Tomorrow is a very important day for UNESCO's future

Tomorrow will be the fifth and final round of voting for the new Director General of UNESCO. The Executive Board has voted four times, reducing the original slate of nine candidates to the final two: Irina Bokova and Farouk Hosny. On the fourth round these two were tied 29 votes to 29 votes -- the 58 countries represented on the Executive Board split down the middle.

Tomorrow will see either the first woman and first citizen of a former Communist nation elected of the first Arab. It is seen as quite important by the international community that high level positions in intergovernmental organizations not be monopolized by any country or cultural group.

The Director General of UNESCO, like the President of the United States, serves a four year term, and can be reelected once and only once. Thus the new UNESCO Director General, who will take office in November (after ratification of the Executive Board Choice by the General Conference in October), may well have a term of office closely linked in time with that of Barack Obama.

For UNESCO, the next few years should be critically important.

• The benchmarks for the Education for all program and the Millennium Development Goals were set for 2015, and UNESCO should lead the global effort over the next few years to set new global objectives for education.
  
• The new international climate convention under negotiation should add new urgency to UNESCO's scientific programs, especially those focusing on understanding water resources, biological diversity and the oceans.
• The need for UNESCO-moderated, inter-cultural dialog continues to be acute, not only in Africa and the Middle East, but in Asia, between Russia and the West, between the emerging economic powers and the established economic powers, and in Latin America.
• The Information Revolution continues to underlie global aspirations to achieve a global information society -- aspirations which UNESCO can help member nations realize through its functions as a clearinghouse for ideas and a catalyst for cooperation.

All of these priorities would appear also to be priorities of the U.S. Government, and specifically of the Obama administration.

Irina Bokova is currently the Bulgarian Ambassador to France and to the Principality of Monoco as well as Bulgaria's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. In this latter role she has gained considerable expertise about UNESCO. She has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and early in her career on the Bulgarian delgation to the United Nations in New York. In 1991, after the fall of Communism, Ms. Bokova served as a member of the Constituent Assembly helping to write the new Bulgarian Constitution. She was a founder, and served as Chairperson from 1997 to 2005 of the European Policy Forum, a civil society organization. She has written a number of scholarly publications. Initially educated at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, she was later the recipient of a two year NATO fellowship on democratic institutions, and has studied at the University of Maryland and Harvard University. She speaks English, Russian, Spanish and French as well as her native Bulgarian.

Farouk Hosny is currently the Egyptian Minister of Culture, a position that he has held for some 22 years. Early in his career he served as Egyptian cultural attache in France for seven years. He also served in several roles in the Egyptian cultural program in Rome, including as Director of the Egyptian Art Academy and as Cultural Councelor for the Egyptian embassy. He cites major achievements of the Ministry of Culture during his term of office including development of Pharaonic archaeology, the creation of a new museum and the Library of Alexandria, a nationwide system of local libraries, and a national literacy program. He is an abstract artist whose works have shown internationally. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alexandria. He speaks Arabic, French, Italian and English (which he describes as "fair")

In contrast to that of Irina Bokova, the candidacy of Farouk Hosny has been very controversial. Two issues have been especially frequently treated in the media (both of which are disputed by Minister Hosny):

• He has been subject to charges that he holds anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli views. He has stated that he opposes the normalization of Egyptian-Israeli relations that would lead to a restoration of cultural exchanges until progress was made in Israeli-Palestinian relations.
  
• There is also opposition based on the record of censorship of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture during his administration.

Both candidates have been campaigning hard. Ambassador Bokova has visited 45 countries, making presentations to senior officials of those nations in company with senior representatives of the Government of Bulgaria. Minister Hosny has been campaigning for two years, with the strong support of his government.

Prior to the irruption of the controversies over Government Hosny, he was thought to be the front runner in the race, in large part due to support of Arab, other Islamic and African nations that had been sought be the Government of Egypt.

In the first four rounds of voting, Minister Hosny's support grew from 22 to 29 votes. In those same rounds, Ambassador Bokova's support grew from 8 to 29 votes. Essentially, as candidates with fewer votes withdrew from the race, most of their supporters went to Ambassador Bokova rather than to Minister Hosny.

The State Department does not announce publicly its votes in United Nations elections since they are to be held by secret ballot. However, it is widely believed that the U.S. delegate has opposed the Hosny candidacy.

John Daly
(The opinions expressed in this posting are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO or any other organization.)

Assistant Secretary of State Brimmer at the Human Rights Council

The United States is pleased to join the rest of our colleagues on the Human Rights Council. It is with a sense of mutual respect that we take our place on the Council, next to the friends and partners we will work with to forge common ground on one of the most fundamental roles of the state: to protect and advance human rights.

The charge of the Human Rights Council ties closely to the United States’ own history and culture.

Freedom of speech, expression and belief. Due process. Equal rights for all. These enduring principles have animated some of the proudest moments in America’s journey. These human rights and fundamental freedoms are, in effect, a part of our national DNA, just as they are a part of the DNA of the United Nations.

And yet, we recognize that the United States’ record on human rights is imperfect. Our history includes lapses and setbacks, and there remains a great deal of work to be done.

But our history is a story of progress. Indeed, my presence here today is a testament to that progress, as is the Administration I serve. It is the President’s hope and my own that we can continue that momentum at home and around the world.

Our decision to join the Human Rights Council was not entered into lightly, and was reached based on a clear and hopeful vision of what can be accomplished here. Our vision is not merely made in America, but rather reflects the aspirations embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the mandate of the Human Rights Council itself.

