At headquarters

January 7-10, Rooms I, III, VI, VII, VIII and IX
Conference on the future of the oceans
UNESCO and its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) are hosting this conference for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research. The meeting aims to help design and develop a new international research project to better understand how climate change affects marine ecosystems and bio-geochemical cycles.

January 9, Cinema, 5.30 p.m.
Screening of documentary film "E la nave va"
The International Mediterranean Theatre Institute (IITM) and the Mediterranean Programme of UNESCO's Divisions of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue will present the film "E la nave va," directed by Jacques Hubinet and produced by "Les Films du Soleil." Before the screening there will be a talk on the "Odyssey 2001"(on which the film is based) and "Odyssey 2003" projects, which involve taking artists and dance and theatre groups carrying a message of peace around the Mediterranean aboard a warship, the Constanta, loaned by the Romanian navy.
IITM contact: Serge Alexandre: tel: 04 91 02 58 35, sergio.alexandre@wanadoo.fr

January 9 and 10, Room XII
Round-table of Ministers and Senior Officials responsible for Physical Education and Sport
Award ceremony of International Fair Play trophies
The Declaration of Punta del Este, adopted at the 3rd International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS III, held from November 30 to December 3, 1999) expressed concern that despite the growth of high-level sport and sport-for-all programmes, physical education in schools was on the decline in many countries and was accompanied by a sharp increase in juvenile delinquency and violence and a rise in medical and social costs. The ministers emphasised the ethical values involved in sport and called on all countries to fight practices that undermined them, such as doping. UNESCO is now bringing the ministers together again to discuss ways to strengthen physical education and sport in schools, protect young sports enthusiasts and draw up an international legal instrument to combat drug-taking in sport.
The meeting will include the presentation of International Fair Play awards - made by the International Fair Play Committee - to: Simone Moro (Italy), climbing (Pierre de Coubertin Trophy, fair play gesture); Eusebio Ferreira da Silva (Portugal), football (Borotra Trophy, sporting career); Kipchoge Keino (Kenya), long-distance running and humanitarian aid (Willi Daume Trophy, promoting fair play).
Contact: International Fair Play Committee, Katalin Gereben, tel: (+36) 1 471-41 35, mobile: (+36) 30 241-8411, e-mail: katalin.gereben@fairplayinternational.org

January 13-15, Room IV
8th joint UNESCO/NGO consultation on higher education
Representatives of NGOs will review the situation since the last World Conference on Higher Education (October 1998 in Paris) and discuss privatization, globalization, new technology and the higher education market. Three workshops will be held: on the contribution of higher education to Education for All and to sustainable development, the internationalization of higher education and international cooperation.

January 13-15, Rooms XIII and XIV
First meeting of the Ocean Carbon Coordination Project
For the past 10 years, commercial vessels around the world have been specially equipped with devices to gather data on the world's oceans. These observations will now be used to develop a special database to better understand the critical role the oceans play in absorbing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.

January 16, Room XIV
Meeting of small European member states before the Information Society summit
About 32 representatives of public services, civil society and the private sector from Europe's small UNESCO member-states (Andorra, the Holy See, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco and San Marino) will meet to work out a joint strategy for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005.
Contact: Jean-Michel Armengol, secretary-general of Andorra's National Commission for UNESCO +376 825-700.

January 21, Room IV, 4.p.m.
50th birthday of the review Diogenes
The review Diogenes will publish its 200th issue, focussing on the dialogue between civilisations, as well as Chamanismes, a special publication in the Collection Quadriges series (Presses Universitaires de France-PUF), which is a revised and expanded reprint of a 10-year-old issue of Diogenes on the subject.
Roberte N. Hamayon, editor of Chamanismes, will take part in a round-table discussion ON WHAT? along with Pierre Sané, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, Maurice Aymard, secretary-general of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (ICPHS), and Michel Prigent, managing director of PUF, in the presence of UNESCO General Conference President Ahmad Jalali (a contributor to the 200th issue) and Jean d'Ormesson, of the Académie française, who was editor of the magazine from 1982 to 1998.
Diogenes has been put out by PUF and published since 1952 by the ICPHS with UNESCO's support. It was founded by Roger Caillois, who wanted to make it truly wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary and who edited it until 1978. It is published in English, French, Spanish and Arabic and anthologies are brought out in Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese and Hindi.
Contact: Diogenes, Paola Costa Giovangigli, editor, tel. +33 (0)1 45 68 27 34.

January 23, Room I, 8.30 p.m.
Concert of Arab-Andalusian music
As part of the Algerian Year in France, this concert will be given by the Constantine Ensemble (playing music in the Seville tradition) and feature musicians Hamdi Benani, Abdelmoumen Bentobal and El Haj Mohamed Tahar Fergani. By invitation. Contact: Algerian permanent delegation to UNESCO, tel: +33 (0)1 4568-2963/64.

January 28, Room II, 6 p.m.
21st Century Talks: The Future of Water
This 23rd session of the 21st Century Talks will feature Mahmud Abu-Zeid, Egyptian Water Resources and Irrigation Minister; Claude Allègre, geophysicist and former French Education, Research and Technology Minister; Michel Camdessus, former IMF Director-General, presently head of the Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure (a financial taskforce for the forthcoming World Water Forum); and Charles Vorosmarty, of the US University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. The session, organized by UNESCO's Division of Foresight, Philosophy and Human Sciences, in cooperation with the Science Sector, is part of the International Fresh Water Year (2003) and will be attended by Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura.

January 30, Room IV
"Civilazations in the Eye of the Other II" Symposium
This second international symposium, organized by UNESCO and the Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), will gather academics and intellectuals from all continents to continue discussions begun at the first conference held at UNESCO in December 2001 as part of the UN Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations.
It will include three round-tables: Conflicts or dialogue among civilizations, chaired by the philosopher Blandine Kriegel; The historical dimension to the current debate on the dialogue among civilizations, chaired by Arab-Islamic specialist François Déroche; and Overcoming obstacles to dialogue among civilizations, chaired by Jocelyne Dakhlia, a social scientist specializing in Islam.

January 31, Room I, 8.30 p.m.
Concert of Arab-Andalusian music
As part of the Year of Algeria in France, the concert by the Algiers Ensemble with Mohamed Kheznadji, Zerrouk Mokdad and Sid-Ahmed Serri, will feature a programme of music of the Cordoba tradition. By invitation.
Contact: Algerian Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, tel: +33 (0)1 4568-2963/64.

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