Paris, June 14 (No.2001-78)- The 161st session of UNESCO’s Executive Board, chaired by Sonia Mendieta de Badaroux (Honduras), ended yesterday after having agreed on a refocused programme which constitutes a significant advance in the Organization’s reform and several major initiatives notably aiming to protect cultural diversity and the heritage of humanity, as well as to help reconciliation in the Middle East.

An initiative launched by Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura at the opening of the session aiming to start the joint revision of Israeli and Palestinian school textbooks was accepted by both parties. UNESCO announced it was prepared to provide the framework for this initiative of reconciliation.

The session of the Executive Board lifted the last reservations regarding the drafting of a Declaration on cultural diversity. Representatives of Member States stressed the fact that UNESCO should provide them with principles and reference points to guide States in the design of their cultural policies and in negotiations within other organizations, including the World Trade Organization. To prepare the first draft of this standard-setting instrument - which many Delegates said should be “positive and flexible” rather than “defensive and protectionist” - the Board decided to create an open working group which will start meeting on June 20.

The Board confirmed the importance given by UNESCO to the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. Despite the difficulties inherent to this heritage which is difficult to define, a first step was recently taken with the first proclamation by the Organization of a list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This initiative will be continued with the development of an international standard-setting instrument designed to protect traditional and popular culture. This new instrument will be comparable to the 1972 UNESCO Convention concerning cultural and natural world heritage sites.

Members of the Executive Board strongly condemned the acts of destruction committed against historical and cultural monuments in Afghanistan and some even considered the possibility of imposing sanctions. The examination of means to prevent such acts, qualified as “crimes against the common heritage of humanity”, will figure on the agenda of the next General Conference in the autumn.

During the session, the Executive Board discussed for the first time in a public session a case of alleged human rights violation. The holding of a public session, instead of the usual closed meeting, was due to the lack of progress in UNESCO’s discrete intercession with the government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic on behalf of a political prisoner, Latsami Khamphoui, a former Deputy Minister for Economics and Planning. Mr Khamphoui is serving a 14-year prison sentence for having criticised his government. He has been in jail since 1990 and is reported to be seriously ill.

Notable decisions adopted by the Executive Board include the proposal to establish the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. It entails transforming the International Institute for Infrastructural Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering in Delft (Netherlands) into a UNESCO Institute which will contribute to improving the dissemination and sharing of knowledge concerning water. This marks an innovative partnership with a private foundation already working with numerous institutions and non-governmental organizations.

The Executive Board examined at length the draft Medium Term Strategy that will guide the Organization over the coming six years. The Strategy, the cornerstone of the reform of UNESCO’s programmes undertaken by Mr Matsuura, seeks to focus the Organization’s four major programmes around a common theme - contributing to peace and human development in an era of globalization through education, the sciences, culture and communication - with a reduced number of defined strategic results.

The Board also examined the draft Programme and Budget for 2002-2003 totalling US$544 million. This Programme and Budget reflects the decision to set a small number of clear priorities. Five main priorities have been determined - basic education, water resources, the ethics of science and technology, cultural diversity, equitable access to information and knowledge. They received added funding with increases ranging from close to 30% to 50%. The overall budget of the Organization is particularly tight and reflects savings of US$26 million and the cutting of some 200 posts at Headquarters.

In her closing address, Ms Mendieta de Badaroux commended the reform of UNESCO saying the Organization was changing for the better. The Chairperson went on to stress the importance of the thematic debate on the role of the new information technologies for the development of education, science, and culture which was held during the session. She said it “highlighted the scope of marginalization in developing countries”. She called on UNESCO to be proactive by “introducing, and effectively utilizing new methodologies in teaching” to fight poverty and bridge the digital divide and, also, so as to prepare the Organization for the 2003 summit on the new information technologies.

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