More about the election of the Director General

The recent opening remarks of Stephen Engelken, acting as Representative of the United States, to the Executive Board of UNESCO have been made available online. He stressed the importance of the election of the new Director General.

The choice of the next Director-General is the most important decision we will face for many years. Sixty years after its founding, the basic reasons for having UNESCO remain as strong as ever. Members of the world community need to cooperate with each other on education, science, culture, and communications. Now, more than ever, we need to tear down these mental barriers and suspicions that keep us apart.

While it may be too early to talk of names – the deadline for submitting candidacies is not until May 31 – it is not too early to begin thinking seriously about the qualities we seek in the next Director-General.

To some extent, we have already begun. In the text of the letter agreed at our last Board we said we were looking for someone with management skills, a strong commitment to the objectives of the Organization, a good knowledge of the UN system, and high moral and ethical standards. Most importantly, we said we wanted someone who could display leadership and a visionary approach. All of these qualities are important, but perhaps none more than the sense of vision. UNESCO urgently needs to look forward into the coming century and to keep reinventing itself to meet the needs of all of its members.

In another story we learn that Ambassadors of 60 UNESCO member countries are to visit Bulgaria.

Bulgaria’s permanent mission to UNESCO, the National Commission for UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture organize from May 2 to May 9 a cultural visit to Bulgaria of members of the UNESCO Executive Council. As part of the visit on May 4 the Boyana governmental residence in Sofia is hosting a one-day conference on the protection of heritage and cultural diversity as an original response to globalization under the aegis of President Georgi Parvanov, who will open the event. Speakers at the conference will be Sri Lanka’s Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha, the President of the UNESCO General Conference and Greek Ambassador to the organization George Anastasopoulos, the Rector of Sofia University Prof. Ivan Ilchev, as well as ambassadors of UNESCO member countries.

Note that Ambassador Irina Bokova, of Bulgaria, is campaigning for the post of UNESCO Director General with the support of her government.

Interview with the Director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong

Adama Ouane, director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, looks forward in this interview to CONFINTEA VI, the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education, “Living and Learning for a Viable Future – the Power of Adult Learning”, which takes place in Belem (Brazil) May 19-22.

Read the Interview!

"Is Unesco damaging the world's treasures?"

Simon Usborne provides this long and serious article in The Independent (UK).

Since its inception, 37 years ago, UNESCO World Heritage has become a global brand whose seal is slapped on the planet's most precious places. The Taj Mahal is on the list, alongside the Pyramids of Giza and the Grand Canyon. These are the man-made and natural wonders considered to be of such outstanding value to humanity that their importance transcends borders, politics – and even economics. They are deemed deserving of the ultimate layer of protection – to be placed beyond the reach of polluters, developers, looters, bombers, and the ravages of time. The World Heritage seal is a guarantee of preservation.

He cites the effort led by UNESCO to restore the beautiful and historic center of Dubrovnik in the 1990s after is was shelled by Serb and Montenegrin forces as successful and prototypical of what UNESCO is supposed to do.

But now many within the conservation community are convinced Unesco is failing. They say the moribund organisation is teetering on its once sound foundations as its principles and priorities crumble under the weight of bureaucracy and outside influence. The World Heritage emblem has come to represent a grandiose marketing tool – fodder for "things to see before you die" coffee-table books.

Usborne suggests that World Heritage status is fine for countries that are proud of their sites and have both the knowledge and resources to protect them against the damage done by increased tourism, but that some sites in developing nations are endangered by their very popularity. Moreover, the tourism industry has learned that World Heritage status can be helpful to its business and Usborne fears that the industrial pressure is getting sites of less than transcendental importance included on the list.

Editorial comment: This is an important critique of the program. Surely the World Heritage program is underfunded and understaffed. One hopes that National Commissions and UNESCO's governing bodies will review this situation carefully and make such adjustments as are needed to assure recognition and protection of the sites which are truly so important as to represent the heritage of all mankind.