Quotation

The United Nations and this month’s General Assembly offer us a venue and a forum for nations to work together to live up to that founding charter and abide by and enforce international rules in service of global peace and security.

I have in my office in the State Department a picture of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of my particular heroines, and she is sitting at a desk working on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I’ve said this before, but I think that channeling Eleanor Roosevelt is not a bad idea. (Laughter.) It reminds us of what is at stake as we move forward with our responsibilities, as does Strobe Talbott’s recent book, The Great Experiment. We have to have effective global institutions. That is not a choice. That is an imperative. It is up to us to determine how to make them effective. The United Nations is a building. It is not able to act in the absence of the decisions made by those member-nations. We, in my view, ignore it and walk away from it at our peril, especially in the 21^st century, where interconnectiveness gives voice and prominence to views that could have easily been either ignored or marginalized in the past.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
Speech at the Brookings Institution prior to the opening of the 2009 General Assembly of the United Nations

Enigmas of the universe

The new edition of The UNESCO Courier highlights astronomy in this International Year of Astronomy.


400 years ago Galileo took the dark stains on the surface of the moon to be seas. He was wrong. Today, we are sending missions to the moon in search of water. These technological advances have been extraordinary: in the past 20 years 350 planets have been discovered outside of our solar system and several months ago the first images of them reached us via satellite. Yet, the universe remains largely unknown.

From Alhazen Ibn Haitham’s theory about the dark spots on the moon (11th century) to the recent discovery of exoplanets in April 2009, this issue, published on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy, traces these steps in our long history of observing the stars. Read the editorial

Who Will Be The Next Director General of UNESCO?

The UNESCO Executive Board begins its meeting next week at which it will choose a new Director General for the Organization. The new Director General should continue the reforms made by his immediate predecessors, while implementing the instructions of UNESCO's governing bodies, and providing leadership in meeting the new challenges facing UNESCO in the coming decade.

There are eight active candidates who have been nominated for the position. While much of the campaign is conducted behind a screen of diplomatic secrecy, there has been a great deal of press coverage of the campaign.

The leading candidate, Farouk Hosny, is the Minister of Culture of Egypt. He has been campaigning actively with the support of his government for two years. In the last few months, however, people have challenged his candidacy, notably in the magazine Foreign Policy and the French dailyL'Monde (in translation also in The Huffington Post) and the Anti-Defamation League. Thus his election is now in some doubt, and there may be several ballots before a candidate receives a majority.

The United States is said to have opposed Hosny during the Bush administration. With the change in administration, the UNESCO election appears to have received little U.S. Governmental attention for some months. More recently, however, the Obama administration seems to have encouraged the entry of several candidates into the race. A French journal today reports that the U.S. Congress might not support funding UNESCO if it were to be headed by Hosny. Were the U.S. to withhold or delay contributions, given that it provides 22 percent of UNESCO's regular budget, the impact would be severe.

Read more on the election and the candidates!

Discuss the election on UNESCO's Friends group on Linkedin!

Vote for your candidate in an online straw pole!

Expansion of COMEST

UNESCO's World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) is an advisory body and forum of reflection. Since it was created in 1998 it has been responsible for studies of the ethics of energy, of the teaching of ethics, and of the ethics of nanotechnology.

COMEST is managed within the Social and Human Sciences Program of UNESCO, which includes a number of ethics activities including those of the International Bioethics Committee and the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee.

The Executive Board of UNESCO will in September consider proposals to authorize COMEST to undertake the preparation of a draft declaration on Climate Change and to expand COMEST and its budget in order to undertake the climate change work in in the context of its other major commitments, to advise UNESCO on programs in science ethics, the ethics of nanotechnologies and environmental ethics teaching.

There would seem to be important ethical questions with respect to the generation and utilization of scientific knowledge with respect to climate change and with respect to the technological basis of greenhouse gas emissions, to technologies that might be useful in reducing antropogenic climate change, and with respect to technologies that might be useful in ameliorating the impacts of climate change that does occur.

One wonders wether the proposed declaration is merely poorly named, or whether COMEST is really planning to look at the ethics of a global climatic phenomenon. If the latter, would that not be better left to other international bodies focusing on the environment and climate change such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations Environmental Program, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature or the World Meteorological Organization.

The documents before the Executive Board suggest expanding membership of COMEST appointed by the Director General of UNESCO from 18 to 36 members, while removing from COMEST 10 ex oficio members from international organizations. It is not clear that the Director General is likely to select individuals who would bring more to COMEST than the current ex officio members. Nor is it clear that a 36 member COMEST would be more capable than a 28 member COMEST.

The documents also suggest more frequent meetings. Would it not be possible to save the expense by increasing use of the Internet for communication among members of the Commission, including use of video conferencing if needed?

One may also question whether the added budget requested for COMEST and the Climate Change Declaration might not be better spent in other ways. For example, UNESCO's flagship social sciences program, the Management of Social Transitions Program, might utilize a budget increase to study how social science could be brought to bear by policy makers to reduce antropogenic climate change or to improve social response for the amelioration of the impacts of climate change. Alternatively, the funds might be used within the Natural Science Programs to further international scientific cooperation in the study of the factors causing and the rate of climate change.

John Daly

(The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

We Mourn the Passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy

We join millions of people around the world in mourning the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. While Senator Kennedy is being remembered for his many achievements on behalf of the poor, the downtrodden and the disenfranchised in the United States, he is also being recalled as a longtime champion and leader in advocating for the poor and for those without a voice in other countries. Senator Kennedy led the effort to secure for refugees and immigrants the right to a life with dignity while also fighting for greater resources for those around the world who suffer in poverty and with sickness. He was a strong supporter of the United Nations and its mission. And while Senator Kennedy was beloved in this country, he will also be sorely missed by people far outside our borders, especially those who will no longer have his voice to rely on for their behalf.

