Philippe Vaillant took part Monday, November 16th to the 70th anniversary of UNESCO, to represent ISOCARP under its collective cooperation with UNESCO. This event took place for the 38th General Conference (GC38).
The 70th UNESCO’s anniversary arrive three days after the attacks in Paris, and was to be canceled. But the General Director Irina Bokova took the decision to maintain it, while proposing a new agenda: terrorism was indeed the starting point of all interventions, followed by the way to stop this terrorism with the values of UNESCO.
More than ever the Constitution of UNESCO reveals its relevance, as expressed by Irina Bokova in her introduction :
“(…) Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed”
1 / Summary of President of State speeches on the 70th anniversary
Here is a summary of each word of the interventions:
1 – The President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, emphasizes social integration to prevent radicalization and take the example of Europe
2 – The President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, advocates for humanism, cultural diversity, peace and tolerance.
3 – The President of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov, defends the value of religious heritage shared by Christians and Muslims. This heritage, target of terrorists is to protect.
4 – The president of Libya deplores the sale of heritage of humanity by terrorists
5 – The State of Niger presents the “joking kinship”, cement of unity in Niger and solution against conflicts. This intangible heritage is now recognized by UNESCO
6 – Several former Directors General then took the floor.
Finally, solutions to terrorism can be grouped into three points:
1 – The common heritage of humanity (multiculturel use in the case of Macedonia). A people without memory is a people without a future. The GC38 adopt measures to protect heritage in time of war.
2 – Education: it is included in the fourth item on the Global Agenda for sustainable development, and is central to the Framework for Action for Education 2030, approved in GC38 by more than 180 states.
3 – “living together our differences,” cultural, and spiritual differences (Working for multi-cultural and multi-spiritual societies)
ISOCARP is engaged on each of these themes in several congresses.
For ISOCARP what can be done with UNESCO ?
2 / Role ISOCARP at UNESCO:
ISOCARP can be active at UNESCO in two ways:
1 / By participating under the collective cooperation with UNESCO-NGO Forums organized in the year and working actively in the preparatory committees (see below point 2.1)
2 / By developing a formal partnership with UNESCO (see below 2.2)
2.1 / Next year: 2 FORUM NGO-UNESCO: Peace, and “Environment, Climate and Oceans” (working title)
Forum NGO-UNESCO “Peace”
This Forum is announced for the 1st semester
Forum NGO-UNESCO “Environment, climate and océans” (working title)
Announced for the 2nd semester, probably in Autumn
This second Forum 2016 would be the object of particular attention from ISOCARP after several congress where water plays a central role (1998 Azores “Land and Water”, 1999: Gelsenkirchen, water control in Emscher Park, 2013: Brisbane in several key interventions, 2014: Poland “Water and Cities”, …). ISOCARP’s expertise will be appreciated.
2.2 / Official Partnership with UNESCO:
An official partnership with UNESCO request a medium- and long-term work (several years). This point is developed by Janine MARIN.
3 / Participation Ph. Vaillant:
My participation will focus in 2016 on the second Forum ONG-UNESCO and aims to make a substantive input following COP21, and all the Congress where the water theme was predominant .
ISOCARP was particularly well represented at the Forum Yamoussoukro water by two interventions (J.Marin and P.Vaillant), visible on Internet at :
http://www.ngo-unesco.net/fr/pdf/2014-07-28_DOSSR-GIRE-eJM.pdf
http://www.ngo-unesco.net/fr/pdf/ALL%20GOUTTE%20D%20EXPERIENCE.pdf