The very idea to gather them in a country where an authoritarian and intolerant regime is continuously violating the freedom of thought and expression and banning humanities from universities, is a challenge to every reasonable and plausible principle of dialogue, universality and openness. In these conditions, the UNESCO’s initiative is turning into the opposite of what it should be. The list of defections is confirming the warning we sent already last January to the general director of the UNESCO, Mrs. Irina Bokova.