ELECTORAL GROUP ONE MEETING RAISES THORNY ISSUES

UNCLAS UNESCO PARIS FR 000231 STATE PASS TO INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, STEVE MORRIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL UNESCO IS SUBJECT: ELECTORAL GROUP ONE MEETING RAISES THORNY ISSUES ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The first Electoral Group I meeting of the year raised several issues that have the potential to complicate Director-General Bokova's agenda at UNESCO. Another unexpected problem for the U.S. also popped up with Turkey announcing its intention to run for the Executive Board. This could potentially make getting a Group I "clean slate" difficult, and complicate U.S. plans to retain our seat. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Luxembourg's Ambassador Georges Santer took over the Electoral Group I chairmanship for the first time at yesterday's meeting, 24 February. He made several comments indicating his intention to make the group more inclusive and to use the meetings to disseminate information related to the Executive Board to all Group I members, instead of limiting it to Group I Executive Board members only. He pointed out that the discussions were not intended to coordinate policy, but rather to exchange information. Experts for Bangkok World Heritage Meeting ¶3. (SBU) Three countries, Israel, Sweden, and Switzerland expressed interest in sending an expert to the Bangkok meeting. France said that it may consider sending someone as well, but has not yet taken a decision. Chairman Santer asked that the countries consult among themselves in order to determine which countries would fill the two slots for Group I. The deadline for relaying the decision to the Secretariat is March 1. Information for All Program ¶4. (SBU) Austria is the only candidate for the Vice-Chairmanship for the Information for All Bureau. Electoral Group I confirmed its support for Austria for this position. Intangible Culture ¶5. (SBU) Spain indicated its interest in obtaining a seat on the Intangible Culture intergovernmental committee. Norway confirmed that it was not a candidate. Executive Board Issues Executive Board Candidates ¶6. (SBU) Turkey announced its intention to run for a seat on the Executive Board next year. Six of the nine Group I seats are to be filled. The six whose terms end in 2011 are: France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and the United States. At least three of the 27 Group I countries have already expressed interest: the United States, Israel and Turkey. France has never gone off the Board, and is unlikely to do so. While it is still very early in the game, it is highly likely that Germany, Italy and Spain will wish to retain their seats for the next term, forcing a squeeze-play even without any other Group I countries adding their names to the list. On this point, the new Swiss ambassador, Mr. Imhoff, suggested that the Group reflect on improving ways to increase rotation for different elections. NGO Committee ¶7. (SBU) Egypt's Charge d'affaires, Mr. Mohammed El-Zahaby, was invited to speak to Group I members, in Egypt's role as the new Chair of the NGO Committee, to provide more information on its proposal to dedicate one day to a forum on "Violence in Nowadays Society Among Youth and Against Women". El-Zahaby asked that each geographic group designate one or more experts. He said that at least one of the experts from each group would be on the panel, while others could contribute during the debate or could send in their comments in written form, which could be annexed to the Committee's report. The new Israeli ambassador, Nimrod Barkan, took the opportunity to announce that Israel would like to nominate an expert for the forum, an Arab-Israeli women, who is a specialist in countering violence against women. Spain also indicated its intention to nominate an expert. El-Zahaby said that Egypt would select the experts in consultation with the geographic groups, and that the decisions would, of course, be balanced in terms of geographic representation. Creation of an NGO Fund and Prize ¶8. (SBU) El-Zahaby also told the Group that it is Egypt's intention to create a fund which would permit NGO's from the South and from less developed countries to participate in the NGO committee's work. He also said Egypt will introduce a proposal to develop a new UNESCO Prize for NGO's. Peace and Culture ¶9. (SBU) The Chairman told Group I members of his meeting with the Ambassadors of Morocco and Guatemala, who are lobbying for their Culture of Peace initiative. An "INF" (information) document is being prepared by the two delegations, and is expected to be available in the next week of so. The Secretariat is also preparing a document on the subject. External Evaluation of UNESCO ¶10. (SBU) The international team of auditors who are carrying out the external evaluation of UNESCO will be meeting with all UNESCO delegations on March 10, and have also asked to meet with Group I members on March 24. Thematic Debate ¶11. (SBU) Executive Board Chairman Mitrofanova has been discussing possible subjects for the next Thematic Debate. Of the two proposals that have been put forward: The Road to 2015: Accelerating Equitable and Sustainable Progress Towards Internationally Agreed Development Goals including the Millennium Development Goals and the Role of UNESCO; and, Intercultural Dialogue in the 2010's - Revisiting Policies Within a Context of a Culture of Peace, the second on the Culture of Peace seems to have the upper hand. No to Longer Speeches ¶12. (SBU) Mitrofanova's suggestion that speaking time for the Executive Board be extended to 10 minutes has been withdrawn. We are back to the standard 8 minute interventions. Madrassas ¶13. (SBU) In a discussion that continued after the meeting among several ambassadors, the question of how to handle the draft resolution regarding madrassas was raised. Germany said that during a recent informal consultation with Mitrofanova and some of the regional Vice-Chairs, there was "a growing uneasiness among all - not on the substance, which was not discussed, but regarding the fact that the draft resolution was not well prepared and lacks information." ¶14. (SBU) Despite Mitrofanova's attempts to get the resolution's co-sponsors to agree to postpone the discussion until the 185th Executive Board, it appeared unlikely they would agree to any delay. Mitrofanova is continuing her efforts to consult with key players, in hopes of finding a solution. The Spanish ambassador said that requesting a report summarizing various "experiments" that have taken place around the world regarding religious schools and certification might be the way out of this dilemma. The French ambassador strongly urged all delegations to consult with their capitals, given what she called the important "political and practical consequences" of any decision taken at UNESCO on this subject. Canada noted that trying to push any action back to the 185th Executive Board would be difficult, and suggested that we try to excise the word "madrassas" from the text, and make it about certification of private schools, tying it to the Global Monitoring Report. Overall there is a great deal of anxiety about how this issue will play out, and how, once again, Bokova's agenda could be side-tracked by the question of religion, particularly after the unfortunate detour her High Level Panel on Intercultural Dialogue took last week when religion took an overly prominent place in the discussions which was not desired, nor intended. Executive Board Consultations ¶15. (SBU) Some surprising tensions were revealed during the discussions, indicating that several Member States were not happy with their perception that the Vice-Chair for Group I on the Executive Board, Germany's ambassador Martina Nibbeling-Wriessnig, was moving too far in policy discussions with Chairman Mitrofanova without having held proper consultations with other Group I members. The German Deputy defended his ambassador, saying that these were "informal" meetings with the Chairman, and were not formal consultations. Israel's New Heritage Sites ¶16. (SBU) In an effort to pre-empt questions on the news stories regarding Israel's decision to list two sites on its National Heritage list, Ambassador Barkan took the floor, and said that these were domestic sites, which will, given their new status, be receiving more money for better upkeep and renovation. He stressed that all decisions regarding the Hebron site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims, will be taken in full coordination with Muslim leaders. There were no comments from delegations following Barkan's intervention. ¶17. (SBU) Comment: While the Electoral Group I meeting gave us a glimpse of several potential problems looming ahead, Turkey's unexpected announcement that it intends to run for the Executive Board will make a Group I "clean slate" with the U.S. as one of the chosen candidates much more complicated. End comment. KILLION