The world pays tribute to Koïchiro Matsuura as he ends his term as Director-General of UNESCO

Paris, 22 October

The international community today paid tribute to Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO, in a moving ceremony that featured performers from different regions of the world.

The ceremony was held as part of the 35th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, as Mr Matsuura approaches the end of his second term in office on 14 November. The General Conference adopted a resolution (35C/PLENDR.3*) recognizing the success of Mr Matsuura’s work at the helm of UNESCO.

The President of UNESCO’s General Conference, Davidson Hepburn, and the Chairman of the Executive Board, Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yaï, opened the ceremony with words about the excellent relations Mr Matsuura entertained with their two governing bodies.

While the art of the performers highlighted the outgoing Director-General’s determination to promote the intangible heritage of humanity, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication of France, praised Mr Matsuura’s dedication and wisdom.

President Wade recognized the “great satisfaction of Member States” at the Director-General’s work over two mandates and highlighted the “difficult but very well-advised reforms” of UNESCO. “These courageous reforms,” said the President, “had the effect of restoring the universality of the Organization.”

The President also praised Mr Matsuura’s work to safeguard the cultural heritage of humanity, notably through the adoption of three standard-setting instruments: the 2001 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity; the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage; and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

“The fertile spirit of diversity, because it translates the creative genius of every culture and of every civilization, is essential to the vitality of human societies,” said the President who praised the Director-General’s commitment “in favour of the rapprochement of cultures and civilizations through dialogue, education and access to information and communication technologies.”

After thanking the Director-General for his work, the President elevated Mr Matsuura to the rank of “Grand Officer of the National Order of the Lion of the Republic of Senegal.”

Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication of France, UNESCO’s Host Country, spoke of the “legitimate desire expressed by every one of us to render praise to ten years of dedicated work, of passion and of struggle at the service of all, ten years at the head of this Organization that is so dear, as you know, to the hearts of the French.”

“Director-General,” continued Mr Mitterrand, “by your abnegation and humanity you have successfully brought together the UNESCO family and thus you have succeeded in endowing it, once again, with the universal dimension that is inherent to its mission.”

“You have been a worker and craftsman of the universal also by repositioning UNESCO ever more clearly on the international stage and reinforcing its role as both trailblazer and crucible of intellectual and moral solidarity of humanity.”

The Director-General thanked the participants for their words of praise and testimonies of friendship, which, he said, “elicit in me a deep feeling of modesty and humility.”

Recalling his childhood in war-ravaged Japan, Mr Matsuura remembered how “very young, like a great many Japanese people, I learned to love UNESCO […] the first international organization to be joined by Japan, five years before it joined the United Nations.”

“I will always see the day when the American flag was once again raised at UNESCO as the day when this Organization regained global credibility and influence,” said Mr Matsuura referring to the U.S.A.’s resumed Membership of the Organization, in 2003, during his first term in office.

The Director-General also spoke of his commitment to protect the world’s intangible heritage and said that “humanity can no more afford to lose such living cultural expressions than it can its great monuments and sites.”

“Being Director-General has been much more than a job,” Mr Matsuura declared. “It has been my purpose, my passion and my greatest pride.”

Numerous heads of State, including crowned heads and presidents, ministers, ambassadors and representatives of international organizations, took part in the tribute with words of praise for the outgoing Director-General, either on the podium or in recorded messages to the distinguished assembly gathered at UNESCO Headquarters.

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• Author(s):UNESCOPRESS
• Source:Press Release No.2009 - 130
• 23-10-2009