Election of the UNESCO Director General: 2009

11/23/09

How to Read the Blog

This blog can now be seen to serve as a documentation of the recent election for the post of Director General of UNESCO. For that purpose it might best be read in the following order:

The Background

Biographical Information on the Candidates

Candidates' Vision Statements

Coverage of the Campaign (prior to the first vote of the Executive Board)

Coverage During the Voting by the Executive Board

The Election in the UNESCO General Conference

Post Election Materials

Commentary

The voting in the Executive Board was, as expected, the defining element of the election. Prior to that voting most of the press coverage was framed around the candidacy of Farouk Hosny -- his leadership position in the race and the likely challengers. Perhaps as a result of that framing, several key forces aligned against his candidacy. Arrayed against Hosny were several candidates, the strongest of whom appeared to be two Permanent Delegates to UNESCO (Bokova and Marciulionyte) and an European Union Commissioner (Ferrero-Waldner). The only candidate from the Americas (Baki) appeared as a dark horse who was rumored to have the support of the United States delegation. Candidates tended all to have visible presence on the Internet, campaign brochures, and hospitality suites at key events. Several of the candidates spent time traveling to UNESCO member nation capitols to promote their candidacies, most importantly the eventual winner, Irina Bokova. The strong support of top officials from their home governments was important for several candidates, suggesting that there was some important behind the scenes electioneering going on.

Ultimately, it appears that the negative campaign opposing Hosny was effective. There was little public discussion of the negative aspects of other candidacies until they became serious challengers to Hosny. Ultimately, it appears that Hosny could not expand his lead to a majority of the delegates to the Executive Board and a majority finally coalesced around his principal opponent, Bokova.

The General Conference did not unanimously support the recommendation of the Executive Board, but did so by a large majority.

Ultimately, the Organization selected its first woman Director General and the first from Group 2 -- the former Communist nations. In doing so, it rejected the bid of the candidate of the Arab nations who would have been the second Muslim and the second person from Group 5 and the African nations.

Of course, it is important that all the leading candidates were multilingual, with experience in high level government posts, and counted significant diplomatic experience in their backgrounds. None was a globally recognized leader in education, science nor communications. Indeed, the only scientist in the field got few votes and dropped out early. Hosny, as long term Minister of Culture of Egypt, was the only candidate with major credentials in management of one of UNESCO's key sectors.

Normalization Politics on the Nile

Ursula Lindsey, a Cairo based reporter, published this article in Middle East Report describing the boycott of Israel by Egyptian intellectuals and defining that as a context for Farouk Hosny's opposition to cultural normalization with Israel during his decades as Minister of Culture of Egypt, and the brouhaha in Egypt when in running for Director General of UNESCO he appeared to some Egyptians to be wavering on that opposition.

The article describes also the opposition that arose against Minister Hosny's UNESCO candidacy, led by Jewish intellectuals (but by no means limited to them), based on his history of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel remarks.

It does not deal with the opposition to the candidacy based on other factors, and as such is not a complete documentation of the UNESCO election bit of Minister Hosny. Reporter Lindsey does however make a strong case for rethinking Egyptian tactics in support of the Palestinian cause, especially in the more effective targeting of the boycott.

11/5/09

"Yo ya me he convertido en un símbolo"

Fuente: ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ BARCA, El Pais (Espana), 05/11/2009

Dice estar decidida a impulsar la institución, un tanto paquidérmica y adormecida. "Tenemos que convertir la Unesco en una suerte de conciencia de la humanidad. Nuestra labor es fortalecer el humanismo, la dignidad, el diálogo. Es mi ambición". ¿Y qué papel desempeña en eso el director general? "Yo ya me he convertido en un símbolo", dice sin petulancia.

Ama la música, toca el piano, le gusta la arqueología y cuando era estudiante le apasionaban las novelas de ciencia-ficción con trasfondo moral: Ray Bradbury, Stanislaw Lem... Ahora ya no. Para leer en su casa, se olvida de ese futuro al que alude constantemente, y se sumerge en los libros de historia.

10/28/09

"Media flurry demonizes Egyptian culture minister"

Source: HAZEL HEYER, eTurboNews (eTN), October 26, 2009

"Egyptian reviews and numerous opinions have been expressed in newspapers throughout Egypt about the recent defeat of Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. His defeat happened in the last round of the elections for UNESCO’s director-general post. Diverse opinions - contradictory or complementary – flood the press from the assumption of a conspiracy orchestrated by the so-called American axis of evil, as they call him, to the idea of a missed opportunity to develop the Arab-West dialogue.