Ivonne Baki Receives Award

It has been announced that Ivonne Baki, candidate for UNESCO Director General, is one of 12 people selected to receive the Americas Award for Public Service in 2009. The award recognizes government officials for contributions to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The award is made by CIFAL Atlanta, a joint initiative between UNITAR and the City of Atlanta.

Controversy About the Candidacy of Farouk Hosny for UNESCO Director General

Source: :"Very, Very Lost in Translation," by Raymond Stock, Foreign Policy, August 24, 2009.

The UNESCO Executive Board is to meet in September to consider the eight active candidates who have been nominated for the post of Director General of UNESCO. It is expected that their selection will be endorsed by the General Conference in October, and the new Director General is to take office in November. One candidate, Farouk Hosny, has proven to be especially controversial. He has been campaigning for the position for two years, and was considered the early leader, but the race has more recently been seen as open.

This new article in the influential journal, Foreign Policy, is very negative with respect to Farouk Hosny. I quote extensively:

To say that Farouk Hosni doesn't much like Israel is putting it lightly. According to the Anti-Defamation League, he has called it "inhuman," and "an aggressive, racist, and arrogant culture, based on robbing other people's rights and the denial of such rights." He has accused Jews of "infiltrating" world media. And in May 2008, Hosni outdid even himself, telling the Egyptian parliament that he would "burn right in front of you" any Israeli books found in the country's libraries......

Should Hosni's bid to be head of UNESCO succeed, as is likely, it could obscure the truly virulent prejudice that passes for cultural understanding among the Egyptian intelligentsia. Despite his apology for offering to burn books, Hosni told the Egyptian station Dream TV in July that he will oppose normalization with Israel until "two states exist" and the "Palestinian people get their right." And whatever the United Nations decides in the end, his gut feelings about Israel and the Jews are not likely to change.

This follows a widely read open letter by Bernard-Henri Levy, Ellie Wiesel and Claude Lanzman titled "UNESCO: The Shame of a Disaster Foretold." It also focuses on anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish statements by Hosny.

You might also find this exchange of interest:

• "Why I Worry About Farouk Hosny as Candidate for UNESCO Director General"
• "Enough is Enough: A Rebuttal"
• "Response to Comments by Omar Massalha"

Americans for UNESCO has neither endorsed nor opposed any of the eight candidates for UNESCO Director General. This posting should not be so construed, but rather seeks to share two influential publications on the race.

For more information on the election and the candidates, try:

Election of the UNESCO Director General

UNESCO International Conference on Broadcast Media and Climate Change

The International Conference on Broadcast Media and Climate Change: A Public Service Remit will be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, 4 - 5 September 2009.

This high-level international event is organised by UNESCO in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), regional broadcasting unions and other international broadcasting organizations to consider a global consensus to raise public awareness on the challenges of climate change. More

UNESCO KING HAMAD BIN ISA AL-KHALIFA PRIZE FOR THE USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION

The Prize consists of a sum of US$25,000 and a diploma to be awarded each year to each of two prize winners.

The Prize is awarded to individuals, institutions, other entities or non-governmental organizations for excellent models, best practice, and creative use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance.

Candidatures must be presented by the government of a Member State of UNESCO or an international non-governmental organization, maintaining formal consultative relations with UNESCO and active in the relevant fields covered by the Prize. Each government or international non-governmental organization is entitled to nominate only two candidates per year. A self-nomination cannot be considered.

Deadline for submission: 30 September 2009

Go to the call for nominations.

Information Literacy Resources Directory

The Information Literacy Section of the International Federation of Library Association and Institutions (IFLA) has created this database to record information literacy materials from different parts of the world, on behalf of UNESCO. Librarians, educators and information professionals are invited to participate.

Editorial: UNESCO and the Information Revolution -- The CI Program

One hundred years ago, there were few telephones, and only telephone connection within cities and between some large cities; the first transatlantic calls were still in the future. The first voice radio transmission had been made a couple of years earlier. While the first vacuum tube electronic devices had been invented, there were no transistors much less integrated circuits. There was no television. There were no computers.

Today, according to the ITU, there are a billion and a quarter land line telephones and well over four billion cell phones in operation. Radio and television are ubiquitous, even in developing nations. It is estimated that the number of personal computers in the world reached one billion in 2008 and will reach two billion in 2014. It is estimated that 1.6 billion people use the Internet.

Source of the graph.

While the personal computer and Internet connection are familiar to all the readers of this blog, it may be less obvious that information technology pervades our lives in other ways, from capital intensive instalations such as the data centers that were estimated to utilize half of one percent of the world's electricity in 2005 and the the supercomputers used in industry and research laboratories, to the inexpensive devices that one finds in appliances from wrist watches and home appliances to automobiles.

I suggest that we are no more likely to be able to predict the extent of the information and communications infrastructure one hundred years from now than were our ancestors to predict the extent today. I will predict that a century from now, today will be seen as the midpoint in the Information Revolution, and that the decisions made by society today will be seen as critical to the development of the Information Revolution over the next century.

Implications for UNESCO

The Information Revolution is already revolutionizing education, science, and culture -- sometimes in ways that we find most uncomfortable. As a result, new demands are being made on UNESCO to take on new programmatic challenges, and given the limitation of resources, to abandon some old priorities.

I want to direct this posting to the Communications and Information Program. That Program has leadership within the United Nations system in several key aspects of the Information Revolution.

