UNESCO SETS DIRECTOR-GENERAL ELECTION PROCEDURES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS FR 001945

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: UNESCO SCUL PREL
SUBJECT: UNESCO SETS DIRECTOR-GENERAL ELECTION PROCEDURES

REF: PARIS FR 1185


1. UNESCO's Executive Board at its session ending October 21
established the procedures for electing Director-General Koichiro
Matsuura's successor when the latter's term expires November 2009.
The Board settled on the following steps:

A) Immediately after the conclusion of the Board's autumn 2008
session, the Chairman of the Executive Board will send to member
states "a letter (text in Para 3 below) inviting them to submit to
him confidentially by 31 May 2009 at the latest, the names of
candidates for the post of Director-General."

B) Member states will be formally informed of the names of the
candidates in June 2009.

C) Candidates must submit to the Board by 1 August 2009 a 2000 word
statement setting out their vision for UNESCO.

D) Members will have the chance to interview candidates at the
Executive Board's September 2009 session.

E) The Executive Board at its September 2009 session will choose by
secret ballot a candidate to recommend to the October 2009 General
Conference.

F) The General Conference will select the Director General at its
October 2009 session.


2. Comment: There is still time for additional candidates to enter
the race. Although Egypt's culture minister Farouq Husni and the
UNESCO ambassadors of Bulgaria and Lithuania have all announced
their intention to run (reftel),as of October 22, the race had not
yet formally begun. In addition to the declared candidates
mentioned above, we hear that Brazil is weighing the possibility of
naming a candidate and that others in the Middle East, Eastern
Europe, and Latin America may be considering doing so as well.
There is no formal rule setting out which region should be entitled
to have the next Director General. East Europeans point out that
one of theirs has never held the post, and the Arabs claim it is
their turn to have it. While Egypt succeeded in convincing Morocco
to withdraw the candidacy of Morocco's UNESCO Ambassador, Aziza
Benani, we are still hearing rumors that Algeria and Lebanon may be
considering nominations. This mission continues to believe that it
is in the U.S. interest to have as many candidates as possible enter
the race.


3. Text of the Chairman of the Executive Board's letter seeking
nomination:

Begin Text.

24 October 2008

Sir/Madam,

The General Conference, at its 33rd session, appointed Mr Koichiro
Matsuura Director-General of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization for a second term of office of
four years from 15 November 2005 (33 C/Resolution 07). This term of
office will therefore end on 14 November 2009.

The provisions concerning the appointment of the Director-General,
which appear in Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, are as
follows:

"2. The Director-General shall be nominated by the Executive Board
and appointed by the General Conference for a period of four years,
under such conditions as the Conference may approve. The
Director-General may be appointed for a further term of four years
but shall not be eligible for reappointment for a subsequent term.
The Director-General shall be the chief administrative officer of
the Organization."

Further, the Rules of Procedure of the General Conference and the
Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board contain provisions
relating to this matter, which are reproduced in Annex A.

To give effect to the above-mentioned constitutional provisions and
regulations the Executive Board, at its 180th session (30
September-21 October 2008),instructed me forthwith to invite the
Governments of all Member States to communicate to it confidentially
the names and biographical details of women and men who could be
considered as candidates for the post of Director-General. The Board
will be very grateful if your Government is able to assist it in
this connection by suggesting the names of persons, not necessarily
restricted to nationals of your country, who might be considered to
possess the necessary qualifications.

As my predecessors have done before, in similar circumstances, I
have the honour to recommend respectfully that the Governments of
Member States take account of personal, professional and
administrative qualities in the careers of candidates whom they wish
to propose, which are likely to qualify them for the discharge of
international duties at a high level. Vision, responsibility,
objectivity, equanimity and ability to resist all pressure are
foremost among these qualities.

In doing so, Member States may be invited to recall UNESCO's mission
most recently set out in document 34 C/4: "As a specialized agency
of the United Nations, UNESCO contributes to the building of peace,
the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and
intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture,
communication and information."

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, inter alia, 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;

- understanding of, and sensitivity to civil society as an important
UNESCO constituency.

The above-mentioned qualities, which are not exhaustive and are
referred to indicatively, reflect the duties and responsibilities of
the Director-General as envisaged in Article VI of UNESCO's
Constitution. It should be noted that, according to the
Constitution, "the responsibilities of the Director-General and of
the staff shall be exclusively international in character. In the
discharge of their duties they shall not seek or receive
instructions from any government or from any authority external to
the Organization. They shall refrain from any action which might
prejudice their positions as international officials. Each State
Member of the Organization undertakes to respect the international
character of the responsibilities of the Director-General and the
staff, and not to seek to influence them in the discharge of their
duties".

Attached for your information is a draft contract based on the
contract approved by the General Conference in 33 C/Resolution 07 at
the time of the appointment of Mr Koichiro Matsuura (Annex B). The
Executive Board may amend this draft contract before submitting it
to the General Conference, which is obviously at liberty to modify
the conditions thereof.

The seat of the Organization is in Paris and the two working
languages of the Secretariat are English and French.

It is intended to continue the procedure established in 1999 when
the Executive Board introduced interviews of candidates into the
procedure for the nomination of the Director-General. The Executive
Board has suggested the following procedure:

- each candidate may make a presentation of his/her vision of
UNESCO, followed by a question-and-answer session with the Board
members. Details of the duration and format of the interview will be
made available in due course.

The Executive Board attaches the utmost importance to the
nominations made by Governments being treated as strictly
confidential. For this reason, they should be sent, under registered
cover marked "Personal and confidential", to the Chair of the
Executive Board, at the following address: UNESCO, 7 place de
Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP.
To enable them to be better known by the Board and to give them the
opportunity to set out their vision for UNESCO, I will invite the
candidates to submit to the Executive Board, no later than 1 August
2009, a text not exceeding 2,000 words, in any of the six working
languages of the Executive Board (Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
Russian, Spanish). Furthermore, the Board will interview all the
candidates in English or French at its 182nd session, to be held in
September 2009.

In the opinion of the Executive Board, the Member States' replies
must reach me at the latest by 31 May 2009, so that I could make a
public statement on these candidatures no later than 8 June 2009.

No candidatures will be accepted beyond the deadline of 31 May

2009.

Accept, Sir/Madam, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai

cc: Permanent Delegations to UNESCO
Executive Board Members
National Commissions

End Text.

ENGELKEN