"Not long after Minister Farouk Hosni lost the last round of the elections for UNESCO’s top position, the gates of media hell flung wide open. The press in Egypt reflected on the subject from different points of view. Under the headline, 'Collusion,' al-Musawwar of September 23, 2009 wrote, Hosni lost with honor and Washington lost its own. The Al-Musawwar ascribed his failure to the conspiracy of the 'American axis of evil; Germany, Japan and Israel.'”

Read "Egyptian minister declares 'culture war' on Israel"

10/24/09

UNESCO General Conference: Irina Bokova sworn in as Director-General

The 35th session of UNESCO’s General Conference, which ended on Friday, was marked by the election of Irina Bokova as Director-General of the Organization and the adoption of the new programme and budget for 2010 and 2011. Two ministerial round tables, focused respectively on education and the oceans, a ministerial Forum and the launch of the “World Report, Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue,” were among the highlights of the 35th session.

Egypt's Post Election Action in Berlin

Berlin’s war-ruined Neues Museum opens last week after 70 years, rebuilt from rubble left by World War II bombing as a home for Queen Nefertiti’s bust and the city’s Egyptian and prehistory collections. (See the article on Bloomberg.com.) Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist has announced that his country wants either evidence that the bust was obtained legally a century ago, or in the absence of such proof, the return of the world famous object itself.

Last week, the Louvre returned five objects to Egypt that it had purchased between 2000 and 2003. The objects, discovered in a tomb near Luxor in 1980, had been the object of demands for their return in the past without success, but recently the Egyptian government had suspended relations with the Louvre and suspended its excavations at Saqqara. (See the article from Al Ahram Weekly.)

The New York Times now reports:

It didn’t go unnoticed in Paris, Berlin or Cairo that Mr. Hawass pressed his case about Nefertiti and suspended the excavations by the Louvre just after his country’s culture minister, Farouk Hosny, bitterly lost a bid to become director general of the United Nations’ cultural agency, Unesco. The post went late last month to a Bulgarian diplomat instead........

In any case, days after the Unesco decision, Mr. Hawass went after France and Germany. When questioned about the timing, he insisted there was no connection, saying he had asked the French to return the artifacts two months earlier. But that was when Mr. Hosny’s campaign had already started to fall apart.

10/17/09

Dream for the future

“It is my dream to nurture relations of perfect synergy between the Director-General and Member States, so as to move together towards the creation of societies that are more just and prosperous, based on knowledge, tolerance and equal opportunity for all, thanks to education, science, culture and access to information. I shall be guided in my work by my concept of a new humanism for the 21st century.”
Irina Bokova, the newly elected Director General of UNESCO

10/16/09

Irina Bokova elected Director-General of UNESCO

The 35th Session of the General Conference today elected Irina Bokova of Bulgaria as the tenth Director-General of UNESCO. The investiture will take place in a ceremony on Friday 23 October 2009, when Irina Bokova will become the first woman to hold the post since the foundation of the Organization in 1945.

10/14/09

"Play politics with Unesco and you defeat its mission"

In a world plagued by environmental, economic, military and political calamities, it is wrong to deal with culture, education and science as mere pieces on a square-checkered political chessboard. Co-operation in scientific and cultural pursuits are the stepping stones for realizing harmony and unity between nations and create a platform for universal dialogue and co-operation. This must be Unesco’s mandate.

Muhammad Ayish
Al Arabiya
09 October 2009

9/28/09

I am on vacation and may not be posting for a couple of weeks.

The Executive Board has done its work, and the General Conference will consider the recommendation in Octover. I am on vacation, and will not post until I return, I do expect to post on the General Conference.

9/22/09

Bokova Elected

The UNESCO website has confirmed that Irina Bokova has won the Executive Board election to be Director General of UNESCO.

Read the official notification of the selection.

I have three independent unofficial reports from reliable sources that Irina Bokova received 31 votes to 27 votes for Farouk Hosny in the fifth round of voting for the position of UNESCO Director General. Having received the majority of votes from the 58 members of the Executive Board, her name will be forwarded to the General Conference.