• While the ITU has leadership in telecommunications, UNESCO seems the appropriate agency to lead in information technology, including computers and software. Most of the billion personal computers in the world are in rich countries, while most people are in poor countries. UNESCO should lead in the intellectual exploration of how to bridge this digital divide.
• While the world is awash with digital content, there is a dearth of content relevant to the needs of huge numbers of people in developing nations. Those people need content in languages they understand, relevant to the problems they face and resources they possess, available in forms they will use, delivered via media they will use. UNESCO should lead as the world figures out how better to deliver content to the poor majority of its inhabitants.
• Information increasingly resides in cyberspace, but cyberspace is so new that the global community has not yet institutionalized the systems to organize cyberspace appropriately. UNESCO should lead the global intellectual effort to figure out how best to create the institutions needed for the global society to best utilize cyberspace for the storage, organization and dissemination of information.
• UNESCO has since its founding been a bastion for the protection of freedom of expression and freedom of the press, as well as a bulwark against the propaganda of coercive governments, and these functions are perhaps increasingly important due to the Information Revolution.

The new Director General, to be chosen by the Executive Board next month and ratified by the General Conference in October, should have a strong intellectual understanding of the importance of these issues, the charisma to lead UNESCO to make rapid progress in facing them, and the humility to recognize that a very strong team within UNESCO and network outside UNESCO should be created to deal with them. He/she should be able to develop a resource base to allow UNESCO to act much more effectively than it can now on these issues

John Daly

(The opinions expressed above are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

Visit of Director General to the United States

UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura visited the United States in June, During that visit he met with senior American officials to discuss new avenues for collaboration in the fields of education, culture and science.

Mr Matsuura meet with Dr Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. I quote from UNESCO's report of the visit:

Mr Matsuura first briefed Ms Brimmer on UNESCO’s work in education, especially higher education. He highlighted the Organization’s action to promote quality assurance and the mutual recognition of qualifications in response to the massive increase in student mobility and cross-border provision. Again, the Director-General pointed to the need for US engagement. He referred in particular to the role the US could play in enhancing the quality of science education and research and in attracting more young people to the sciences. “While student numbers are rising overall, enrolment in science and technology is on the decline; we must work together to curb this trend, which has serious implications for national development and economic growth”, Mr Matsuura stated. The Director-General said that this was an area where UNESCO was looking to partner both with governments and with private sector companies, citing the successful example of the UNESCO/L’Oréal initiative to promote women in science. Ms Brimmer noted that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had just established an office specifically devoted to advancing public private partnerships (PPPs)........

Finally, Mr Matsuura briefly outlined UNESCO’s normative action in the field of bioethics. The Director-General explained that UNESCO had established three international instruments which together provided a set of universal standards and practical guidelines (the 1997 Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights; the 2003 International Declaration on Human Genetic Data; and the 2005 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights). However, he said that the ethical implications of many new scientific developments still needed to be discussed, such as human cloning and stem-cell research, in particular induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells).

While in Washington, the Director-General also spoke with Dr John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Dr Jane Lubchenco, Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. He underlined the vital importance of US partnership in several UNESCO priority areas, from science policy advice and capacity-building in developing countries to ocean governance and the monitoring of climate change impacts. “For UNESCO to expand its science programme we need the involvement of the US science community – its expertise, its creativity, its entrepreneurship”, the Director-General underscored.

Read more:

Editorial: The UIS should post data on Google Fusion Tables

The UNESCO Institute of Statistics is an important repository for international statistics on education, science, culture and communications and information.

Google has provided the Fusion Data website to facilitate sharing and visualization of data. It is an experimental system for data management in the cloud. It draws on the expertise of folks within Google Research who have been studying collaboration, data integration, and user requirements from a variety of domains.

Thus Google Fusion Data offers the possibility to users to easily combine data from various sources, and to visualize that data using charts, maps, etc. Public information already available on the site includes country GDP and Child Survival.

Adding publicly available data from UNESCO would help contribute to public understanding of UNESCO's key concerns as people used the facilities, help social scientists to carry out statistical analyses, and help public policy makers to do analyses using the data more quickly and easily.

Read the Google Research Blog posting on Fusion Tables

Take the Guided Tour

This seems like a no brainer, and a great partnership between UNESCO and a leading American firm.

From Remarks by Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer

"We were pleased and deeply honored to win a seat on the Human Rights Council itself, and we pledge to be strong advocates of the principles that President Obama outlined yesterday.

"Those principles which are clearly articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are also rooted in ideals that we share in the United States and that we continue to try to realize. Sometimes painfully. Sometimes with difficulty. But succeeding generations of Americans have addressed these issues.

"We realize, as the phrase is used, that it’s been a long time coming. Some of the issues we’ve discussed today reveal the long distance we still have to travel before we can rest. While the U.S. treasures its freedoms, embraces its rich diversity and celebrates its history of struggle and progress, we know the struggle continues.

"In joining the Human Rights Council we accept a role in reshaping and help direct the Council, along with other members. We also know that it’s been too often distracted by attention to a single conflict and too often has not been able to address all the issues of genuine international human rights concern."

David Killion Sworn In as U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO

David Killion was sworn in yesterday as the new American Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UNESCO. The oath to support the Constitution of the United States was administered by the Under Secretary of State. Ambassador Killion acknowledged the support of his wife, who coincidentally he met first in Paris, and of his mother, a teacher, and his father, a chemist. His acceptance speech was a reprise of the message he provided to the Congress at his confirmation hearing.

