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PACIFIC LINK
Australian Permanent Delegation Newsletter to the Pacific Community of UNESCO
Issue 23, 1/2007

Editorial

Welcome to the January 2007 edition of the Pacific Link – a new year, new beginnings. After four years with the privilege to serve as Australia’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO and Deputy Head of Mission to France, I am returning to Canberra shortly to take up the role as Assistant Secretary, Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe Branch. Although my issues do not cover the UN or Pacific, these two subject areas stay close to my heart and I look forward to working on either or both in the years ahead.

During my four years in Paris, I have been fortunate to work across a broad range of areas to promote a deepening and strengthening of Australia-France relations and France’s relations with our region. At UNESCO, the work has been very varied too: negotiating and concluding new international instruments: in culture, both protecting intangible heritage and promoting cultural diversity, in science with the Declaration on Bioethics, and in education, with the OECD/UNESCO Guidelines on Cross Border Education and on Anti-doping in Sport. At the same time, we have tried to reinvigorate programme support, including in vital areas such as Education for All, water, and the development of the Indian Ocean Early Warning System under the auspices of UNESCO’s International Oceanographic Commission - with its regional office in Perth.

Throughout, the Australian Delegation has sought to enhance the efficiency and the effectiveness of the Organization under tight budgetary constraint. We have worked to improve the focus on results-based programming and a truly global outreach of UNESCO with visibility and practical relevance to the lives of people everywhere, including in the most distant UNESCO cluster of the South Pacific.

Improving the value and practical relevance of UNESCO in our region - and to promote the interests of the South Pacific at UNESCO Headquarters - has been one of my major aims. I am happy that we have had some good results, including in important areas like statistics and the Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (for more details see: http//www/france.embassy.gov.au/pari/unesco/org).

2007 will bring UNESCO’s focus to our region with New Zealand’s hosting of the World Heritage Committee Meeting in June. It is vital that we maximize this opportunity to improve heritage protection and promotion in the Pacific through this meeting and related events.

My successor, Sally Mansfield will be commencing in mid January and she – along with other members of the Australian Delegation, including Policy Officer (and this newsletter editor) Anne Siwicki - will continue our efforts to serve as a bridge for the South Pacific countries not represented in Paris /UNESCO Headquarters.

Thank you for your cooperation and for the warm friendship (and kava!) that I have enjoyed with many of you these past years. Happy New Year 2007 - go well.

Jane Madden



60th Anniversary of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO

Australia was a foundation member of UNESCO, and moved quickly to establishing a National Commission. The first meeting of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO was held on 29 April 1947, one year after the birth of UNESCO. In the intervening 60 years many eminent Australians have been members of the National Commission or one of its Networks. The recent work of Justice Michael Kirby in actively contributing to UNESCO’s efforts to develop a Bioethics Instrument is an example of a member of the National Commission contributing on both the global and local levels. The involvement of Professor Ken Wiltshire in discussions on the governance of UNESCO during his term on the Executive Board is another example of constructive input from the then Chair of the National Commission.

In each of UNESCO’s areas - Education, Culture, the Natural Sciences. the Social and Human Sciences, Communication, and Youth – the National Commission has established Networks which draw in a greater pool of expertise and advice to assist the National Commission and the Australian Government. Recent initiatives of the National Commission have been in the area of interfaith and intercultural understanding, such as the conference in Adelaide in December 2004. The current focus is on Education for Sustainable Development.

The 60th anniversary provides the opportunity to celebrate the contribution of National Commission and Network members, Permanent Delegates, Australian Ambassadors and Secretaries-General over the six decades. A number of events are planned including a small history of the National Commission, an updated website, an anniversary dinner hosted by the Minister and a series of partnerships with cultural and educational institutions. We are hopeful that any UNESCO visitors to the region might be able to visit to help us celebrate.


Susie Pascoe
Chairperson



General Conference of UNESCO

The 34th session of General Conference of UNESCO will take place at UNESCO Headquarters from 16 October to 3 November 2007. We will need to commence our preparations for as well as participation at the General Conference. As well as the practical considerations of flights and hotel bookings, key points to keep in mind as we prepare are the composition of the Delegation, the Credentials, voting rights (including the need to be up to date with financial contributions), speaking slots and candidacies. We will expand further on these in our next issues.



2007 UNESCO-VOCATIONS PATRIMOINE Fellowships for World Heritage Site managers

UNESCO has launched the selection process for five new Fellowships for World Heritage Site Managers offered through the UNESCO-VOCATIONS PATRIMOINE Programme. Professionals involved in the management, safeguarding and development of World Heritage sites as well as young people intending to pursue a career in these areas are invited to submit applications to UNESCO before 31 March 2007. Further details can be found at: http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/300



Pacific Island World Heritage Workshop, New Zealand

As a follow up to the 2004 workshop where the Pacific 2009 Action Plan was developed, a World Heritage Workshop for Pacific Island nations will be held in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand, from 18-23 February 2007.