Read:

Charge: Farouk Hosny Helped Hijackers of Achille Lauro Escape

The New York Times yesterday reported:

Elaph.com, an Arabic-language Web site, published Saturday what it said were private admissions by Mr. Hosny that when he was the Egyptian cultural attaché in Rome, he helped to organize the escape from Italy in 1985 of the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. In that episode, a retired American Jewish tourist in a wheelchair was shot and pushed into the sea, horrifying much of the world.

Here is the Elaph.com article in Arabic.

Indications of his involvement in the escape of Abu Abbas appear to be widely available in the Arabic literature:

http://dostor.org/ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32600&Itemid=58
http://www.egyptiantalks.org/invb/?showtopic=52234
http://www.almatareed.org/vb/showthread.php?t=409
http://www.engineerportsaid.com/2009/01/blog-post_6870.html
http://4flying.com/archive/index.php/t-21858.html

Farouk Hosny was the Director of the Egyptian Academy in Rome when he was tapped, two years after the Achille Lauro affair, to become Minister of Culture. According to Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council on Antiquities, while in Rome

Farouk Hosni was not well known by the public, but he was known and respected as a talented artist within the cultural community. Several reporters visited Farouk Hosni in Rome including my friend Mostafa El Nagar and Ahmed Abu Kaf. When they were interviewing Farouk Hosni he confided in them that Atef Sedky wanted him to be Egypt’s minister of culture but he did not want the job. Upon hearing this Abu Kaf said to Mustafa that Farouk Hosni was dreaming and there was no way he could be the minister of culture. Many people wanted to be the minister of culture including famous writers and journalists.

The story of the Achille Lauro Hijacking

On October 7, 1985, led by Abu Abbas, men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt as she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said. After being refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers killed disabled American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and then threw him overboard.[1] The ship headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations, the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner in exchange for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner.

United States President Ronald Reagan ordered that the plane be intercepted and directed to land at Naval Air Station Sigonella, a N.A.T.O. base in Sicily, where four hijackers were arrested by the Italians after a disagreement between American and Italian authorities. The other passengers on the plane (possibly including the hijackers' leader, Abu Abbas) were allowed to continue on to their destination, despite protests by the United States. Egypt demanded an apology from the U.S. for forcing the airplane off course. Italy refused extradition of the prisoners to the United States and they were tried in Italy.

The fate of those convicted of the hijacking was varied:

Bassam al-Asker was granted parole in 1991. He died on February 21, 2004.
Ahmad Marrouf al-Assadi disappeared in 1991 while on parole.
Youssef Majed al-Molqi, convicted of killing Leon Klinghoffer [2], was sentenced to 30 years, left the Rebibbia prison in Rome on February 16, 1996, on a 12-day furlough, and fled to Spain, where he was recaptured and extradited back to Italy. On April 29, 2009, Italian officials released him from prison on good behaviour.[4][5] In June 2009, however, al-Molqui's attorney told the Associated Press that the Italian authorities had placed his client in a holding cell and were about to deport him to Syria.[6]
Abu Abbas left the jurisdiction of Italy and was convicted in absentia. In 1996, he made an apology for the hijacking and murder, and spoke out in favor of peace talks between Palestinians and Israel; the apology was rejected by the U.S. government and Klinghoffer's family, who insisted he be brought to justice. Abbas was captured in Iraq in 2003 by the U.S. military during its 2003 invasion of Iraq. He died in U.S. custody March 8, 2004.
Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. He served 20 and three more on parole and on July 7, 2008, he was expelled from an illegal immigrant detention center in Rome. He plans to appeal this arguing that he has nowhere else to go since Lebanon will not allow his return as he was born in a refugee camp and is thus not a Lebanese citizen.

9/21/09

The Fifth and "Final" Round of Voting

Irina Gueorguieva Bokova (Bulgaria) and Farouk Hosny (Egypt) are the two remaining candidates in the election, after a tied vote in the fourth round on 21 September. The fifth and final round is scheduled to take place at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday 22 September.

According to the New York Times:

If the vote remains tied on Tuesday, the 193-member General Conference will choose a new director general next month, and Mr. Hosny is expected to win in the larger body, where Egypt is thought to have more influence.