The ceremony was held in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department. It seems fitting that the Ambassador to UNESCO was sworn in in a room named after Franklin, who was among other things America's first great scientist, a writer whose autobiography and sayings are still read today, the founding President of the Academy which eventually became the University of Pennsylvania, the founder of the first public lending library in America, one of America's most accomplished and successful diplomats who loved Paris (where UNESCO is headquartered), a newspaper publisher and generally a man who exemplified in his lifetime the spirit of UNESCO.

Incidentally, the diplomatic rooms of the State Department are beautiful, furnished with American antiques from the 18th century of great beauty and value.

The ceremony was well attended, with perhaps 100 people in the audience. As I waited in line to get through the security screening needed to enter the State Department I had the pleasure of meeting Ivonne Baki, a candidate for Director General of UNESCO, who was directly in front of me. I also had the pleasure of chatting with the couple standing directly behind me, Bob Kahn (one of the inventors of the Internet) and his wife, Patrice Lyons (one of the members of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO). I suspect that many of the others who attended the ceremony were comparably distinguished.

IFAP Project E Government Model for World Heritage Cities Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, Quito, Ecuador and Cusco, Perú

Biosphere Connections: Partnership Among the Star Alliance, UNESCO-MAB, Ramsar and IUCN

Established with the objective of promoting nature conservation and sustainable development, the Biosphere Connections partnership was launched in 2007 by the Global Airline coalition "Star Alliance" together with UNESCO-MAB, Ramsar Wetlands and IUCN.

Through Biosphere Connections, the Star Alliance will support UNESCO-MAB, Ramsar and IUCN in their conservation efforts and especially the local field scientists who conserve and manage biosphere reserves, wetlands, national parks and world heritage sites around the world. Similarly, UNESCO-MAB, Ramsar and IUCN will help Star Alliance airlines to further improve their environmental performance and their commitment to sustainable social and economic development, in the communities they serve and beyond.

Read more!

Read the RAMSAR press release on the program.

Visit the Biosphere Connections website!

SHSviews 25

UNESCO Social and Human Sciences Sector Magazine

Interview with Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Vice-President of the Permanent Forum of Arab-African Dialogue / Faced with the crisis: MOST, the think tank of nations / Dossier – Focus on Peru – July-September 2009 (English | Français)

"Africa Analysis: Harnessing the scientific diaspora"

An article in SciDev.Net states:

The African Scientific Institute (ASI), a California-based networking organisation, recently hosted a conference to discuss how best to mobilise the diaspora. The meeting, held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, from 29 June to 1 July, asked the African Union (AU) to give the ASI a formal role in this mobilisation.

ASI's wish may be granted. This week (26 July–1 August) AU research, technology and human resources commissioner, Jean-Pierre Ezin, will visit ASI representatives in the United States to discuss how ASI can help overseas African scientists contribute to the continent's science programmes.

If the ASI gets that honour, it may be joined by South Africa. The AU and other African institutions — including the Economic Commission for Africa and the local branch of UNESCO — are all endorsing a South Africa-funded project to promote networking with the diaspora.

The United State Government Owes UNESCO a Lot of Money!

One of the problems faced by UNESCO is that its member nations do not make their assessed contributions to the Organization on time. The United States is the worst offender, and the problem is compounded by the fact that the United States as the world's richest country has the largest assessed contributions.

A document prepared for the September meeting of UNESCO's Executive Board states:

Since 80% of the total of contributions assessed for 2009 was payable by the 12 largest contributor Member States, the dates when these major contributions are received are of crucial importance for the Organization’s cash situation. The first table gives summarized information on the contributions of these 12 Member States as at 30 June 2009:

The assessed contributions for 2009 are $316 million, and were due in January. Thus the U.S. arrears represent a considerable portion of the funding of the organization, and must been seen as causing considerable difficulties in management and performance.

A Factoid from the History of U.S. Involvement with UNESCO

Myrna Loy, the actress who won an Academy Award for her lifetime career achievement in films, became a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO in 1948, the first Hollywood celebrity to do so.

She was married from 1950 ro 1961 to Howland H. Sargeant, the only American to serve as Chairman of the General Conference of UNESCO (6th Session, 1951).

Time magazine reported at time of the General Conference:

A Republican charge that Cinemactress Myrna Loy and her new State Department husband Howland H. Sargeant had enjoyed a Paris honeymoon at government expense is just not so, declared Georgia's Democratic Congressman Prince Preston Jr. The bridegroom did indeed travel on government funds because he was on an official mission; the honeymoon was coincidental and he paid his wife's bills. Besides, Preston added, since conferences frequently started at 8 a.m. and lasted until 2 a.m., "Paris turned out to be a mighty poor place to spend a honeymoon."

Sargeant, a Rhodes Scholar, was a career diplomat who became Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs before leaving government to run Radio Liberation, which broadcast to the Soviet Union.

Shirley Malcom on Mondongo Jury

Shirley M. Malcom, Head of Education and Human Resources of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was one of five jurors selecting finalists for the Mondialogo Engineering Award by Daimler and UNESCO.

The finalists for the Mondialogo Engineering Award 2009 were selected in Stuttgart. An international jury of experts nominated 30 teams and their project ideas for the finale of the worldwide contest for engineering students organized by Daimler and UNESCO. Participants from 28 countries will be represented in the finale, among them American students from universities in Berkeley, Bethlehem, El Paso, Greensboro, Madison, Mesa, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Stanford, West Lafayette and Worcester. The finalist teams will take part in the Mondialogo Symposium from November 6 - 9, 2009 in Stuttgart, where they will receive their Awards. These will be presented in three categories: gold awards worth Euro 15,000, silver and bronze awards worth Euro 10,000 and Euro 5,000 respectively. The total award prize money is Euro 300,000 in this third round of the Mondialogo Engineering Award. Engineering students from 94 countries have submitted a total of 932 project ideas, which are focused on addressing climate change, sustainable development, and the eradication of poverty in developing countries.

