World Bulletin
Unesco Chief Named
 | | Irina Bokova, Unesco's new chief. Unesco/Niamh Burke |
Sept. 23 – Irina Gueorguieva Bokova of Bulgaria has been chosen as the new director-general of Unesco, the prestigious educational and cultural arm of the United Nations, based in Paris. Bokova, elected after five rounds of voting by the 58-member Unesco executive board yesterday, will be confirmed for the post on Oct. 15. She is the first woman to run the organization and replaces Koichiro Matsuura of Japan.
Bokova edged out the controversial candidate Farouk Hosny of Egypt with a majority of 31 ballots. Hosny’s inflammatory remarks – saying he would “burn Israeli books myself,” among other comments, seem to have cost him the job, as the fourth round of voting was a tie, 29-29, on Monday. Hosny is Egypt’s culture minister and was the front-runner for much of this year.
Born in Sofia on July 12, 1952, Bokova has been the ambassador to France and a permanent delegate to Unesco since 2005. A career diplomat, she studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and at the School of Public Affairs of the University of Maryland . She served as deputy minister of foreign affairs from 1995 to 1997 and minister of foreign affairs from 1996 to 1997. In 1996, as candidate to the post of vice president of Bulgaria, she advocated for her country’s membership in NATO and the European Union. Bokova is fluent in English, Russian, Spanish and French and has written several books on ethnic tensions in Bulgaria and the Balkans.
To read her statement on her vision for Unesco, go to www.bokova.eu.
– Dulcie Leimbach
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