UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

DEBAT DE POLITIQUE GENERALE (suite)
GENERAL POLICY DEBATE (continued)
DEBATE DE POLÍTICA GENERAL (continuación)
ОБСУЖДЕНИЕ ВОПРОСОВ ОБЩЕЙ ПОЛИТИКИ (продолжение)
1. The PRESIDENT:
Ladies and gentlemen, may I please ask you to be seated. I hereby declare open the fourth plenary
meeting of the 30th session of the General Conference. Before I invite the first speaker on this afternoon’s list, I
wish to remind you again of how important it is to start our meetings on time and to limit the interventions of the
speakers invited to the rostrum to eight minutes. So if I could please ask you to resume your seats, I will call the
first speaker on the list, His Excellency Mr Ludger Volmer, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office of
Germany.
2.1 Mr VOLMER (Germany):
Madam President, Mr Chairperson of the Executive Board, Mr Director-General, distinguished
delegates, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of my government, may I congratulate you, Madam President, on your
election and wish you luck and success in the exercise of your office. I should also like to thank the outgoing
President for his excellent and successful work.
2.2 Mr Director-General, my appreciation goes to you and your staff, both at Headquarters and in the field,
for your outstanding commitment during your term of office. Over the past 12 years, UNESCO has succeeded in
developing a high profile in key areas. Its remarkable achievements have given millions of people courage and
hope for a life in dignity. It has made a major contribution towards preserving peace and has built bridges
between cultures and peoples.
2.3 Madam President, the General Conference at its present session will appoint the next Director-General
of UNESCO. This new Director-General will lead UNESCO into the next millennium. I take this occasion to
convey to Ambassador Matsuura my warmest congratulations on his nomination by the Executive Board. We are
confident that the future Director-General will use his abilities to tackle responsibly the challenges facing our
global Organization.
2.4 Ladies and gentlemen, the watershed of the new millennium presents us with an opportunity to take
stock of UNESCO reform. We believe that reform must in future be at the top of our agenda and that it must start
with the Organization’s structures. The work of the Executive Board is on the right track. A relationship of trust
between the governing bodies – the Executive Board and the General Conference – on the one hand, and the
Secretariat and the Director-General on the other, is of the utmost importance for the work of UNESCO as an
intergovernmental organization. We believe that we need to strengthen the rights of the Executive Board even
further. Only with a strong Executive Board can the Secretariat fulfil its tasks. Closer cooperation on the
Secretariat’s human resources policy is also in the interests of our Organization.
2.5 The Executive Board has time and again dealt with the policy of decentralization. At its 156th session, it
proposed draft guidelines for the rational implementation of decentralization. I appeal to the General Conference
to endorse these guidelines. Such a decision by the General Conference would open the way to dealing with
decentralization in a satisfactory manner.
2.6 Ladies and gentlemen, UNESCO has a comprehensive mandate under which it can develop a great deal
of know-how and bring its particular strengths to bear. Focusing on its strengths does not diminish the
Organization’s importance, on the contrary, it will bring a consolidation which must be at the centre of our joint
reform efforts so that UNESCO can continue to play a key role within the United Nations system. UNESCO shall
act as lead agency of that system within its fields of competence as defined by its Constitution. As far as the
selection of suitable programmes is concerned, we believe that the substance of these programmes must be
geared more closely to UNESCO’s key areas than hitherto and that programme activities should be carried out
exclusively within the appropriate sectors.
2.7 Ladies and gentlemen, UNESCO should implement programme activities in areas in which it has
comparative advantages. Therefore, we should target our resources to UNESCO priorities. In this connection, the
Education Sector is of paramount importance. In this field, in particular, UNESCO can meet its own objective
and identify concrete perspectives for a better life. Despite all efforts there are still close to 1 billion illiterate
people worldwide, two thirds of them women, and 143 million children do not receive any school education
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