The intention and objectives of the workshop are to:
• Develop a Pacific position paper to be presented at the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand; discuss progress with the 2009 Action Plan; and hold practical capacity-building workshops for participants.
• Develop a Communication Plan to showcase the natural and cultural heritage of the Pacific. This may involve the development of a website and publications, and developing a video presentation for the World Heritage Committee meeting showing highlights from the Tongariro workshop and illustrating the key themes and issues for World Heritage in the Pacific.
• Assist each Pacific country in reviewing its own progress toward the enhancement of World Heritage and highlighting its priorities.
• Workshop the theme of Indigineity as it applies to ‘Outstanding Universal Value of World Heritage in the Pacific'.
• Discuss specific opportunities for the application of serial sites in the Pacific.

The event will be jointly hosted by the Department of Conservation (DOC) New Zealand and Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) in Australia.



Some Forthcoming Events

19 January: Executive Board Information Session

5-7 February: First session of the Conference of Parties to the International Convention against Doping in Sport

18-23 February: Pacific Island World heritage Workshop, Tongariro National Park, New Zealand

10-26 April: 176th session of the Executive Board

18 June: 40th session of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Executive Council

19-28 June: 24th session of the IOC General Assembly

23 June-2 July: 31st session of the World Heritage Committee, Christchurch, New Zealand

25 September-11 October: 177th session of the Executive Board

16 October-3 November: 34th session of the General Conference

5 November: 178th session of the Executive Board



International Convention against Doping in Sport

The first session of the Conference of States Parties to the International Convention against Doping in Sport will be held from 5 to 7 February 2007 at UNESCO Headquarters. It will bring together 41 States that ratified the Convention by 31 December 2006 and will take place just a few days after its entry into force on 1 February 2007.

Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee; Jean-François Lamour, Vice Chair of the World Anti-Doping Agenct (WADA) and French Minister for Youth, Sports and Associations; as well as Vyachelslav Fetisov, President of Russia’s Federal Agency for Sport, Physical Education and Tourism and UNESCO Champion for Sport, are expected to attend the meeting.

Adopted unanimously by the General Conference of UNESCO on 19 October 2005, the Convention was ratified by 42 States in record time. The fight against doping was thus inscribed for the first time in international law, and governments, sports federations and civil society – as well as the Olympic movement – were provided with a binding legal instrument.

During this first meeting, States Parties will elect a Bureau, adopt rules of procedure and create a Voluntary Contribution Fund for the elimination of doping in sport. They will also decide on changes to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List.



Vacancies in UNESCO

The following are some of the posts currently under recruitment. The job descriptions for these, and other, posts can be obtained from the Internet at the following address:

<http://recrutweb.unesco.org/postes/postes_visualisation.asp?AffLangue=gb&CATPOSTE=1>

- Senior Programme Specialist - Basic and Engineering Sciences - (P-5), UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice, Italy, post EU/RP/ITA/SC/0002

- Chief of Section (P-5), Buildings Section, Headquarters Division, post ADM-502

- Assistant Evaluation Specialist
(P-1/P-2), Internal Oversight Service, post IOS-022

- Assistant Programme Specialist
(P-1/P-2), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Montreal, Canada, post INN/ST/CAN/UIS/0511



Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted by UNESCO’s General Conference in October 2005, will enter into force on 18 March 2007, three months after the deposit of the 30th instrument of ratification on 18 December 2006 at UNESCO.



Sally Mansfield, Permanent Delegate of Australia to UNESCO Designate

Sally is an experienced career diplomat. She has served in Tel Aviv as Third Secretary (1986-88) and in Noumea as Consul-General (1998-2001). She took a secondment as Deputy Director to the office of the United Nations Drug Control Programme in Burma (1993-95). From 2004-2006 Sally was the Director of DFAT’s Perth office in Western Australia. Over this period, she also served as a member of three emergency response groups: Phuket, following the 2004 tsunami; to Bali after the second Bali bombing (October 2005); and to Dili (May 2006).

In Canberra, she has worked on Middle Eastern and African issues, in personnel, media and parliamentary liaison, and had a short-term secondment to the Office of National Assessments.

From 2002 to mid-2004 she accompanied her husband, Jon Philp, who is also an Australian career diplomat, on his posting to Turkey. While in Ankara she looked after their young son and worked as a volunteer for a local charity. She enjoys tennis, horse riding and orienteering.

 

 

 

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