Here are some articles following the tie on the 4th round:

Read:

4th Round a Tie, Ferrero-Waldner and Baki Withdrew

I just heard from three independent trusted sources in Paris that no one had received a majority in the fourth round of voting, and that the selection will go to a fifth round tomorrow. According to the rules, the voting tomorrow will be between the top two on today's vote.

Voting for the UNESCO Director General
Candidate	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4
Farouk Hosny	22	23	25	29
Irina Bokova	8	8	13	29
Benita Ferrero-Waldner	7	9	11	0
Ivonne Baki	7	8	9	0
Ina Marciulionyte	3	4	0	0
Alexander Yakovenko	7	3	0	0
Noureini Tidjani-Serpos	2	2	0	0
Sospeter Muhongo	1	1	0	0
Mohammed Bedjaoui	0	0	0	0
Blank	1	0	0	0
Total	58	58	58	58

Earlier:

I heard a rumor that Ivonne Baki has withdrawn from the election for the new Director General of UNESCO. That would leave the voting among three candidates, Farouk Hosny, Irina Bokova and Mohammed Bedjaoui. The last of these three has not received a single vote in the first three rounds and would appear to be a very dark horse.

Read:

9/20/09

Reports that EU Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner Withdraws from UNESCO Run

There are several recent media reports that Benita Ferrero-Waldner has withdrawn her candidacy for the post of UNESCO Director General.

That would appear to leave three candidates in the race:

Farouk Hosny
Irina Bokova
Ivonne Baki

9/19/09

Results of the Third Round of Voting

Voting for UNESCO Director General
Candidate	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Farouk Hosny	22	23	25
Irina Bokova	8	8	13
Benita Ferrero-Waldner	7	9	11
Ivonne Baki	7	8	9
Ina Marciulionyte	3	4	0
Alexander Yakovenko	7	3	0
Noureini Tidjani-Serpos	2	2	0
Sospeter Muhongo	1	1	0
Mohammed Bedjaoui	0	0	0
Blank	1	0	0
Total	58	58	58

The fourth round is scheduled for Monday 21 September at 6.30 p.m.

Read:

The Nine Original Candidates

From left to right:

Nouréini TIDJANI-SERPOS (Benin)
Farouk HOSNY (Egypt)
Benita FERRERO-WALDNER (Austria)
Ina MARČIULIONYTĖ (Lithuania)
The Chairman of UNESCO’s Executive Board, Ambassador Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yaï (Benin)
Ivonne JUEZ de A. BAKI (Ecuador)
Mohammed BEDJAOUI (Algeria)
Irina Gueorguieva BOKOVA (Bulgarie)
Alexander Vladimirovich YAKOVENKO (Russian Federation)
Sospeter Mwijarubi MUHONGO (United Republic of Tanzania)

9/18/09

Results of the second round of voting

Farouk Hosny 23

Benita Ferrero-Walder 9

Ivonne Baki 8

Irina Bokova 8

Ina Marciulionyte 4

Alexander Yakovenko 3

Noureini Tidjani-Serpos 2

Sospeter Muhongo 1

Mohammed Bedjaoui 0

As compared with the first round, Ferrero-Waldner gained two votes, Farouk Hosny, Ivonne Baki and Ina Marciulionyte gained one vote each, and Alexander Yakovenko dropped four votes. The was one blank ballot on the first round, and none on the second.

I got this information from three independent sources.

Third ballot tomorrow (Saturday) around 3pm Paris time/9am Washington time.

Press coverage of the second round:

9/17/09

More coverage of the election and the candidates

Starting after the first vote toward the selection of the new Director General of UNESCO I will post links to news articles as I find them. This list extends the previous list which has more than 200 links.

The First Round of Voting

The first round of voting ended a couple of hours ago in Paris. I have had several reports on the totals which are in general agreement/

Farouk Hosny, the Egyptian candidate as expected had most votes, but was far from the majority of 30 needed to be selected.

Irina Bokova (Bulgaria), Alexander Yakovenko (Russia), Ivonne Baki (Ecuador) and Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Austria) were bunched with 7 or 8 votes each.

The remaining candidates (Marciulionyte, Muhongo, Tadjani and Bedjaoui) were far behind.

I understand that there is to be another vote tomorrow.

Recall that the Executive Board has some 60 items on its agenda so the delegates have a great deal to do beside the election of a new Director General.

