Opening of General Conference marked by visit of Prime Minister of Malaysia and President of Montenegro

Paris, 6 October

• © UNESCO/D. Bijeljac
• Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Bin Haji Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia

Davidson Hepburn (Bahamas) was elected President of the 35th session of UNESCO’s General Conference, which opened at Organization Headquarters in the presence of representatives of its 193 Member States. On the first day of the Conference, delegates heard addresses by Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Bin Haji Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Filip Vujanovi, President of Montenegro.

Dato’ Sri Naujib Tun Razak took the floor saying that “As we grapple with an ever-deepening gulf between cultures and faiths, dark clouds of a global recession, heart-wrenching tragedies induced by climate change, we cannot afford to be in our comfort zone. The choice before us is not one of unilateralism or isolationism. The path forward lies in a more imaginative and inclusive form of globalization.”

Before announcing the creation of a UNESCO – Malaysia Cooperative Trust Fund to enhance south-south cooperation for capacity building in education and science, the Prime Minister outlined three challenges facing the world today: Build durable peace based on dialogue; create a new global financial architecture – in which “the robust entrepreneurial spirit must be tempered with a social conscience”; manage climate change, “a major challenge not for future generations but for us today.”

In his address, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanović, praised the quality of cooperation between UNESCO and his country, which became a member of the Organization in 2007.

President Vujanović placed this cooperation in the context of “recent events that took place in the Western Balkans [which] remind us of the responsibility to preserve multiculturalism, multi-ethnicity and multi-confessionalism as the foundation for our states, pointing to the importance of respect for diversity as a basis of our mutual cooperation.”

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, also addressed the opening of the 35th session of the General Conference, his last session as his second mandate comes to an end.: “After ten years of perseverance, with the stalwart support of the governing bodies and the devoted commitment of the Secretariat, I leave a UNESCO that is respected, with well-established leadership in its fields of competence.”

As he took office as President of the General Conference, UNESCO’s highest governing body, Davidson Hepburn spoke of the challenges facing UNESCO at a time when “around the world, the economic, financial, food and energy crises have caused despair and hardship.” After outlining UNESCO’s many responsibilities and stressing their pertinence in today’s world, Mr Hepburn spoke of his upbringing in a tiny hamlet of Douds in Cat Island, the Bahamas, and pledged that “my goal, with your help, is to make sure that all States have a voice in the affairs of UNESCO.”

The General Conference, in session until 23rd October, will determine the Programme and Budget of UNESCO for 2010-2011 and elect a Director-General for the Organization. Several heads of State and Government are expected to visit the General Conference in coming weeks. The session will also feature a Ministerial Forum on strategies to overcome the economic crisis and two ministerial roundtables, one on education another on responsible ocean governance.

• Author(s):UNESCOPRESS
• Source:Press Release No.2009-114
• 07-10-2009

• Photo 2 : © UNESCO/D. Bijeljac - Filip Vujanovi, President of Montenegro