Work Sectors in Mexico
Mexico is a nation with millenary roots. With 68 indigenous ethnic groups and 364 linguistic variants, the country's cultural heritage is vast. It is home to 35 of the sites inscribed on the World Heritage List for the entire Latin American and Caribbean region. Thus, for example, the Mayan culture (from Honduras to Chiapas) is the human culture best represented on this List. Likewise, the Totonaca people are the only indigenous community in the world with three UNESCO nominations: El Tajín, as a World Heritage Site, the Ritual Ceremony of the Flyers, as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and the Center for Indigenous Arts, Xtaxkgakget Makgkaxtlawana, as a Safeguarding Practice.
Mexico City, with its pre-Hispanic and colonial past, its historical and modern heritage as well as its contemporary urban complexity, which includes the coexistence of unparalleled cultural diversity (such as, for example, the coexistence of more of 50 indigenous languages), it is one of the few cities in the world that belongs to four UNESCO international networks: Creative Cities, Learning Cities, International Coalition of Sustainable and Inclusive Cities, as well as the Megalopolis Alliance for Water and Climate.
The cooperation of our Organization with Mexico also covers all of our Sectors. It should not be forgotten that it has one of the largest school communities in the world and that it recently incorporated into its third article of the Constitution, relating to the right to education, recommendations issued by UNESCO, such as language teaching, education throughout life and the culture of peace, among others.
As one of the 12 mega diverse countries, Mexico has a natural capital that places it as the fifth country in the world with the greatest biodiversity. Between 50 and 60 percent of the known species of Mexico are endemic to the country and it is an important center for the domestication and diversification of numerous crops, some of them of great global importance. Thus, it has more than 30 percent of the Biosphere Reserves in the region registered in the Intergovernmental Program "Man and the Biosphere", which, by the way, founded its basic guidelines based on the Mexican experience. Of the 7 UNESCO Geoparks in Latin America and the Caribbean, two of them are located in the country (Comarca Minera and Mixteca Alta).
Through the Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO develops projects aimed at promoting freedom of expression, media development, universal access to information and the safety of journalists. In 2019, Mexico hosted the regional celebration of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, and the Office developed a project to propose legislative improvements and public policies for the benefit of Community and Indigenous Radio stations and together with The Global Alliance for Media and Gender (GAMAG) promoted a Media Pact and Digital Platforms to eradicate violence against girls and women, among other projects.
By the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 we celebrated a series of relevant events: the promulgation, by the United Nations General Assembly, of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) and the celebration, in Mexico, of the first Event High Level "Building a Decade of Actions for Indigenous Languages" with a view to defining the Plan of Action for the Decade. This High Level Event produced the Declaration of Los Pinos.
Since 2019, the UNESCO Office in Mexico has strengthened its cooperation with the country through the signing of 27 Collaboration Agreements: 8 at the federal level, 5 at the state level, 4 at the municipal level, 2 with the private sector, 4 with networks of cities of cities or scientific organizations and 2 with other agencies of the United Nations System and 1 Pact with academia and the media.