Remember, that the rules allow the voting to end when any candidate gets a majority on a ballot. If that has not happened by the fourth vote, the voting in the fifth round is limited to the two candidates who received the most votes on the fourth.

Read:

Incidentally, this website has had more than 8,000 visits in less than a month.

9/16/09

The Poll

Thanks to all the people who took the time to vote in the poll.

I added a poll to this website to allow people to express their opinions on who should be elected Director General of UNESCO. As I write this, there have been 4650 votes recorded, the vast majority for Ina Marciulionyte (4424 votes).

Four other candidates have enough votes to show up on the graph of results: Ivonne Baki (44 votes), Irina Bokova (28 votes), Benita Ferrero-Waldner (42 votes), and Farouk Hosny (42 votes).

In the first days of the poll, Ivonne Baki took the lead. That lead rapidly deteriorated as the Marciulionyte faction started registering votes.

In interpreting this data you have to recognize that one vote does not represent one person, and the domination of Ms. Marciulionyte is almost certainly the result of her supporters mobilizing more effectively to cast votes. The number of "real votes" is quite small. 70 votes were divided among the other three candidates, with none getting as many as 28 votes.

Mohammed Bedjaoui was not included in the poll as it was thought he had withdrawn from the competition when the poll was created.

I suppose the conclusions that can be drawn are that Ina Marciulionyte's supporters are more effective in using the Internet, and perhaps that support in cyberspace for the other candidates is fairly evenly split.

In another unscientific poll, a Egyptian blogger strongly opposed to the candidacy of Farouk Hosny asked her readers whether Farouk Hosny deserved to win the UNESCO Chair. The results as of this writing are 14 yes, 91 no.

9/15/09

Interviews Were Held Today

Following the rules of the Executive Board of UNESCO, each of the candidates for the post of Director General of UNESCO was interviewed by the Board today. With nine interviews, scheduled for an hour each, it must have been a long day.

After a long debate on Friday and Monday, Mohammed Bedjaoui was included in the interviews. The Algerian, nominated by the Government of Cambodia, had sought to withdraw from the race but his resignation was apparently not accepted. Apparently he made a strong impression on the Board -- not surprisingly due to his impressive career.

The voting is to take place on Thursday, September 17. You may recall that if a candidate does not obtain the majority of votes on any of the first four ballots, then the fifth ballot is to be limited to the top two candidates on the fourth ballot.

We will soon know who will get the nod from the Executive Board, to be recommended to the entire General Conference which meets in October.

While Farouk Hosny, the Egyptian Minister of Culture, continues to claim leadership in the race, others suggest it is still open, with several contenders having a chance for selection.

Read the UNESCO News Service release on the session.

7/26/09

The Election of the UNESCO Director General

A new Director General is to be elected for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization this year. A total of nine candidatures were received by the Executive Board. They are (in chronological order of reception):

- Ms Ina MARČIULIONYTĖ (Lithuania) Candidature proposed by: Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia

- Mr Mohammed BEDJAOUI (Algeria) Candidature proposed by: Cambodia

- Ms Irina Gueorguieva BOKOVA (Bulgaria) Candidature proposed by: Bulgaria

- Mr Farouk HOSNY (Egypt) Candidature proposed by: Egypt, Kowait, Sudan, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

- Mr Sospeter Mwijarubi MUHONGO (United Republic of Tanzania) Candidature proposed by: United Republic of Tanzania

- Mr Alexander Vladimirovich YAKOVENKO (Russian Federation) Candidature proposed by: Russian Federation

- Ms Ivonne JUEZ de A. BAKI (Ecuador) Candidature proposed by: Ecuador

- Ms Benita FERRERO-WALDNER (Austria) Candidature proposed by: Austria, Colombia

- Mr Nouréini TIDJANI-SERPOS (Benin) Candidature proposed by: Benin

Each candidate is to present a brief document with a vision for the future of UNESCO, and the candidates are to be interviewed by the UNESCO Executive Board in September. The Executive Board is to recommend a candidate to the General Conference, which in turn is to elect the new Director General during its meeting in October.

