Koïchiro Matsuura
Koïchiro Matsuura, who was born in Tokyo in 1937, studied law at the University of Tokyo and economics at Haverford College (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.). In 1959, he began his career at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he has served as Director-General of the Economic Co-operation Bureau (1988-1990); Director-General of the North American Affairs Bureau (1990-1992); Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs (1992-1994), in which post he oversaw Japan’s hosting of the First Tokyo International Conference on African Development; and since 1994 as Ambassador to France, Andorra and Djibouti. He also served for one year, until November 1999, as chairperson of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. On November 12, UNESCO’s supreme ruling body, the General Conference grouping 188 Member States, confirmed the choice made by the Executive Board on 12 November and appointed Mr Matsuura to the post of Director-General of UNESCO.
UNESCO
is a factor of hope, because it is the one international organization which, through
all its programmes, respects and defends what is of universal worth and dignity in
the material and spiritual heritage of all cultures, and thereby, the absolute dignity
of all human beings. . . .
Globalization is accelerating with dramatic speed, presenting a global challenge
which demands a global answer. Yet the response must be made with all due respect
for cultural diversity and identity, for that priceless individual component that
makes up the true dignity of our many peoples.
But UNESCO can only go on providing the world
with such hope, and such defence, if it proves itself to be an adequate world instrument.
Unesco is not an end in itself. UNESCO is a world service, a tool which is
at once delicate, highly complex, and precious. Humanity may all the better avail
itself of such a tool if all the world’s states–and peoples–agree once again to make
proper use of it, and so contribute to its efficiency and universality. UNESCOmust
once more represent the whole world, with no exceptions. I pledge to do my best,
in the course of my stewardship, to persuade those who stand outside to return or
to join.
But criticisms, not all of them unfair, have been leveled against this great instrument:
and failings, where verified, must be made good. The purpose of sound management
is, again, not an end in itself, but a duty to ensure that our institution fully
discharges its great task as a true world service, responsible and accountable to
the world–and to the world’s taxpayers.
Our resources are therefore not unlimited, nor should we spread ourselves too thin.
I propose that we streamline our activities within the limits of our budgets, and
closely focus upon those programmes which are our true mandate–not for the sake of
fashionable austerity, but in order to make a real impact where best we may, and
where truly we must, provide our needed service: in our ongoing war against poverty,
through education and the nurturing of human resources.
I suggest pursuit of our most practically conceived programmes, in co-operation with
leading institutions, scientists and scholars around the world, in terms of our four
great directives, on behalf of education, science, culture, and communication.
UNESCO is a challenging paradox. It cannot lapse into
a mere club for intellectuals, but it must serve as a forum for international intellectual
exchange. It cannot pretend to be a research institution but must keep abreast of
and stimulate research. It is not an operational agency, yet it must see that global
ethics for peace, justice and solidarity, through international co-operation in education,
science, culture and communication, are both morally observed and tangibly applied.
Finally, UNESCO is not a funding agency, although it
must provide catalytic funds to generate further funding: in order to demonstrate
that ideals only take shape through action. . . .
In the whirl of this changing age, let us stand firm and faithful to our enduring
purpose: building peace in the minds of men.
(Extracts from an address
given by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura in Paris on 15 November, on the occasion of his
investiture as Director-General of UNESCO.)