International Day of the World's Indigenous People

Each year August 9th is dedicated to celebration of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, an event proclaimed by the United Nations.

Links to Some Relevant sites

United Nations

• International Day of the World's Indigenous People
• Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
• Global Issues on the UN Agenda - Indigenous people
• Task Force on Indigenous Women(IANWGE)
• Indigenous peoples (UN Cyberschoolbus)
• Indigenous children in Australia (UN Works)

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

• Indigenous Peoples
• Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations
• Voluntary Fund for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People
• Working Group on Indigenous Populations

Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People: 9 August 2009

A Voice for Indigenous Peoples

The United Nation's International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples was commemorated on Wednesday 9 August 2006. Video: Esras Films and the European Commission

Social Networks Devoted to UNESCO & Links related to the Election of the New DG

One of the members of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO and a contributor to this blog, John Daly, is also a manager of the UNESCO's Friends group on LinkedIn. That group was originally created by a UNESCO staff member. It has now reached nearly 500 members, including a candidate for the post of Director General of UNESCO, some UNESCO staff, and a number of diplomatic experts on the organization as well as a cross section of people from many countries interested in UNESCO.

Other social networks that deal with UNESCO include:

• Orkut: UNESCO
• Facebook: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s Notes
  

The Americans for UNESCO Twitter feed now has more than 1,500 followers, and has made more than 2,000 tweets.

Of special interest may be two of his recent contributions to the information on the election of the new Director General of UNESCO:

• Election of the Director General of UNESCO, a compilation of information on the current candidates, the process of the election, and news on the candidates.
• Why I Worry About Farouk Hosny as Candidate for UNESCO Director General, a review of the published charges about the Egyptian candidate for the post as a posting on the blog Thoughts About K4D.

Senate Hearing on David Killion

David Killion has been nominated by the Obama administration to serve as the U.S. Permanent Representative to UNESCO. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing today on his nomination, as part of the confirmatin process. Killion has many years of experience in the State Department and as a Congressional aid, and deep knowledge of UNESCO. It is expected that he will be quickly confirmed.

Read his statement to the committee!

You can also watch the hearing on streaming video. Mr. Killion is one of several nominees, and during the video he reads from his prepared statement and responds to a question from Senator Barbara Boxer with regard to the poor educational opportunities for girls in Afghanistan. Killion responded to the effect that UNESCO focuses on gender issues and that it can be even more credible than bilateral efforts in promoting education in some circumstances; he pledged to work on girls education in Afghanistan if confirmed.

Only two Senators participated in the hearing, which Senator Boxer interpreted as a good sign for the nominees since there were few if any concerns about their nominations. She indicated that a vote was scheduled on the nominations on August 4th, prior to the August Congressional recess.

World Conference on Science

Ten years after the World Conference on Science, which was jointly organised by ICSU and UNESCO, the two organisations are again joining forces together with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to sponsor the World Science Forum 2009 in Budapest on 5–7 November 2009. Several hundred scientists and policy makers are expected to attend the conference, which has the theme ‘Knowledge and Future’. The ICSU President and Vice-President will give plenary presentations on the past and future perspectives for science and the ICSU Regional Offices will also be represented.

Election of the Director General of UNESCO

The new Director General of UNESCO is to be elected in the Fall of 2009. Nine people were nominated by member nations and their candidacies are to be considered by the Executive Board, with the final election by the General Conference on the basis of the Board's recommendation. A website, using a blogging platform, provides an overview of the process and information on the eight active candidates. Comments are permitted.

Click here for more information on the Election!

Some Reports Published by UNESCO

Report of a UNESCO: Expert Workshop on Science and Technology, Innovation and Development

The Comparative Analysis of National Research Systems: report of the Symposium

Innovation for Development: Converting Knowledge to Value; summary report

Knowledge and Power: Actors, Organizations and Systems in the Pursuit of Change

Modes of Knowledge and Patterns of Power

Knowledge, Power, and Politics: The Role of an Intellectual in an Age of Transition

Clubs for UNESCO: a practical guide

"This updated guide is designed for every individual with a desire to contribute to a worldwide movement. It is a basic how-to manual for setting up a Club for UNESCO. It addresses each of us, as individuals and as groups, who wish to be part of humanity’s solution and believe in a sustainable global community that can think globally and act locally. This guide also provides basic information on UNESCO’s ideals and offers general ideas on how to maximize a community’s outreach capacity."

Click here to download the guide!

The Right to Information in Latin America: A Comparative Legal Survey

This legal survey, published by UNESCO’s Office in Quito, compares the existing right to information laws in 11 Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

Go to the report website!

The New Issue of The UNESCO Courier

© Laurent Testot

Man and Nature: living in harmony

2009 - Number 6

Of the 32 billion tons of CO2 we produce globally, our natural ecosystems can absorb approximately 18 million tons. Without this natural sponge, the global ecological situation would be far more desperate.

In the past 30 years the planet’s natural resources have diminished by 30% - due to over-consumption, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

This month’s edition focuses on several of the 22 new biosphere reserves within UNESCO’s world network, which now has a total of 553 sites. Scattered among 107 countries, these vast regions consist of land, coastal and marine ecosystems internationally recognized as important.