The rules for the selection of the candidate for the position of Director General to be nominated to the General Conference by the Executive Board (182 EX/INF.9)
The announcement of the candidates from UNESCO with additional information on the election process.
A news item from UNESCO news on the Executive Board meeting.
UN Eleactions: "UNESCO Receives Nine Candidatures for Director-General, Interviews Set for September"
SciDev.Net: "Who Will Be the Next Head of UNESCO" by Yojana Sharma
SciDev.Net: "Last-Minute Candidates Vie for UNESCO's Top Posts" by Yojana Sharma
Deutscher KulturRAT: "UNESCO – more than just culture, but less than just politics" by Andreas Westerwinter
UNESCO in the Spotlight: "Editorial: Electing a New Director General for UNESCO" by John Daly
UNESCO in the Spotlight: "Thoughts About Choosing a New Director General for UNESCO" by John Daly
TerraViva United Nations: "UNESCO Race Wide Open" by Alecia D. McKenzie
"Why UNESCO is not going to get the leadership it needs" by John Daly

Here are some articles reporting on prior elections:

The Deccan Chronicle: "Chequebook Diplomacy" by Thalif Deen
Taqaza: "The hypocracy of it all" by Kamran Shafi
The New York Times: "Campaigning for a Top Job at UNESCO" by Barbara Corssette
The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka): "Day of Cheque Book Diplomacy in Paris" annonymous editorial
The Don-A Ilbo (South Korea): "How Japanese Diplomats Got Appointed to Top Int'l Posts" annonymous
The Guardian: UNESCO's "New Head Vows to End Corruption"
Le Monde: "Le Japonais Koichiro Matsuura va succéder à Federico Mayor à la tête de l'Unesco"
The New York Times: "UNESCO Director Withdraws Bid for Reelection"
Al Ahram Weekly: "New departures for UNESCO?"
U.N. Wire: "Battle For Top Job Goes Public"
Save UNESCO: "UNESCO's Director Generals: A History of Boldness"
Asian Tribune: "The Battle for the Top Job at UNESCO"
Asian Tribune: "A Post Mortem on UNESCO Director General Election"

Prior to the formal nominations by the representatives of member nations of UNESCO, there was a process in which various individuals were identified as potential candidates. Several individuals from Arab nations were floated as possible candidates, but eventually withdrawn in favor of Farouk Hosny. There was a considerable controversy in Brazil about two possible Brazilian candidates, neither of whom were finally nominated.

A note on this website:

This website seeks to make a broad body of information on the election and candidates available to all interested parties. I neither seek nor will I accept financial contributions from any source for its content or upkeep. The website is made possible by the free, public services of Blogger, Google, Google translate and Google alerts. Thanks to those who have suggested published reports that might be of interest to its readers. John Daly

Criteria for Evaluation of Candidates for the Post of Director General of UNESCO

The candidates for the post of Director General should be judged on how well qualified they are to carry out the functions of their important post. It is often useful to define a set of explicit criteria against which those qualifications may be judged. This posting is an attempt to define such criteria. It is assumed without stating that all the candidates nominated by member states are persons of high moral character, physically fit to carry out the arduous duties of the Office.

In its letter to the member states inviting nominations for the Post of Director General, the Executive Board wrote the following:

In facing the challenges of the new millennium, it is important to highlight the personal qualities required for the UNESCO Director-General. The point of departure is that the General Conference, in the interests of all Member States, should appoint the best person for the post who should have the following qualities:
leadership and proven administrative and management skills;
a strong commitment to all the objectives of the Organization;
a visionary and active approach to the role of UNESCO in the community of nations;
good knowledge of the United Nations system;
commitment to the highest moral and ethical standards;
strong communication skills so as to develop effective internal and external communication strategies, vision and objectives for the Organization;
empathy and sensitivity to civil society as an important UNESCO constituency by utilizing, as appropriate, the existing structures and in particular the National Commissions for UNESCO."

(Tony Fleming, in his report titled "Improving Global Leadership Selection" has summarized the criteria used by other agencies of the United Nations system.)

While I do not disagree with the general criteria identified by the Board, it seems to me that more specificity might be useful. Here is a complementary list of criteria that might be considered:

General Criteria

Demonstrated effective action for the promotion of peace.

Demonstrated effective action for the promotion and conduct of dialog among diverse cultural groups.

Skills in international diplomacy.

Demonstrated effective action in assisting in social and economic development in an international context.

Organizational Skills

Ability to manage and reform a large complex intergovernmental organization, demonstrated by education and experience.

Ability to interface with and motivate global networks of individuals and organizations, especially the educational, scientific, cultural and other intellectual networks working with UNESCO.

