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

10 to 15 years’ time. The ethical institutions, those that denounce, those that are the conscience of the people at
this turning point in time in which we are living, those that are the voice of the voiceless, those that have the
courage to present decision-makers with elements for their decisions that are based on rigour, those institutions
that will spread universal values are the institutions that will remain.
14.7 At the same time, the perceptible emergence of a new civilization was triggered in 1987 by the
communication and information revolution and the social, cultural and economic consequences of the new
technologies. This called for a particularly active and creative response from UNESCO. The end of the cold war
did not fulfil the hope of peace in our time. The voice of UNESCO remained, therefore, as essential as ever: to
construct, every day, with perseverance, “the defences of peace” in the minds of men.
14.8 Facing challenges such as these in a weakened state, we chose not to limit ourselves to short-term
remedies, but, on the contrary, to go to the heart of the matter, to get to the roots of our problems. In each of
UNESCO’s fields of competence, we launched in-depth undertakings that culminated in a world conference.
There was Jomtien for basic education. It was then - after the resolution of the freedom of expression issue that is
basic for democracy and therefore basic for human dignity – that the most urgent issue was to bring together the
United Nations system, the non-governmental organizations, the intergovernmental organizations – all together,
hand in hand, and to meet in Thailand, in Asia, because it is in this part of the world that we have the most
important problems relating to population and hence to education. In Jomtien we were dealing with education for
all. Education for all, throughout life.
14.9 And then there was Hamburg for adult education, and our new approach was that adult education is
much more than literacy: we must now stop saying that what the developing world needs is basic education and
literacy. The developing world will develop when it has education at all levels, including adult education, and
one part of adult education is literacy. This new Hamburg vision is in my opinion one of the important aspects of
this new approach that is so relevant today.
14.10 Then there was Seoul for technical and vocational education; and Paris for higher education. The Paris
Declaration had been studied at the regional conferences for over six years; it advocated access to higher
education on the basis of merit, of effort; higher education was to be considered not as the preserve of the
privileged, where they might sometimes spend many years, many more than necessary, but as being a permanent
space for higher learning for all citizens, on a permanent basis, with no frustration and no exclusion. They must
know that it is a space open to them as and when they wish and are able to enter it, if they have the merit. This is
up to them, and it is up to society to help them, and this is one of the most important tasks of learning without
frontiers, of open learning throughout life. This is the essence of Article 26.1 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. I remember that when I was Rector at Granada University, I realized that most of the students
were the privileged ones, those who were richest, that came from the more affluent families that were living in the
capital. And so I studied all the exclusion factors. Why were the best not there? Because there were geographical,
economic, political, linguistic, religious and gender factors militating against the presence of those with merit.
And I thought that on the occasion of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the best way of celebrating it at UNESCO was to apply that Article 26.1 in relation to higher
education. Higher education must be this permanent space of higher learning and we adopted the Paris
Declaration. And now all these declarations must be reflected in studies in the different countries, in their
parliaments, and they will hopefully be incorporated into domestic provisions for a juster access, a socially more
balanced access to higher education.
14.11 Stockholm was there finally. Finally, culture was accepted as being a fundamental dimension not only of
development, but of human life, human dignity. And, more recently, there was Budapest, a retrospective and
prospective vision of what science can provide for the most important missions and tasks of our Organization.
14.12 During every one of these landmark conferences, we substantially modified our orientation, our plans
and projects in each respective field. This must be very clear: when we have a meeting we cannot say that we had
already decided three years before that we should do otherwise. We should do what the Member States decide at
any given moment. And to bear this closely in mind is, in my view, a very important, even essential, aspect for
the efficiency of our Organization. Political decision-makers, professionals and intellectuals now have solid
points of reference and universal guidelines that reflect their aspirations. The regular world reports that we now
publish in each of our fields of competence constitute a practical resource complementing these world
conferences. These are published every two years - we are now in the fourth year for education, in the third for
science, with the last one presented during the World Conference on Science in Budapest and covering also
human and social sciences. And I must tell you that I consider this to be an achievement because there were
serious difficulties involved but finally, with the experience of others, we were able to produce them, and I must
congratulate all those who have completed these biennial reports. Another point is the creation of the UNESCO
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