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PARIS — The United Nations cultural company UNESCO on Tuesday re-elected France’s Audrey Azoulay as its director-general for a second mandate, with the previous French tradition minister hailing a brand new confidence and unity within the group.
UNESCO had been riven by divisions when Azoulay took workplace in 2017 with each Israel and the US exiting the company over accusations of anti-Israeli bias.
Unchallenged, Azoulay gained her new mandate at UNESCO’s basic convention with 155 votes in favor, simply 9 in opposition to and one abstention.
“I see this end result as an indication of regained unity inside our group. During the last 4 years, we’ve been capable of restore confidence in UNESCO, and in some respects this has additionally been about restoring UNESCO’s confidence in itself,” she mentioned.
“We regained serenity by decreasing the political tensions that stood in our method and by searching for widespread positions on topics that had been divisive prior to now,” she added.
UNESCO, which in 2020-21 acquired complete funding of $1.4 billion from obligatory member contributions and donations, has been on the forefront of high-profile initiatives reminiscent of rebuilding the previous metropolis of Mosul in Iraq and faculties within the Lebanese capital Beirut broken by the August 2020 blast.
Azoulay’s best problem for her second four-year time period will probably be in search of to woo Israel and the US again into the group, which oversees the coveted World Heritage label for humanity’s most cherished websites worldwide.
A supply near Azoulay, who requested to not be named, advised AFP within the run-up to the convention that there have been “optimistic indicators” that the 2 international locations could possibly be contemplating a return.
For some, the return of the US can be a welcome stability to the rising significance and affect of China which now makes up over 15 p.c of the whole obligatory price range contributions.
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