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

international life: 165 delegations spoke, including 125 ministers and 20 observers. We had the privilege of
listening to His Excellency Hugo Chávez Frías, President of the Republic of Venezuela; His Excellency
Mr Robert Mugabe, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe; His Excellency Mr Mohammed Khatami, President
of the Islamic Republic of Iran; His Excellency Mr Didjob Divungi di Ndinge, Vice-President of the Gabonese
Republic; and Mrs Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Nobel Prize for Peace. Such has been the quality and authority of all
who have spoken from this rostrum that the scope of what has been said goes in my view far beyond the simple
framework of the Organization’s Programme and Budget, offering us the outline of a policy for the world on the
eve of the twenty-first century.
27.3 Of the most important subjects addressed by the heads of the different delegations in the plenary the
first, I am particularly happy to say, has been the culture of peace. The culture of peace was mentioned in
111 statements. Decentralization was mentioned in 25 statements and there were other statements commending
the present programmes of the Organization. Ladies and gentlemen, this clearly demonstrates the views of the
Member States of UNESCO. The plenary provides an opportunity for Member States to give their opinions on
the life of the Organization over the last two years and on how the Organization should initiate the next biennium
and the views expressed should be fully relevant to the work of the commissions. We must avoid contradictions
between what is said in the plenary by the heads of the delegations and what is discussed and decided in the
commissions. We must be guided, of course, by the C/4 document, that is, the Medium-Term Strategy. As we are
now embarking, as you know, on the last two years of the six-year Medium-Term Strategy, it is particularly
important for us to take into account the results obtained in the first four years in order to begin work on the next
Medium-Term Strategy. But we also must take into account the declaration of world conferences convened by
the United Nations and more particularly our own declarations, such as the Jomtien World Declaration on
Education for All and the Declaration on Adult Learning. Sometimes we still discuss elements of adult education
as if the Hamburg Conference had not taken place. Therefore, we must take into account the views expressed in
plenary, the C/4 document representing the strategy of the Organization for a period of six years, as well as the
United Nations world conferences, and particularly the UNESCO conferences - the International Conference on
Higher Education here in Paris, the Seoul International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education, the
World Conference on Science, the Stockholm Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for
Development - because that is the only way of giving coherence to the work of the commissions and the
resolutions that will eventually be adopted by the plenary of the General Conference. But the purpose is to give
guidance not just for today and the next few days but for the coming biennium, because we must be coherent in
the intellectual, scientific and ethical positions we take. It is pointless to make general statements on
improvements if they are not good and concrete proposals that provide better solutions to the problems analysed.
The intergovernmental organizations to which some of the countries which have made this analysis belong often
do not set a good example. Another risk is that of dealing at the micro-management level with very complex
issues, particularly staff issues and thus revealing one’s unpreparedness. There is the risk of contradictions, as
when Member States that have been against decentralization show interest in plans to decentralize an important
UNESCO institution. I recommend a fully democratic approach to work in the commissions, letting everyone
express their views so that the debate will result in the adoption of pertinent resolutions that will be subsequently
approved by the plenary.
27.4 We are about to enter a new millennium, and century. This General Conference is the last one of the
century and it must show the world that the intellectual arm of the United Nations is truly ambitious: we must aim
very high. We must appeal to all the teachers of the world, to all the artists, all the journalists, all the scientists,
all the families, all the communities, to parliaments and to all those involved in the work of our Organization, to
help us to build peace in the minds of men, to build a new world based on words and not on war.
27.5 In this plenary, you have described that world, in a very convergent manner, with reference to general
features that concern all - rich or poor, powerful or more humble. Simply by taking these features into account we
introduce a major new element into our conception of history in the making. National interest has never been
brought to the forefront here, unless it was to express pride at having contributed to a broader ambition or at
having enhanced an exceptional heritage for the benefit of all. The outlook of the Member States is indeed an
international one, and I welcome that fact as an important advance in itself.
27.6 Everyone seems now convinced that our world must be approached in its globality, and hence on the
scale of a vision and an action that may properly be called global. Therein lies the raison d’être of the United
Nations system, and first and foremost of UNESCO.
27.7 This debate, which has been so fertile in ideas for renewing our understanding of the world we live in,
has identified major lines of action for UNESCO, for its Member States, which bear primary responsibility, and
for non-governmental organizations, for citizens, men and women of goodwill, in their day-to-day commitment to
a better world. The Organization is both the framework within which this vision is formed and one of the
protagonists in its implementation.
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