Maintaining biodiversity, finding the right balance between human activities and environmental protection, safeguarding inhabitants’ traditional rights and preserving wildlife: these constitute the main challenges for the sustainable management of these sites. Read the editorial.

The World Science Forum 2009

The Fourth World Science Forum, organised by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in partnership with UNESCO and ICSU. is to be held in Budapest on 5-7 November 2009. The Forum - focusing on "Knowledge and Future" - will mark the tenth anniversary of the first World Conference on Science. It will also look forward and give us a strategic vision of the future of science in the global society of the 21st century.

"Writers, poets take part in book festival"

Source: RACHEL GALLEGOS • IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN • JULY 19, 2009

Iowa City has been designated by UNESCO as a city of the book, and this month's book fair there is conducted in part in honor of that designation.

"Writers around the world know that Iowa City is a center for writing, Christopher Merrill said Saturday.

"Iowans throughout the state, however, might not think of the city in the same way, said Merrill, the director of the University of Iowa International Writing Program who led the efforts to designate Iowa City as a UNESCO City of Literature.

"Sharing Iowa City's literary qualities with the state and beyond is one of the goals as the city and supporters determine how to build upon the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization designation, Merrill said.

"Merrill was one of a number of writers and poets to participate in the first Iowa City Book Festival on Saturday, a daylong celebration of books, reading and writing presented by the University of Iowa Libraries."

Read more!

Venus Williams & UNESCO: A Program to Empower Women

Source: "There is more to Venus Williams than meets the eye," Helene Elliott, The Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2009.

What most fans don't know is that behind the scenes the world's third-ranked player is just as powerful as she is on the court.

Williams has successfully pushed for equal prize money for women, helped formulate a better-calibrated tour schedule and was a key figure in a joint program between the WTA and UNESCO -- the cultural arm of the United Nations -- that promotes gender equality and leadership opportunities for women.

The idea for the UNESCO program emerged from her experience at an ESPY awards ceremony in which two Afghan women were honored for starting a soccer program in their war-torn homeland. The UNESCO-WTA program uses tennis as a vehicle to educate women around the world, making the sport a steppingstone to a better and fuller life.

Click here for image source (Vibe).

For News and Views on UNESCO

I recommend the following two resources for people interested in UNESCO:

• UNESCO's Friends group on LinkedIn
• The Americans for UNESCO Twitter site

Call for bids: Evaluation of UNESCO's STI Capacity Building Project

UNESCO invites qualified bidders to submit sealed tenders for consulting services to carry out the Evaluation of UNESCO's Strategic Programme Objective 4: "Fostering policies and capacity-building in science, technology and innovation".

The deadline for the proposal submission is 31 July 2009, 17h00 (GMT+1).

Click here for more information.

Call for proposals to prepare UNESCO's pavilion at the ITU Telecom World 2009

UNESCO calls for design proposals to prepare a pavilion on the theme "Empowering persons with disabilities through Information and Communication Technologies" which will be established at ITU Telecom World 2009 exhibition (Pal Expo premises) from 5 to 9 October 2005, Geneva, Switzerland.

Nominations sought for UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication

UNESCO has launched a call for nominations for the 2009 UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication. Potential submitters are invited to propose nominations in consultation with the National Commissions for UNESCO or with relevant non-governmental organizations maintaining consultative relations with UNESCO. The deadline for submitting nominations is 30 October 2009.

Read more!

the Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress and its Applications

UNESCO will conduct and international experts meeting on this theme together with the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC), and in cooperation with the Amsterdam Centre for International Law and the Irish Centre for Human Rights in addition to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Location: Venice, Italy

Start Date	16-07-2009
End Date	17-07-2009

Microsoft Commits $50 Million in Higher Education Resources, Training and Certifications

Gates & Matsuura at 2004 signing

In an effort to help higher education institutions support economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies, Microsoft Corp. has committed up to $50 million through the Microsoft Education Alliance Program agreement. As part of the agreement, the company will provide resources and tools for short-term work-force training and higher education enhancements.

The announcement was made at the Education Leaders Forum, a one-day forum jointly organized by UNESCO and Microsoft, where more than 150 ministers of education, senior education officials and policy advisors discussed how governments and universities can take full advantage of e-technology's potential to address the current knowledge and skills challenges facing higher education.

Earlier this week, Microsoft and UNESCO announced a joint task force to help higher education institutions worldwide meet the growing challenge of supporting economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies. The UNESCO-Microsoft Task Force on Higher Education and ICT will develop a strategic plan of action to identify how ICT can be used by governments as a catalyst for change. Microsoft's $50 million commitment is supporting the mission of the new task force and enabling the implementation of critical UNESCO and Microsoft educational resources.

Read more!

Lula Wins UNESCO Peace Prize

The Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize is awarded this year to Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, President of the Federal Republic of Brazil. The prize includes a gold medal and $150,000. Henry Kissinger is the President of the Jury that selects the prize winner. The prize is to be awarded in a ceremony on July 7th.

New Edition Is Now Out

A World of Science (July–September 2009)

IN FOCUS
2 Mission to Mars

NEWS
11 Disaster risk on the rise, says UN report
11 Twenty-two new biosphere reserves
13 Cape Verde joins virtual campus network
13 A digital library for the world
14 World Atlas of Great Apes now in French

INTERVIEW
15 Claudio Tuniz traces human migration out of Africa

HORIZONS
18 Learning to live with drought in Europe
21 A pinch of salt

IN BRIEF
24 Diary
24 New releases

Call for Papers

The EPFL - UNESCO Chair International Scientific Conference on Technologies for Development

EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland
8 - 10 February 2010

The UNESCO Chair in Technologies for Development, the Cooperation@epfl unit, has announced that an international scientific conference concerning technologies for development will take place at EPFL on 8-10 February 2010 and is calling for papers for that conference.

