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

(27.1) Mr BEYDOUN (Lebanon) (Translation from the Arabic):
Mr President, Mr Chairperson of the Executive Board, Mr Representative of the Director-General, Your
Excellencies, heads of delegation, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure for me, on behalf of Lebanon, to wish this
30th session of the General Conference every success in its work under the judicious guidance of its President,
Ms Moserová. I congratulate her on her election to her important office. It is also a pleasure for me that Lebanon’s
participation in this session, as in previous sessions of the Conference, is based on the firm conviction that
UNESCO’s mission and Lebanon’s mission in the world are complementary in many areas, including, most
notably, democracy, freedom, human rights, intercultural dialogue and interfaith encounter. Consequently, it is
UNESCO, more than any other international organization, that is present in the mind of every Lebanese in the
course of his or her everyday life. Indeed, there is an entire quarter of Beirut that is known as the UNESCO
Quarter, to remind successive generations and the population in general of the close relationship with Lebanon that
was created when UNESCO was founded, a relationship that has continued strong and firm to this day, and there is
every indication that it will become ever stronger and more enduring with the passage of time. I would like to see
every State that esteems UNESCO’s mission name a square, a street or a district in its capital after our
Organization, in order to help secure recognition for it and its mission of service to the world.
(27.2) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, every time the General Conference meets, the same problems occupy
its attention: ignorance, illiteracy, poverty, hunger, disease, pollution, disasters, disaster preparedness, response to
disaster, and so on. These are problems that have always beset humanity, and certainly there will be no end to the
task of dealing with them. Whether old or new, these are perennial problems, and the unceasing efforts to cope with
them must inevitably be inadequate. There can be no denying, however, that UNESCO has done impressive work
at all levels in the areas of culture, education, science, information and communication; there is no aspect of human
civilization that it has neglected, and there are no problems that it has failed to address, in some cases in depth and
with deliberation, in others more lightly and quickly, depending on its resources and capabilities.
(27.3) Mr President, over the years UNESCO has directed the world’s attention to the great issues of our time
by organizing a number of important international conferences: Jomtien on education, Rio de Janeiro on the
environment, Cairo on population, Stockholm on cultural policies, Beijing on women, Seoul on technical and
vocational education, Budapest on science, and so on. All these conferences have served to enhance the world’s
awareness of the need to address these issues without delay, and resolutions of great significance have been
adopted at the conclusion of each of them. But when it comes to the implementation of these resolutions, what do
we find? There can be no doubt that in all cases implementation has fallen far short of expectations, and
consequently I agree with the Executive Board that from now on greater attention should be paid to the
implementation of such resolutions than to the adoption of more of them. When resolutions go unimplemented, the
international conferences that adopt them lose credibility. That is why we hear so much about a “crisis of
confidence” in the world, which is in fact the result of the vast disparity between what is said and what is actually
done. In view of this situation, I urge UNESCO, when preparing its Medium-Term Strategy, to concentrate on the
implementation of resolutions and recommendations adopted by past international conferences, and the narrowing
of the gap between intention and action. There is a new culture that is emerging from international conferences, and
I would like to see the next Medium-Term Strategy take that culture into account as well: I call it “the culture of
preparedness” – preparedness, that is, to confront disasters, injustice and aggression, all social and health-related
problems, whether long-festering or newly arisen, and natural disasters. Now that foretelling the future has become
a science, there is no reason why the world should be taken by surprise by problems which we know are bound to
arise sooner or later.
(27.4) With reference to UNESCO’s educational, scientific, cultural and communication-related programmes, I
have only three comments to make. In the first place, in the field of education, despite the efforts that have been
made in all countries, and despite UNESCO’s repeated calls, backed by reports and figures, education, for most
States, still has lower priority than other areas. For that reason, I should like to see UNESCO’s next Medium-Term
Strategy concentrate more on an effort to induce States and international and national organizations to give
education top priority. Education is the key to peace, security, development, environmental protection and, in
general, the enhancement of the quality of life.
(27.5) In the second place, concerning the field of culture, globalization and its attendant dangers and
advantages are being widely discussed nowadays. I suggest that UNESCO has a twofold role to play here. On the
one hand, it should work to eradicate the “culture of struggle”, the concept according to which the culture of recent
centuries is based on a “struggle of civilizations” or a “class struggle” or a “struggle between the people’s interests
and national interests”. I am happy to inform you that in 2001 Lebanon will be hosting a world conference on
dialogue between cultures. As regards the other aspect, namely the promotion of the culture of peace, I shall not be
exaggerating if I say that Lebanon is among the States that desire that culture most ardently. It was the city of
Jubayl (the ancient Byblos), in Lebanon, that gave the world the alphabet, thousands of years ago, and it was in that
same city of Byblos, at the International Centre for Human Sciences there, that the International Year for the
Culture of Peace between nations was proclaimed last 14 September. UNESCO also proclaimed the Year. But in
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