Just over two weeks ago, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, began its 39th conference in France. UNESCO’s aim is to promote peace and tolerance in the world. The basis for this is cooperation and multilateralism, with all member nations cooperating.
Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO, said that the organisation has solutions to offer faced with the rise of extremism that we see nowadays. She said that with this new trend of extremism, hatred is stirred up, but emphasised that UNESCO exists to fight back against the “new forms of racism and intolerance” that are emerging.
Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian politician, will soon finish her term at the organisation after eight years.
In the opening speech, Bokova praised the United Arab Emirates for supporting initiatives and programs led by the organisation, stating that it is very receptive to the education, culture, research and the protection of heritage side.
In honour of the organisation’s 25th anniversary, members highlighted and showcased the many achievements and successes it has seen over the years. Meetings were arranged so that the initiatives that are ongoing could be discussed.
UNESCO has also been implementing a new agenda that works with the cooperation of all of the Member States. Leaders can participate in the Leaders’ Forum of the 39th Session of the General Conference to discuss their approaches to policies.
One of the main values of the organisation is freedom of expression. This includes promoting free, pluralistic and independent media in all forms – online, print and broadcast. The freedom of expression, it recognises, contributes to the eradication of poverty, and is essential for peace, human rights and sustainability. The requires independent journalism to be supported.
Iranian regime is somewhere that does not have freedom of expression. The ruling regime there makes great efforts to deny its people of all sorts of freedom. People are suppressed on what they wear, what they read, who they socialise with, their religious beliefs and their sex or sexual orientation. There is no freedom of press, and the people of Iran are arrested, tortured and sometimes executed for simply expressing their opposition to the ruling regime.
UNESCO recognises that in countries where there is not a rich media and journalistic foundation, there is often a government that will suppress ideas and political dialogue. It emphasises that freedom of expression is one of the most basic of human rights that everyone should be entitled to.
The organisation also emphases that lasting peace is reliant on complex practices that happen locally between people in their own communities, but it also reminds us that these practices are entwined in a complex web. Although with the current climate it is difficult to ensure enduring peace, it is not impossible, but issues such as violence, sectarianism, exclusion and inequality need to be addressed.
These values need to be upheld by leaders in the international community so that their people can live in peace. But they also have a responsibility to ensure that the people in other countries where leaders disregard these values are protected.
Source » ncr-iran