Election of the UNESCO Director General

1/15/13

More on Rachad Farah

In December he sought the support of Ali Bongo Ondimba from Gabon for his candidacy.

UNESCO : Djibouti sollicite le soutien du Gabon

"L’Ambassadeur djiboutien auprès de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’Education, la Science et la Culture (UNESCO), Rachad Farah, a été reçu le mardi 18 décembre dernier à Libreville, par le Président gabonais, Ali Bongo Ondimba, en vue de « solliciter le soutien du Gabon à sa candidature » à la Direction Générale de l’UNESCO. Indique une source officielle."

11/24/12

More on the election

There is a good article in SciDev.Net by Yojana Sharma on the coming election for the post of Director General of UNESCO.

Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), faces an early challenge to her bid to secure a second four-year term, putting in doubt her radical proposal to merge the organisation's science, social science and human sciences programmes.

At a meeting with UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in September, Bulgarian president Rosen Plevneliev announced he will nominate Bokova for a second term beginning in October 2013. But now Djibouti has nominated its ambassador to France, Rachad Farah, with the backing of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The early announcement took diplomats by surprise. A rival bid would not have been expected until early next year.

"It seems like there will actually be a race for the office," says John Daly, former president of the lobby group, Americans for UNESCO. "It is uncommon for the incumbent to be opposed — the last four director-generals averaged ten years in office and the majority served two terms."

The early announcement indicates that Djibouti will need a year of 'shuttle diplomacy' to drum up support, while diplomats in Paris have said that Bokova also needs a year of lobbying to convince member states that she deserves another term.

10/28/12

New Election of UNESCO Director General in 2013

Irina Bokova, the current Director General of UNESCO, was elected to her current four year term in 2009. A new election will be held in 2013. The election should take place in October and November of 2013, based on the recommendation of the preceding Executive Board meeting. Nominations of candidates for the position must be made well in advance.

The previous four people to hold the office all served more than one term:

Koïchiro Matsuura, 1999-2009
Federico Mayor Zaragoza, 1987-1999
Amadou Mahtar M'Bow, 1974-1987
René Maheu (who previously served as Acting DG), 1962-1974

Novinite.com reported on September 24th that Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has officially nominated Irina Bokova for a second term as Director General of UNESCO. However, it also reported on October 26th:

The former Bulgarian president, Geogi Parvanov, said on Thursday that the current Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, was the most suitable figure to lead the Bulgarian Left party (BSP).

Here is the Wikipedia entry for Director General Irina Bokova.

Sabahionline.com reported on September 13th:

Djibouti has nominated Rachad Farah, its ambassador to France and permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), to head the UN agency, Djibouti's La Nation reported Thursday (September 13th).

Here is the Wikipedia entry for Ambassador Rachad Farah (in French).

Leaked U.S. State Department Report on 2009 election.

Wikileaks published the contents of a reporting cable from the U.S. Mission to UNESCO discussing the 2009 election of the UNESCO Director General. Click here to read the cable.

9/5/12

Farouk Hosny Held on Charges of Corruption

The former long-time Egyptian Minister of Culture who led in the early balloting for the position of Director General of UNESCO in 2009 has been charged with corruption by the new Government of Egypt. Here are a few related articles:

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