Frenchwoman Audrey Azoulay re-elected by a large majority at the head of Unesco

Published on : 11/09/2021 – 10:19 PM

Audrey Azoulay is back at Unseco. The Frenchwoman was re-elected Tuesday, November 9 by a very large majority for four years at the head of this UN organization, a second term that she wishes to focus particularly on education and the preservation of the environment.

“My sincere congratulations on behalf of all the Member States on your re-election”, declared Santiago Irazabal Mourao, Permanent Ambassador of Brazil to Unesco who chairs the general conference meeting in Paris, headquarters of the institution, until November 24 .

“A new social contract for education”

Elected in 2017, Audrey Azoulay, was alone in the running for this new mandate and obtained 155 votes for 165 voters (nine against, one abstention). “I first want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, for this confidence so clearly expressed”, reacted the director general, welcomed with applause in the hemicycle of the United Nations agency for education, science and culture.

Audrey Azoulay was elected in November 2017, after having been Minister of Culture in the government of Socialist President François Hollande. It is traditional for directors general to serve several terms.

For this one, she posted high goals with a “new social contract for education”, “by encouraging research on learning” and by “promoting dialogue with the educational community”, because “education increases awareness of the fragile beauty of nature “.

Audrey Azoulay also hoped for “a new contract for the planet”, which will involve “doubling the size of the territories protected by Unesco by 2030” in order to “protect 30% of the Earth’s surface”.

“We must engage as humanity, via the Community of Nations, around these common goods which we have the custody of here at Unesco”, further harangued its director general, who underlined “unity” and the “support from all over the world” expressed “very early” for her person, a sign of “mutual trust” within a once very divided institution, which she helped to appease during her first term.

The re-election of Audrey Azoulay seems to enshrine the strategy of depoliticizing the institution that she wanted from her election.

“The dialogue is very positive”

Audrey Azoulay took office in a deteriorated context, in particular due to the departure of the United States and Israel, coinciding with her election. The two countries accused the institution of a pro-Palestinian bias, against a backdrop of frontal questioning of multilateralism by the Trump administration.

“It was necessary to reduce the political tensions which for too long had hampered Unesco’s action when they tended to instrumentalisation” to allow the organization to concentrate “on its mandate and not to get lost in an open discussion. which she brought little “, she commented during a brief press conference.

A dialogue is underway with these two countries so that they can rejoin Unesco. “It is a complex process, but the dialogue is very positive”, she added, stressing “the commitment of the new American administration to multilateralism”.

Unesco in recent years has participated in several emblematic projects, such as the reconstruction of Mosul, aid for the heritage of Lebanon after the explosion of the port of Beirut and actions in favor of education during the pandemic.

Under the first term of its director general, it also saw the obligatory contributions of its member states grow by 3% and their voluntary contributions by 50%, a success according to the entourage.

Audrey Azoulay, the second woman at the head of Unesco, is the only French woman at the head of a large United Nations organization.

With AFP