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

develop concepts that may finally realize sustainable development, a sustainable society for all citizens of this
world.
12.13 The new UNESCO’s developing knowledge system must include specific expertise to support the debate
on the themes mentioned above. The taking of office of the new Director-General constitutes an exciting, ideal
opportunity to start the debate on these themes. Development-oriented indicators on participation in culture, on
copyright and intellectual property, on the accessibility of scientific knowledge, are examples of such expertise.
The founding of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics - initially concentrating on international indicators on
education - is an example of how UNESCO already is adapting to new knowledge dynamics. Synergy with
partners will be one of UNESCO’s strengths.
12.14 To summarize, I would like to say the following. A new UNESCO in a new century will be a global
powerhouse generating development concepts for a new world. As such, it must and should primarily be a global
knowledge system, producing these concepts in close debate with national governments and NGOs and in
synergy with the United Nations, OECD and the World Bank. This would therefore provide input to development
projects. UNESCO’s own projects should be supportive, but should be secondary to the Organization’s main task
of developing and managing knowledge. Above all, a new UNESCO will be characterized by a pragmatic, nonpolitical
approach to the problems put before it by the world community. The Netherlands is looking forward to
participating actively in building a new UNESCO as a Member of the Executive Board. We would therefore be
grateful for your support in the elections that will take place next week.
12.15 As the cold war ended, some spoke about “the end of history”. By now we know all too well that history
has by no means ended. The new century before us will, let me assure you, be a century replete with history. A
new UNESCO may be crucial in ensuring that this history-in-the-making will be more humane than that which we
lived through in the scarred century behind us. What could be a finer mandate? I wish the new Director-General
every success. Thank you.
13. The PRESIDENT:
I should like to thank His Excellency, the Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science of the
Netherlands, who shared with us so much and precisely within his time limit. I hope the others will follow his
example. I also admired many of the things he said, but I liked three words that he used, with his excellent
command of English. I am not sure whether those words could be easily translated into the other UNESCO
languages. He used them when he said about UNESCO that there should be some soul-searching; that the
Organization is top-heavy, and, what I specially liked, that we have to be millennium-proof. I think that is his
own invention; I think that we should be even better than millennium-proof. Thank you, Sir. I shall now call on
Ms Carmen Jarvis, Secretary-General of the Guyana National Commission for UNESCO.
14.1 Ms JARVIS (Guyana):
Madam President, Mr Chairperson of the Executive Board, Mr Director-General, Excellencies,
distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, permit me on behalf of the Guyana delegation and on my own
behalf to offer our distinguished President our warmest congratulations on her election as President of the
General Conference. We are indeed confident, Madam, that with your skills and your vast experience and
wisdom you will guide our deliberations to a successful conclusion. I bring the greetings of the Government of
Guyana in the absence of my Minister.
14.2 Madam President, UNESCO is an organization which can be justly proud of the excellent contribution it
has made through education, science, culture and communication to the intellectual and cultural development of
people in this latter part of the present millennium. The validity of the Organization’s objectives has been proved
by the services it has been able to render in promoting development in Member States as well as in fulfilling the
ethical mission assigned to it by its Constitution. It has shown that it can seek to correct blatant inequalities by
engaging in concrete action while dealing at the same time with ethical concerns, like bioethics and genetic
research, that will benefit all the people of the world.
14.3 I wish at this time to pay tribute to the one who, for more than a decade, has been at the helm of the
UNESCO ship and has guided it skilfully through troubled waters and calm. I refer to the Director-General, His
Excellency Mr Federico Mayor who has wisely maintained the balance between the factors leading to economic
development and those pertinent to the ethical role of the Organization. We express deep appreciation to
Mr Mayor for having steered this UNESCO ship with wisdom, vision and courage into the calm waters of the end
of this millennium and we hope the future will bring the realization of some of his fondest hopes, both for himself
and for the Organization. We wish the in-coming Director-General, Mr Matsuura, the greatest success during his
term of office, and we offer him our support.
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