Read more!

Anecdote from UNESCO's History

Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk
present their Nobel Peace Prizes.

Source: "South Africa: Zapiro - 'Zapping' for Democracy," Annar Cassam, Pambazuka News via AllAfrica.com, 4 June 2009.

In 1993, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk.

The exact logic behind this type of tandem awarding is difficult to understand for such gestures place the aggressors and their victims on the same level. They also degrade the achievements and the sacrifices of the victims while glorifying their former oppressors for doing nothing more than bowing to the inevitable.

It was Roelf 'Pik' Botha, de Klerk's foreign minister, who in a BBC documentary about the end of apartheid shown in 1996, related the friendly advice given to his government by their erstwhile Western allies: 'You people stink! Get rid of that bad smell of apartheid and then we can associate with you.'

In the case of the Mandela/de Klerk prize, the joint award caused real confusion in the minds of many outside South Africa who were not privy to the intricacies of the political negotiations between the ANC and the white government which went on for four long years before the first democratic elections were held in April 1994.

Many members of the international community were led to imagine that Mandela and de Klerk had descended hand-in-hand from on high on a pink cloud which had landed in South Africa where, magically, the aged freedom-fighter was welcomed home by the big-hearted boer so that they could together live in peace, love and harmony for ever after.

In October 1993, six months before the uhuru elections of April 1994, a high-level ANC delegation, led by Nelson Mandela, came to UNESCO headquarters in Paris to address the executive board, the organisation's policy -making body. The delegation, which included Thabo Mbeki and Bantu Holomisa among others, was very warmly welcomed by the UNESCO audience - but all eyes were on Mandela. He was in excellent form, as elegant, dignified and courteous as ever, but now very much the president-to-be, bearing a palpable aura of calm authority.

In a speech of just 15 minutes, he put to rest the 'pink cloud ' theory in the first sentence and then went on to to explain the changes that were underway and in simple language described where the ANC had come from, the reasons for, and strategy behind its negotiating position and, above all, the ANC's priorities for a post-apartheid society in South Africa. This is what he said:

Editorial Comment: One of UNESCO's key functions is to provide a forum forum for discussion. Sometimes UNESCO's discussions deal with education, science, culture or communications and information, but sometimes, as in this case, UNESCO can provide an international forum for discussions focusing on the peaceful resolution of conflicts. JAD

Secretary Salazar Wants Everglades National Park to Return to Endangered List

Source: Kurt Repanshek, National Parks Traveler, June 24th, 2009.

"Righting what he calls a wrong of the Bush administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wants Everglades National Park to once again be listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger......

"In a release Wednesday the Interior Department said that 'the Everglades was hastily removed from the list in 2007 at the request of the previous administration without adequate consultations with the National Park Service, the state of Florida and other stakeholders and without appropriate measures in place to evaluate the progress of on-going efforts to restore the South Florida ecosystem.'

“'The Everglades remains one of our world’s most treasured – and most threatened – places,' Secretary Salazar said at a meeting of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force in the department’s Sydney Yates Auditorium. 'The federal government must once again stand up and meet its responsibilities to Everglades restoration so that one day, when we achieve restoration, we can remove the park from the list of sites that in danger. President Obama has already made a major commitment to Everglades restoration in the budget and through the Recovery Act; we will stay focused on this high priority for our nation and the world.'”

Editorial Comment: The request by the United States Government to reverse the 2007 action by the World Heritage Center suggests a serious problem in UNESCO's management. The implication is that UNESCO responded to pressure from the Bush administration to improperly certify that the Everglades were safe, when in fact they continue to be in danger.

If an intergovernmental organization can not stand up to the pressure of any government, even my own, and do the right thing then it sacrifices it most important asset -- credibility. I hope that David Killion, nominated to be U.S. Representative to UNESCO, will make a serious protest at his first opportunity to do so. JAD (The opinion expressed is my own, and does not necessarily represent that of Americans for UNESCO.)

Helene-Marie Gosselin: UNESCO's Liaison with the United Nations

While UNESCO has facilities in some 59 other countries, it does not have a country, cluster or regional office in the United States nor are any of its Category I Institutes located here. It does maintain an office in New York, tasked with liaison with other UN agencies and programs headquartered in that city. Helene-Marie Gosselin is the head of that office. While she is not charged specifically with liaison with U.S. educational, scientific, cultural nor communications communities, she has been a valuable friend,

• Listen to her recent talk (in streaming audio) on UNESCO.
• Read about her talk on "education in emergencies" at Lehigh University

David Killion to be U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO

According to the Associated Press:

David Killion, a senior member of the professional staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was picked to lead the U.S. mission at the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. As an adviser on U.N. issues to the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., Killion worked on the legislation that was passed in 2001 authorizing U.S. re-entry to UNESCO.

Read:

• Mr. Killion's biography
• The White House announcement of the nomination

OECD DAC Recognizes an Increase in UNESCO's Development Aid

The Director-General of UNESCO has been notified that a DAC Working Party has decided to raise the UNESCO ODA coefficient from 25% to 44%, with the change to take effect as from the current year reporting on ODA flows in 2008.

At its May 2009 meeting the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Council (DAC) Working Party on Statistics reviewed and approved a general methodology for assessing official development assistance eligibility (ODA-eligibility) of international agencies and for deriving coefficients for international agencies. This coefficient is designed to assess the percentage of an organization’s activities which contribute to development according to OECD’s definitions.