Kyrgyzstan elected to UNESCO Executive Board for first time

Bishkek, Nov.21, 2019. /Kabar/. For the first time in history, Kyrgyzstan has been elected to the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the governing body of the Organization. Decision in this regard was taken on Nov.20, 2019 during the voting at the 40th UNESCO General Conference in Paris, the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan reported. The work of the current session was attended by delegation of Kyrgyzstan, headed by Foreign Minister Chingiz Aidarbekov. Note that according to the results of the voting, Kyrgyzstan took the second place among the Asia-Pacific States, which nominated their candidatures to the UNESCO Executive Board for the period 2019-2023. Of the 180 countries that voted, 157 voted in favour of the Kyrgyz Republic. As part of the election campaign, Kyrgyzstan’s delegation organized an official reception, attended by heads and representatives of delegations of UNESCO member states. A concert of the folklore and ethnographic ensemble and a photo exhibition on Kyrgyzstan’s activities within UNESCO were also organized. Since its membership in UNESCO in 1992, Kyrgyzstan has been actively involved in UNESCO activities: in the period from 2012 to 2016. The Kyrgyz Republic was elected a member of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage; and since 2017, the country has also been a member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris, France. Its declared purpose is to contribute to promoting international collaboration in education, sciences, and culture in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter. The Executive Board is elected by the General Conference and is one of the three constitutional organs of UNESCO. It consists of 58 Member States with a four-year term of office. Each State Member appoints one representative and may also appoint alternates. The list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites from Kyrgyzstan includes the following: - Sulaiman Too Sacred Mountain- 2009 - Chang’an Tianshan Corridor of the Silk Routes Network (Burana, Ak-Beshim, Krasnaya Rechka) - 2014 - Western Tien Shan Mountains (Sary-Chelek, Padysha-Ata, Besh-Aral) – 2016