Sectoral Leadership and Management

Education: A strong background in educational management, as might be demonstrated by background as a minister of education or president of a university.

Natural and Social Sciences: A strong background in scientific administration, such as might be demonstrated by background as a minister of science, energy or environment, or direction of a scientific organization such as a research center.

Culture: A strong background in management of cultural institutions, such as might be demonstrated by background as a minister of culture or direction of a cultural organization such as a firm in a cultural industry or a development assistance organization focusing on culture and development.

Communications and Information: A strong background in management of institutions in this field, such as direction of a national library, major newspaper, or media network, or minister of communications and information.

Personal

The Director General should be a public intellectual, capable of obtaining and holding the respect of the international intellectual community.

The Director General should understand broad global social and economic processes that are affecting demands for an on educational, scientific, cultural and communications and information systems.

Of course, no individual is likely to score well against all these criteria. Moreover, not all these criteria deserve equal weight in the selection of the Director General. Thus, the core function of UNESCO is to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men, and demonstrated commitment to the promotion of peace would seem to merit great weight in the selection.

The relative importance of the ability to manage UNESCO’s formal organization versus the ability to mobilize the informal networks that UNESCO catalyzes and stakeholder communities that UNESCO serves should be weighed. I would suggest that while bureaucratic management will continue to be important, it is still more important that the next Director General seek to improve the UNESCO’s outreach to this larger community.

Often through the use of such criteria, candidates can be divided into groups such as:

Highly qualified.
Qualified.
Marginally qualified
Unqualified.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

An assessment of the race for the position of Director General

Geographic Considerations
It is generally believed that the position of Director General of UNESCO should not be monopolized by any one nation, or indeed by any region. Most previous Directors General have been from Western Europe or the United States, with one Asian, one Latin American and one African. There is also an unwritten agreement that the top positions within the United Nations system should be distributed among many nations.

It should be noted that UNESCO divides member nations into five groups, each of which chooses a specified number of members of the Executive Board. (Click here to see a report with the current members by group.) Active nominees according to this grouping are:

Group 1: one nominee (Benita FERRERO-WALDNER, Austria; 6 previous Directors General),
Group 2: three nominees (Irina Gueorguieva BOKOVA. Bulgaria; Ina MARČIULIONYTĖ, Lithuania and Alexander Vladimirovich YAKOVENKO, the Russian Federationl; no previous Directors General)
Group 3: one nominee (Ivonne JUEZ de A. BAKI, Ecuador: one previous Director General)
Group 4: no nominees (the current Director General)
Gruop 5: three nominees (Nouréini TIDJANI-SERPOS, Benin; Farouk HOSNY. Egypt and Sospeter Mwijarubi MUHONGO , Tanzania; one previous Director General)

The voting for Director General is by secret ballot on the basis of one vote per member nation. Developing nations hold the vast majority of the votes. It was thought early in the process of selection that a citizen of an Arab or Islamic nation might have an advantage in this UNESCO election.

The final decision in fact depends on the qualities of the individual candidates and the support that the sponsoring nations are willing to give each candidate.

The Candidates
Nine candidates were formally nominated prior to the deadline. Four are women, and there has never been a woman Director General of UNESCO. Four were from Europe, two from Sub-Saharan Africa, two from North Africa, and one from Latin America.

A number of individuals from Arab nations were reported to be seeking nomination and support for their candidacy, but at last Farouk Hosny was nominated. Mohammed Bedjaoui of Algeria was nominated by Cambodia, but (reportedly under heavy pressure) has withdrawn his candidacy.

Two Brazilians , UNESCO Deputy Director General Marcio Barbosa and Brazilian Senator Cristovam Buarque were considered for nomination by Brazil, but finally neither was nominated, reportedly due to a decision to support the Egyptian candidate.

The Permanent Representatives of Bulgaria (Irina Bokova) and Lithuania (Ina Marctulionyte) were nominated as had been expected, and have been actively campaigning for the position. Assistant Director General for African Programs, Nouréini Tidjani-Serpos was the only member of the Secretariate to receive a formal nomination, that of his country Benin.

There were four nominations that had not been widely expected, Benita Ferrero-Waldner (an Austrian, and the Commissioner for External Relations of the EC), Alexander Vladimirovich Yajivenko (the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation), Ivonne Baki (an Ecuadorian, and the President of the Andean Parliament), and Sospeter Muhongo (a Tanzanian, and Regional Director for Africa of the International Council for Science).

