Addresses delivered in the general policy debate by the Head of Delegation at the General Conference

37 session of the General Conference

His Excellency, Mr Marten Kokk, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Estonia to UNESCO

Speech delivered during the General Policy Debate of the 37th session of the General Conference - revised and corrected version of the verbatim records of plenary meetings

36 session of the General Conference

H.E. Mr Marten Kokk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Delegate to UNESCO

Speech delivered during the General Policy Debate of the 36th session of the General Conference and posted as received

35 session of the General Conference

H.E. Prof. Dr. Kristin Kuutma, Chairperson of the Estonian National Commission for UNESCO

“The Estonian delegation welcomes the revisions that have shifted more resources from the administrative areas to major programmes, notably education.”
“On behalf of Estonia I would like to sincerely thank Mr Matsuura (…) for the reforms that have reshaped UNESCO. But there still remains much to be done. The intersectoral and interdisciplinary initiatives of UNESCO are not yet effective enough; we seem to have so many priorities that our focus gets blurred. UNESCO's work is not widely known in its Member States and improvement is necessary in public relations and media. The latest reports show that overall progress has been too slow to achieve the key goals of EFA and MDGs by 2015.”
“At the occasion of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee meeting in Abu Dhabi (…) the Member States appear focused on the Representative List, unfortunately at the expense of the Urgent Safeguarding List (…). This (…) has resulted in a geographically imbalanced Representative List, which is contrary to the spirit of the convention.”
“UNESCO has always stressed the importance of civil society’s involvement in the programme delivery and policy advice. This is probably one of the reasons why during recent years the empowerment of National Commissions for UNESCO has become an important issue. (…). Estonia strongly supports the enhancement of National Commissions and their networks, and we encourage UNESCO to take further steps in clarifying the role and status of National Commissions.”
“We believe that UNESCO’s main functions should be policy advice and capacity development. Thus we wish to foster the involvement of experts from different countries and especially to develop North-South cooperation. Issues of central importance to UNESCO, such as high quality inclusive education, education for sustainable development, cultural diversity, ethics, heritage, (…) are becoming more important in our own national policy and we are looking forward to regional and international cooperation in these fields. Estonian experts are already internationally active in ICT in education, bioethics, cultural heritage, lifelong learning, Man and Biosphere Programme.”
“Estonia is proud of and concerned for its cultural heritage. Based on good experience in the field, Estonia hopes to be granted an opportunity to work in the World Heritage Committee starting from this year and in the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme in 2011.”

34 session of the General Conference

S.E. M. Tonis Lukas, Ministre de l’Education et de la Science

L’Estonie félicite le Monténégro pour son adhésion et Singapour pour son retour à l'UNESCO, considérant que c’est un moment important pour la continuation de la coopération internationale. L’Estonie est aussi très reconnaissante aux Etats qui l’ont aidée à reconstruire le pays après l’indépendance.
L’Estonie comprend très bien le besoin de sauvegarder et promouvoir les langues et les cultures nationales. Pour cette raison, le programme Education pour Tous et la Convention pour la protection du patrimoine culturel ont une place importante en Estonie.
L’Estonie souhaite se concentrer sur l’éducation inclusive, l’éducation des adultes et les minorités. L'Estonie soutient l'objectif de l'UNESCO d'élargir l'accès à l'éducation de base dans le monde entier et note l’importance essentielle de l’éducation préscolaire.
L'organisation des formations d'adultes garantit l'accès et la possibilité de participation aux groupes jusqu'ici non intégrés. L’apprentissage tout au long de la vie est un bon moyen d’assurer la pérennité de la croissance économique du pays.
Le patrimoine culturel est une priorité pour l’Estonie, qui a adhéré à la Convention pour la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel en 2006 et fait partie du Comité intergouvernemental adéquat. Le pays soutient aussi le projet de la Bibliothèque numérique mondiale.
La chaîne humaine, événement unique liant les trois pays baltes, sera présentée pour inscription dans le programme « la Mémoire du Monde », pour marquer la date de la signature du Pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop.