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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHFR #0231/01 0561258
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 251258Z FEB 10
FM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS FR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0000
INFO RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA

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