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

(6.8) Using the human resources we have trained, with their very high qualifications and ethics, primarily
driven by solidarity with other human beings, Cuba has offered its cooperation to other poor countries in many
fields, in most cases free of charge, and is willing to cooperate with UNESCO by contributing skilled personnel for
any projects so requiring. In Cuba thousands of professionals have been trained for Africa, Asia and Latin America.
More than 15,000 Cuban teachers have provided disinterested educational service in over 20 countries. We are
currently cooperating with several countries in radio literacy campaigns.
(6.9) Our country hosts the biennial Educational Congress, attended by participants from all over the world,
and this event has become a forum where thousands of educators, mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean,
can exchange experiences and break new ground. UNESCO has co-sponsored these forums, with other
international organizations, and sent representatives to other important events held in our country, just as it has
approved funding for several programmes and projects. We favour an increase in the Organization’s budgetary
provision for national and regional activities in the Member States for strengthening participation programmes,
with priority for developing countries and small islands. We think that if the projects executed by the National
Commissions and UNESCO Chairs are supported and strengthened, then the utmost attention can go to the priority
programmes in each country.
(6.10) On behalf of my government, I should like to express our deepest gratitude to Dr Federico Mayor, who
has carried out his work with a strong sense of humanism, honesty, wisdom and enthusiasm, and to express Cuba’s
support for the leadership of the new Director-General.
(6.11) Ladies and gentlemen, Cuba will strive for the consolidation of this Organization since it can contribute
so much to genuine human development, as against the unsustainable world it is being attempted to thrust on us
and for the conversion of UNESCO into a prime forum for making the next century, as proposed by the President
of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba, Fidel Castro, the century of culture in all its forms.
Thank you very much.
7. La PRESIDENTA:
Muchas gracias al Excmo. Sr. Gómez Gutiérrez. Tiene la palabra el Excmo. Sr. Rimantas Slizys,
Viceministro de Educación y Ciencias de Lituania.
(7) The PRESIDENT (Translation from the Spanish):
Thank you, Mr Gómez Gutiérrez. I now give the floor to Mr Rimantas Slizys, Deputy Minister for
Education and Science of Lithuania.
8.1 Mr SLIZYS (Lithuania):
Madam President, representative of the Director-General, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
in the nine years since we became a member of UNESCO our relationship with the Organization has developed
very rapidly and successfully. At the 29th session of the General Conference Lithuania was elected to the
Executive Board and has been actively involved in the work of the different UNESCO sectors.
8.2 Lithuania has joined the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, establishing two new Chairs in 1998,
a Chair in culture management and culture policies and a Chair in international relations and European studies.
The first Chair in informatics for humanitarians was launched in 1996.
8.3 The visibility of UNESCO in our country has considerably improved thanks to UNESCO radio which
has been broadcasting a weekly programme since February 1998. A parliamentary group of friendship with
UNESCO has been created this year and three UNESCO Clubs and five Associated Schools help disseminate the
image and aims of the Organization in Lithuanian society.
8.4 We are grateful to UNESCO for the support granted to our Ministry of Education and Science in the
field of civic education and hope that this cooperation will be reinforced in the future. The need for such
cooperation was emphasized during the regional seminar organized by UNESCO, our Ministry of Education and
Science and the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights in 1998. We would like to propose further training and
qualification improvement of civic education teachers, further translation of UNESCO materials and the
development of activities within the framework of the universal ethics project and support for regional initiatives
to strengthen democracy. In this context, as in other fields, specific contributions under the Participation
Programme are of particular importance for my country.
8.5 Lithuania welcomes UNESCO’s initiative in the field of the oral and intangible heritage and the decision
to establish criteria for selection and preservation as well as to grant an award to its masterpieces.
8.6 We are paying great attention to the follow-up of the UNESCO World Conferences on Cultural Policies
for Development, Higher Education, Technical and Vocational Education and Science held in Stockholm, Paris,
Seoul and Budapest. The possibility of testing the main trends and mechanisms of the reform of education and
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