At the last meeting of the 175th session of the Executive Board, Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura launched a new book in the context of the 60th anniversary celebrations of UNESCO entitled “60 Women Contributing to the 60 Years of UNESCO - Constructing the Foundations of Peace".
Calling it a signal contribution at the end of the 60th anniversary celebrations of UNESCO, the Director-General paid tribute to the thousands of talented women who are deeply committed to UNESCO's ideals and hard working to implement its programmes. He noted that the choice of only 60 women, hailing from 52 countries from representing all continents, across the different fields of competence of the Organization for this publication was therefore a difficult task. They include women who hold, or have held, important positions in the Organization, who have led or inspired UNESCO’s work in Member States, who have been in charge of programmes, projects, committees or juries, or who have lent their status or name to help advance UNESCO’s objectives. Some of the contributors were present at the Board Session, including Aziza Bennani, Maria Clemencia Lopez-Jimanez, Anaisabel Prera Flores, and Sonia Mendieta de Badaroux, Members of the Executive Board, and Françoise Rivière, Assistant-Director-General for Culture of UNESCO.

In their contributions, the Director-General noted, the women portrayed are remarkably in unison in their call for dialogue, education, empowerment and gender equality and for building a culture of peace. Indeed, 60 years of UNESCO’s history is brought to life through their voices. The Director-General further expressed his hope that the visions, experience and innovative recommendations contained in the book will inspire our future work and positively contribute to the visibility of the Organization. Many Members of the Board welcomed this publication coming at a most auspicious time, also in light of the strong emphasis given to gender equality at the 2005 UN World Summit.

Copies of the publication, which has been developed and edited by Ingeborg Breines (Director of the UNESCO Geneva Office) and Hans d'Orville (Director of the Bureau of Strategic Planning), will be made available to Permanent Delegations, National Commissions, Field Offices and members of various UNESCO networks. While currently only available in English, a French version is scheduled to appear in early 2007.