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

7.1 The PRESIDENT:
Your Excellency, Mr President, I thank you most warmly, I am sure on behalf of everybody in this
room. You certainly had a highly appreciative audience and we cherish your words of wisdom, your knowledge
and the information you have given us. We thank you most deeply for having come to our gathering.
7.2 I shall now suspend the meeting for a few minutes, but request delegates to remain seated and not leave
the room. Thank you.
(The meeting is suspended for a few minutes while the President of Zimbabwe leaves the room)
(Mr Beydoun, Lebanon, takes the chair)
DEBAT DE POLITIQUE GENERALE (suite)
GENERAL POLICY DEBATE (continued)
DEBATE DE POLÍTICA GENERAL (continuación)
ОБСУЖДЕНИЕ ВОПРОСОВ ОБЩЕЙ ПОЛИТИКИ (продолжение)
:
(8) The PRESIDENT (Translation from the Arabic):
Ladies and gentlemen, please return to your seats. Ladies and gentlemen, after these most interesting and
valuable remarks by His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe, it is time to return to the work that we
have to do this morning. We shall now hear from heads of delegation. I begin by calling on the representative of
Ghana, Mr Harry Blavo, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Ghana to UNESCO. You have the floor, Sir.
9.1 Mr BLAVO (Ghana):
Mr President, Mr Director-General, Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies
and gentlemen, my delegation and I bring you warm greetings from the Government and people of Ghana. Like
the speakers before me I wish to congratulate Ms Moserová on her election to the presidency of the 30th session
of the UNESCO General Conference. Judging by the able manner in which she has conducted the business of this
Conference so far, I have no doubt that, under her wise guidance, the 30th session of the UNESCO General
Conference will achieve great success.
9.2 Mr President, I wish to express Ghana’s deepest appreciation to the outgoing Director-General,
Dr Federico Mayor, for his dedicated service to UNESCO and for his unflinching support to the nation-building
efforts of the developing countries in this Organization. During his 12-year tenure of office, there has been
considerable improvement in the administration of the Organization and a notable contribution has been made
towards the realization of the objectives of UNESCO’s ideals. Within the last couple of years, UNESCO has
successfully organized three world conferences, on higher education, on science, and on technical and vocational
education. We also commend the Director-General for his initiative that resulted in the UNESCO Declaration on
the Culture of Peace, which was unanimously adopted on 13 September 1999 by the United Nations General
Assembly. My delegation also notes with appreciation that one of the fruits of his keen foresight led to the
UNESCO Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights that has enhanced awareness of the need for
ethical guidelines for scientific work, including cloning and other forms of genetic engineering.
9.3 Mr President, with respect to the Draft Programme and Budget for the 2000-2001 biennium, Ghana
associates itself with the other Member States in congratulating the Director-General and his staff for the
excellent work done. In a period during which a good number of countries and international organizations find
themselves in dire financial straits, UNESCO must focus more sharply on its mandate and strive to strengthen its
drive to attract more extrabudgetary resources for its programmes. That a determined attempt has been made in
this direction in document 30 C/5 is a clear affirmation of the efforts of UNESCO to find solutions to some of the
problems that confront the Organization as we move into a new year, a new century and a new millennium. The
document further attests to the fact that UNESCO has come to grips with the persistent problems of poverty
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