The Campaigns

The only votes that count are those of the representatives of the member states in the governing bodies, and these are usually determined by instructions from their governments. Therefore perhaps the most important aspect of campaigning is done in negotiations between governments, and those negotiations are normally done in secret. In this election, however, there have been a number of news stories that open the process somewhat. Thus we can read the agendas of bi-national diplomatic discussions that include requests for support of a national candidate among other topics. The negotiations between the Egyptian government and those of Israel and France have been the subject of speculation in the press. Russia came up with a unique campaign tactic, offering publicly to increase its contribution to UNESCO from $12 million to $20 million per year if its candidate is chosen.

Candidates themselves have been actively seeking the office by a variety of means. Several attended major meetings supported by UNESCO (World Conference on Higher Education, meeting of the World Heritage Committee). Hospitality suites have been set up in these fora in which candidates can meet permanent representatives to UNESCO from other nations. Several have travelled to meet government officials in key nations. Most have established websites and given interviews with the press discussing their candidacy. Vision statements from most of the candidates have been made available to the public.

There has been quite a bit of press coverage of the election. When Koichiro Matsuura was elected the first time, the Internet was much less developed than it is today. As a result, this year there is much more opportunity for private citizens to be informed about the election and even to express support or opposition to candidates.

The candidacy of Farouk Hosny has proven to be especially controversial, raising vocal opposition from a number of groups, and serious lobbying against his election by a number of member states, as well as strong support from his partisans.. His early lead in the race is reported to have deteriorated. However, he appears to have continued strong support from his government. The government of Israel had at one time opposed his candidacy, but withdrew that opposition. The government of France was at one time announced to be in support of Hosny, but more recently announced that it was not supporting a specific candidate.

Rumors suggest that:

the two African candidates have weakened support for the Egyptian candidate among African nations;
the support from the Islamic nations for the Egyptian candidate is not as solid as had once been believed.
the European nations may be seeking a process by which they can all support a single European candidate.

The Selection Process

The 58 members of the Executive Board will have the opportunity to review the qualification statements for the candidates submitted by their governments, to read the vision statements they themselves have submitted (probably often with the help of their government's UNESCO representatives), and to interview the candidates.

In past elections of new Directors General, the Executive Board did not give a majority to a candidate on the first round of voting, and with eight active candidates it seems quite possible that this time there will be more than one round of voting as well. Thus the process by which members of the Executive Board switch their support from one to another candidate may be important.

The recommendation of the Executive Board is considered likely to be accepted by the General Conference, and Chairman Yai of the Executive Board is likely to play an important role in managing the election process. It is difficult for an outsider to predict in advance which candidate will eventually emerge as the victor. The nomination of a candidate for Director General of UNESCO is one of 62 items on the crowded agenda of this meeting (September 7 - 23, 2009) of the Executive Board.

A good source for news and views on UNESCO and this election is the UNESCO's Friends Group on LinkedIN.

Coverage of the election and candidates

I recommend Google Translate and/or Babel Fish for online translation of articles from their original language to your language.

This set of links is being updated on a daily basis!

The following list is in order that I found the reference, and is not in chronological order of their publication. The articles I believe to be most influential are in red.

Save UNESCO: Why Farouk Hosni Cannot Become the UNESCO's Next Director General is a blog operated by some French students which posts information on UNESCO and the race for Director General. Omar Massalha, a representative of the committee to support Farouk Hosny has asked that I post also a link to their blog: Yes4FaroukHosny.

The Facebook site for "Egyptians Against Nominating Farouk Hosny for UNESCO" has a number of links to articles in Arabic. If you do not read Arabic, I suggest that you can get a rough translation online using Google translate.

I can not post titles in Arabic but here are links to some articles relevent to the election of the new UNESCO Director General in that language:

There are other news articles on these candidates which I have not been posting as they are not specifically related to UNESCO nor the election campaign. This is especially true of Benita Ferrero-Waldner whose duties as EU Commissioner result in a great deal of media coverage. There are also unposted articles discussing Egyptian cultural matters naming Farouk Hosny in his role as Minister of Culture. I have difficulty following the literature posted in the Cyrillic alphabet.