I have found online commentaries which may be of interest:

• "The Case Against UNESCO," in FP (Foreign Policy) Passport
• "UNESCO: Good or Bad?" Wayne State Anthropology Club

A Call for Restoration of Support for UNESCO

Bryan Gould, the chair of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, has published an opinion piece in The Guardian (UK) on the occasion of the current meeting of UNESCO's Executive Board. I quote:

Step forward UNESCO. The oldest UN agency, during the era of economic man, has been pushed to the sidelines. Its emphasis on education, on the physical, human and social sciences, on culture and language, on the sustainable use of natural resources, as the mainsprings of human development and wellbeing, has seemed quaintly old-fashioned in an era of aggressive profit-seeking. But a restatement of those goals and values is now overdue. We can now assert, amid the wreckage created by economic man, that we are more than economic agents, and that Unesco's preoccupations point the way to a more complete and empowering sense of where our future lies.....

There are.......better ways of spending our money......Our focus should be on strategically planned programs for education in countries where schooling is still at a premium, in the strengthening of cultural identities to give people confidence to understand who they are and how they can play a constructive role in the world, in projects to protect and develop sustainable supplies of fresh water.....

UNESCO has never been funded to undertake these activities itself. Its current budget is pathetically small, and – in the current crisis – likely to get smaller. But, with proper financing, UNESCO could provide the intellectual leadership and strategic direction to ensure that skills and capabilities that are at present scattered and fragmented across the globe can be linked and co-ordinated, so that we get the maximum benefit from what we already have. UNESCO's role is to help us to do better than merely learn what not to do. Agencies like UNESCO can help us move forward by providing outcomes that are greater than the sum of their parts.

Read the full article!

Clubs for UNESCO: a practical guide

Clubs for UNESCO: a practical guide, published in 2009 is a manual for those interested in starting or managing a UNESCO club. There are nearly 4,000 UNESCO clubs worldwide, but very few in the United States. The manual is an attractive 33 page brochure in PDF format.

World Heritage Scholarships in U.S. National Parks

Anasazi site, Mesa Verde National Park. NPS Photo

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) is offering fellowships to qualified candidates who wish to learn from the U.S. experience in managing and protecting World Heritage Sites. All expenses paid extended residencies in U.S. parks designated as World Heritage Sites will be available to site managers and staff of World Heritage Sites in developing nations.

The training opportunity will allow selected individuals to work alongside NPS professionals in a variety of areas including resource management, concessions, interpretation and education, planning, and law enforcement. The NPS Office of International Affairs, in cooperation with park partners, will pay for and arrange for travel to the US, while individual host parks will provide housing and a modest living stipend.

The NPS has considerable experience in international training. Every year, more than one hundred individuals from all over the world volunteer in America's National Parks. The International Volunteers-in-Parks Program (IVIP) benefits both the individual volunteer and the National Park Service (NPS).

Perhaps the most famous sites which are both World Heritage sites and U.S. National Parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone are best known as natural heritage sites. However, there are also important cultural World Heritage sites managed by the NPS such as Mesa Verde, the Statue of Liberty and Philidelphia's Independence Hall.

Fellowship candidates should be English speakers willing to spend a minimum of 6 weeks in the US. Residencies; up to 4 months can be arranged. The NPS Office of International Affairs will assist each selected individual in securing the appropriate visa to allow entry to the United States.

For more information, you may contact the responsible NPS officers:

• Stephen Morris, at Stephen_morris@nps.gov or
  
• Jon Putnam, at jonathan_putnam@nps.gov

Human Rights Pledges of the United States

On March 31, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice announced that the United States will seek a seat this year on the United Nations Human Rights Council with the goal of working to make it a more effective body to promote and protect human rights.

As part of the process that will culminate in elections on May 12, each candidate country is asked to produce a pledge outlining its commitment to promoting human rights. This information is circulated among countries and posted on the UN Human Rights Council website. The United States has produced its pledge - Human Rights Commitments and Pledges of the United States of America.