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

women the thirst for life, the duty to share and the need to make peace a daily practice so as ultimately to achieve a
culture of peace.
(7.7) We believe that the African continent will attempt to consolidate the lessons of the past by promoting
inter alia the important Priority Africa programme. We wish to take this opportunity to express my delegation’s
total support for the proposal to establish a special account for this programme.
(7.8) Equatorial Guinea thanks UNESCO, and especially the outgoing Director-General, for all the technical
and financial assistance it has received from the Organization during the last 12 years, and in particular the crucial
technical and financial support that it received for the establishment and functioning of the National University of
Equatorial Guinea (UNGE).
(7.9) The truth does not hurt, but nothing can be done about it. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to
dissociate Federico Mayor Zaragoza’s name from the Organization’s major successes and achievements at the end
of this century and millennium. Some of us will remember him as a man with a special predilection for the cause of
the poor, the illiterate, women and youth, in a word, as the champion of the cause of the most disadvantaged and
vulnerable. Others will long keep in mind the Spanish fervour of his speeches and the memory of someone who
bequeathed to UNESCO and the international community a vision of the world and a blueprint for society. We
wish him health, long life and success in his future endeavours.
(7.10) Aware as we are that at the end of this session of the General Conference the Organization will have a
new Director-General, we wish to congratulate the Executive Board on having nominated for the post
H.E. Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, whom we congratulate and to whom we wish every success in the difficult task that
awaits him.
(7.11) The Draft Programme and Budget for 2000-2001 constitutes the last phase of the Medium-Term Strategy.
In other words, it follows on from the previous programme and budget and must therefore be implemented without
major changes or innovations because the intellectual, ethical and political accomplishments since the approval of
the Medium-Term Strategy in 1995 must be consolidated. This is necessary not only for the reasons stated but also
because the proposed programme is future-oriented and, above all, because it must be linked to the new Medium-
Term Strategy for 2002-2007.
(7.12) In education, my country’s government has before it the twin challenge of democratizing education and
enhancing the relevance of educational content. With regard to the first challenge, coverage is being expanded to
provide access to the education system while endeavouring to facilitate children’s enrolment in school; the
government’s efforts to that end have received substantial support in the form of the “non-formal pre-school
preparation” project financed by UNICEF and the 19 UNESCO Associated Schools. The adaptation of content
concerns all levels of our education system and is another major task in which national efforts must be
supplemented by those of the international community. We therefore continue to ask for this Organization’s
assistance and, more specifically, we request the General Conference to approve the plan of action for cooperation
between UNESCO, the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) and Equatorial Guinea.
(7.13) As stated in the International Declaration “Towards the University of the Twenty-First Century”
(Madrid - Alcalá de Henares, April 1999) “… inward-looking attitudes can be overcome through the promotion of
initiatives for international solidarity under which the oldest and most prestigious universities can take up the
challenge of exporting university education”. My delegation therefore appreciates the efforts being made by the
Organization under the UNESCO Chairs Programme, as a result of which the National University of Equatorial
Guinea now has four UNESCO Chairs, three of them approved during the current biennium. One of these is the
UNESCO Chair of Afro-Ibero-American studies, under which activities are carried out in cooperation with Alcalá
de Henares University (Spain), with which a twinning agreement was signed in April this year. Another is the
UNESCO Chair of education for peace, respect for human rights and democracy, which aims to educate citizens,
protect the legacy of values that have instilled in us, among other things, more peace-loving attitudes, and
safeguard basic rights. The draft plan of action for this Chair is being finalized in close cooperation with the
National Committee on the Rights of the Child. We are confident that the Organization will continue to support us.
The third is the UNESCO Chair of environmental education. Activities associated with this Chair are being carried
out in close cooperation with Beaver College in Pennsylvania, among others. UNGE has signed a cooperation
agreement with that institution covering several areas, including the protection of the Bioko primates.
(7.14) Considering that peace guarantees democratic processes and the economic, social and cultural
development of nations, the Government of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, after instituting the multi-party
system in 1992, has always placed a premium on national political dialogue with the opposition, which made it
possible to hold legislative elections in 1993, municipal elections in 1995, presidential elections in 1996 and the
recent legislative elections of 7 March 1999, without disturbances or armed clashes. On the basis of President
Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s political will to proceed along these lines, the government and the opposition have just
agreed at Malabo to postpone municipal elections to the first quarter of the year 2000.
(7.15) With regard to freedom of expression, the Electoral Law of Equatorial Guinea allows all political parties
airtime on the national radio and television, especially during the electoral campaign period. After the
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