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

23.1 Ms VESTAGER (Denmark): 1
Madam President of the General Conference, Mr Chairperson of the Executive Board, Mr Director-
General, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I wish, like my Finnish colleague, to congratulate you, Madam
Moserová, on your election to the high office of President of this session of the General Conference.
23.2 Please allow me to introduce the Danish intervention at this General Conference by drawing attention to
a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. There once was a merchant who was rich and so clever that every
shilling he put out brought him a crown. His son inherited his wealth, and lived a merry life. At last he had
nothing left but a pair of slippers and an old trunk which could fly. In short the merchant’s son seated himself in
the trunk, turned the lock, and flew into a princess’ room. To impress the princess, he filled the trunk with
fireworks, and lit a sparkling fire. But unluckily, a spark from the fireworks burnt the trunk into ashes. Having no
trunk, the merchant’s son could not go to meet his bride, and she is still waiting for him.
23.3 This fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen is called The Flying Trunk. It has made me reflect on what
we, together, put in UNESCO’s trunk. We must consider this in the future just as carefully as we have done in the
past. It is evident to me that UNESCO is a question of education, a question of science, a question of culture and
communication. But first and foremost, I see UNESCO as a question of meeting of cultures and education plays a
crucial role in this respect. In order to continuously sustain and develop our democracy and our welfare, we must
base education on two pillars: values and vision. Values, because education helps to strengthen the basic values
in society, and because education builds on values. And vision, because education supports our vision of the
future of the world.
23.4 The top priority is the provision of basic education for all children, as well as literacy and basic skills
training for young people and adults. As Denmark has stated many times before, it is essential – especially in the
field of education – to make a proactive effort to help girls and women in the developing countries, particularly
in Africa.
23.5 Madam President, as far as science is concerned, we are now looking forward to seeing how UNESCO
and its Member States choose to apply the elements they put in the trunk during the World Conference on
Science, held in Budapest in June. Critical and free thinking, global access to and global sharing of knowledge
and the ethics of science are what Denmark would take out of the trunk and place at the centre of our follow-up
to the Budapest Conference.
23.6 The protection of cultural rights of minorities and indigenous peoples is a major issue for Denmark
which, as you might know, also includes the indigenous people of Greenland, the Inuit. Therefore, I attach great
importance to the fact that the Home Rule Government of Greenland is represented in my government’s
delegation to this session of the General Conference.
23.7 On the issue of communication, Denmark would like to see an even stronger promotion of the free flow
of ideas and global access to information. As put forward by the Youth Parliament yesterday, UNESCO has a
very important role in helping to create for future generations a global ethic. The citizen of the next century is
both a citizen in a local community and a global community. Therefore, the key words are free global
communication.
23.8 In 1996, the Danish Government concluded a four-year rolling framework agreement on extrabudgetary
funds for UNESCO programmes and projects. This has made Denmark one of the major donors in terms of
extrabudgetary contributions to UNESCO. I am pleased to say that there has been general satisfaction with this
agreement, which the parties will renew. But UNESCO must use its resources wisely – like the old merchant in
the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, who got a crown for every shilling he put out.
23.9 This brings me to the Programme and Budget for the years 2000-2001. Denmark believes that resultsbased
programming could facilitate more transparency and more accountability. Denmark supports the budget
level of US $544 million within option A. But this does not imply that Denmark subscribes to option A in all
detail. Some items in option B have to be taken into account and offset by corresponding savings in option A.
However, Denmark finds it inappropriate to increase the nominal level of the budget whilst there still remains
considerable scope to improve efficiency and to enhance the output of the Organization. We want to underscore
that more cohesion between the regular programme and budget and the extrabudgetary resources should be
ensured in order to generate more consistency and more synergy in the activities of the whole Organization as
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The speaker provided the Secretariat with additional written comments to the points raised in her oral statement
which, with the authorization of the President, are reproduced in full in annex to this verbatim record.
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