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

91. The LEGAL ADVISER:
Thank you, Madam President. To begin with, I would like to inform the distinguished representative of
Hungary that his information is not accurate. Madam President, as far as the establishment of the Standing
Committee is concerned, the enabling resolution of the General Conference is 29 C/Resolution 62. Madam
President, if you read through this resolution, it is not mentioned anywhere that the Draft Statutes must be
submitted to the Executive Board. There are several precedents in this regard, when the General Conference
takes a decision and requests the Director-General or any other authority to submit a report to the Executive
Board or to submit a draft to the Executive Board. It is correct that one of my colleagues in the Secretariat had
asked me whether the Draft Statutes were to be submitted to the Executive Board or to the General Conference.
My reply was not that it was not necessary to submit the draft to the Executive Board. My reply was that the
enabling resolution does not oblige the Secretariat to submit the document to the Executive Board and that it was
a question of desirability which lay well beyond the competence of the Legal Adviser. Thank you, Madam
President.
92. The PRESIDENT:
I thank the Legal Adviser very much for that clarification. I now give the floor to the representative of
Mexico, to be followed by Belize.
93. Sr. SÁNCHEZ GUTIÉRREZ (México):
Gracias, señora Presidenta: Tomando en consideración las implicaciones de este asunto, de carácter
tanto jurídico como de procedimiento, mi delegación desearía unirse a la opinión que han expresado Santa Lucía,
Turquía, Alemania y otros: el asunto requiere mayor consideración y estudio, y debe ser el Consejo Ejecutivo el
encargado de realizar ese trabajo y de proponer a la Conferencia General, una vez concluidas sus deliberaciones
al respecto, cuál sería el camino a seguir. Gracias, señora Presidenta.
(93) M. SÁNCHEZ GUTIÉRREZ (Mexique) (traduit de l'espagnol) :
Merci, Madame la Présidente. Compte tenu des incidences de cette question qui revêt un caractère aussi
bien juridique que de procédure, ma délégation souhaiterait s'associer à ce qu'ont déclaré les délégués de
Sainte Lucie, de la Turquie, de l'Allemagne, et d'autres pays, à savoir que ce point doit être examiné de façon plus
approfondie ; en outre, il appartient au Conseil exécutif d'effectuer ce travail et, à l'issue de ses délibérations, de
proposer à la Conférence générale la marche à suivre. Merci, Madame la Présidente.
94. The PRESIDENT:
Thank you. I now give the floor over to the representative of Belize, to be followed by Cuba.
95. Mr TOURÉ (Belize):
Madam President, thank you and the other distinguished delegates for increasing my awareness of the
process behind this particular issue. I would like to give my endorsement to the consensus that seems to be
emerging that the best way forward to give effect to the decisions taken at the prior General Conference would be
to adopt the procedure of the Executive Board as it may be a way of “vetting” the document. If there was a
procedural mistake that some of the members of the Standing Committee made in attempting to put this matter to
the General Conference, I would hope that it was made out of an intention to speed up decentralization in this
mammoth Organization and to try and get the spirit of what one might call “grass-roots participation” to
strengthen that. It seems to me that that was the intent of the original resolution and my interventions on behalf of
Belize have been to try to secure that spirit, not to delay matters or make mountains out of molehills. So if I have
delayed this unduly, let me apologize, but let me also close by saying that in the Draft Statutes, I see that in
Article 4 it says that the Standing Committee would report to three bodies other than the Director-General. As I
understand it, therefore, this Standing Committee would not report exclusively to the Director-General but also,
as the Draft Statutes say, to the Executive Board, the General Conference and/or the National Commissions, as
the case may be. Thank you.
96. The PRESIDENT:
I thank the representative of Belize for the spirit of his remarks, which we do appreciate. The
representative of Cuba now has the floor, to be followed by France.
97.1 Sr. HERNÁNDEZ PARDO (Cuba):
Gracias, señora Presidenta: Traté ya este tema cuando se estaba debatiendo el informe del Comité
Jurídico, y me pronuncié en el mismo sentido que ahora parece suscitar consenso, es decir: que se planteara el
tema al Consejo Ejecutivo. Y ello en el entendimiento de que, como han ayudado a aclarar ahora el Delegado de
Alemania y luego otros delegados, el Comité Permanente de las Comisiones Nacionales para la UNESCO puede
y debe seguir trabajando, con o sin Estatutos. Está claro que, cuanto antes los tenga, mejor. Pero en este sentido
lo esencial es recordar el espíritu con que la 29ª reunión de la Conferencia General aprobó la creación de este
Comité Permanente, es decir, intentando precisamente encontrar fórmulas que hagan posible el deseo que se ha
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