UNESCO
2007-01-08 11:00 pm

UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector (SHS), wishes you all the best for 2007. We hope this year there will be more and more of us working for peace.

In some respects, as far as UNESCO is concerned, this New Year is starting off with “a wager on life” because on 1 February next, the International Convention against Doping in Sport will come into force.

This Convention was unanimously adopted on 19 October 2005 by UNESCO’s General Conference, and ratified by 30 States in record time. “No other international standard-setting instrument elaborated by UNESCO has been ratified so rapidly”, the Director-General of the Organization, Koïchiro Matsuura, declared recently, adding: “The struggle against doping is a choice of education, an ethical combat for human rights, and a wager on life. Thanks to this Convention, the anti-doping struggle is brought for the first time into the realm of international law. Governments, sporting federations, the Olympic movement and civil society now have a veritable, legally-binding international instrument.”

• The first session of the Conference of States Parties will be held from 5 to 7 February, 2007, at UNESCO headquarters, in Paris, with one of the agenda items being the creation of a Voluntary Contribution Fund for the elimination of doping in sport and modifications to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List.
  
  For more information: www.unesco.org/en/antidoping

• 22-24 January: “From research to policy action”. Meeting organized by the MOST Programme during the World Social Forum. Nairobi, Kenya.
• 22-24 January: International Seminar on “Social sustainability in historical districts”, Beijing, China.
• 5-9 February: 9th International meeting of economists on globalization and development issues. Havana, Cuba.
• 8-9 February: 5th meeting of the Steering Committee of the European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR). London, United Kingdom.
• 12-13 February: Second Forum of Ministers for Social Development of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Conakry, Guinea.
• 12-16 February: Regional workshop on "Youth Initiative on HIV/AIDS, Gender and Human Rights". Bujumbura, Burundi.
• 13-14 February: UNESCO-UNU Bioethics Workshop. Yokohama, Japan.
• 15-16 February: Meeting of experts for drafting guidelines for review of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) from a human rights perspective. UNESCO, Paris, France.
• 17-20 February: Launching of a Forum of Intellectuals for the Horn of Africa. Djibouti.
• 26 February - 2 March: Second Regional MOST Summer School for Latin America and the Caribbean - the fight against poverty and social inequality in local development policies. Salvador de Bahía, Brazil.
• 26-27 February: UNESCO Bioethics Forum. Islamabad, Pakistan.
• 27 February - 1 March: International meeting “Presentation of research findings funded by UNESCO Small Grants Programme on Poverty Eradication”. Lisbon, Portugal.
• 8 March: Celebration of International Women’s Day. UNESCO, Paris, France.
• 12-14 March: Conference on Regional Integration in West Africa. Praia, Cape Verde.
• 19-23 March: Second Bioethics Round Table. Bangkok, Thailand.
• 21 March: Celebration of International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. UNESCO, Paris, France.
• 21- 23 March: International Seminar “Population, Development and Environment in areas of the South”. UNESCO, Room XI, Paris, France.
• 28-30 March: International Forum “Social and Human Sciences and Research for Development: new contexts, new challenges”. UNESCO, Room XI, Paris, France.