestions to think and to improve the ability to challenge the otherness, the difficulties and the complexity;
• to accept and emphasize the different levels in facing the problems, according to ages and diversities (as far as personal background and cultural heritage are concerned);
• to address young people and their conscious self-aknowledgment as responsible subjects and leading class of the future;
• to address young people as the most important partners for the building of solidarity-based and open-minded cultural models;
• to improve the consciousness that the dialogue should be a dialogue betwen subjects, generations and cultures.

Participants must be 18 to 35 years of age. Justified exceptions are accepted.

The Forum is open to associations, clubs, artistic and cultural groups composed by young people, or particularly dedicated to young people. Furthermore, it is open to all those who deal with social issues and / or voluntary work.

Youth workers, families and teachers are particularly invited to accept as an input for reflections the demands, contradictions, hopes, disenchantements expressed by young people as well as the proposals, the analysis and their noble naivety.

The Forum is a yearly event, intended to be the basis for a permanent observatory on youth culture in the world, in collaboration with the Study and Documentation Centre for Youth Culture set up by the Department of Humanities at the University of Trieste. In this sense it backs up all the other activities dealing with youth creativity and communication, and it’s as well integrated by them.

The proceedings of the Forum are published both in Italian and English and released all around the world in the countries the participants are from.