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UNESCO Director-General outlines UNESCO's actions to G20 Foreign Ministers
The meeting which focused on two main themes - international tensions and global governance reform - was an occasion for the Director-General to present the Organization's role in these areas.
The Director-General of UNESCO highlighted the Organization's work to prevent crises, respond to urgent needs in times of crisis, and support societies in recovering from crises. In particular, UNESCO's actions in Mosul, Iraq, Yemen, and Ukraine were presented.
It is important to call on the power of culture, education, and science to prevent conflicts when tensions arise, to act during conflicts and to support the period of reconstruction.
Regarding the reform of global governance, the Director-General of UNESCO presented the approach the Organization is adopting to international cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence, with its Member States, researchers, and civil society, through the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the first and only global normative framework in this field.
The G20 is well placed to support this kind of dialogue in the multilateral system, by ensuring more effective and closer cooperation with civil society, whose contribution is essential on these major issues.
The Director-General of UNESCO also met many Foreign ministers from G20 members and guest states, and exchanges views on UNESCO's collaboration with these countries, particularly on the ethics of artificial intelligence, including in Africa, the protection of world heritage in crisis situations, post-crisis recovery and education.
As a privileged partner, UNESCO is providing its expertise throughout the year to a large number of G20 working groups - in the fields of education, oceans, scientific innovation, artificial intelligence, culture, gender equality and its priority Africa.
This visit to Rio was also an opportunity for the Director-General to visit the Roberto Burle Marx site on February 23, the first modern tropical garden to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2021. The property includes extensive landscapes, gardens, buildings and collections that present the main characteristics that defined Burle Marx's landscape gardens and influenced the development of modern gardens internationally.
