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Breines, Ingeborg; d’Orville, Hans. 60 Women contributing to the 60 years of UNESCO: Constructing the Foundations of Peace. France: Unesco, 2006

 

Foreword by the Director-General of UNESCO

The full participation of women in social, cultural and economic development, and in democratic processes at all levels, is a moral imperative, a matter of human rights and justice, and a political exigency of the highest order. The quest to ensure gender equality has been powerfully endorsed by world leaders in the 2005 World Summit Outcome document. It is indeed clear: without gender equality, the global fight against poverty may never be won.

The vision of women, their intelligence, energy and experience, are indispensable to the creation of a more just, equitable, prosperous and peaceful world. The continued marginalization and under-utilization of women’s talents, expertise and resources represents a serious loss of opportunity, not only for women themselves, but more seriously for society as a whole. The Beijing Platform for Action for Equality, Development and Peace (1995) and the Millennium Development Goals (2000) have already established the need to bridge the gender gap in education as an international development priority. UNESCO is deeply committed to the goal of gender equality, and firmly believes that ensuring quality ‘Education for All’ is a critical step in this direction.

With the inauguration of its 60th anniversary celebrations in November 2005, UNESCO has begun a yearlong period of reflection and recognition. The present volume is an important part of this process. It presents the voices of 60 eminent women, who – in different parts of the world, in different positions, and in different moments across the history of Organization – have made, and in many cases are still making, significant contributions to UNESCO’s action. These 60 individuals represent the voices, views and aspirations of many other women – in national governments, the UNESCO Secretariat, National Commissions for UNESCO, universities, schools, libraries, museums, research and educational institutions, the media and communities – who struggle on a daily basis to keep the ideals of UNESCO alive. Reading the various contributions allows us, if not compels us, to reflect on the approaches to gender mainstreaming that UNESCO has adopted in its planning, and to consider the relevance and impact of such action.

This book is an inspiration to UNESCO, both for the historical perspective and rich testimonials it presents, as for its many forward-looking suggestions and recommendations. I hope it will make a substantial contribution to realizing women’s aspirations, to developing ways of improving gender equality, not least in UNESCO, and to fortifying hopes for a peaceful future at local, national, regional and international levels, drawing on and integrating the full potential of women.

The dual theme of our 60th anniversary celebrations is “unity and diversity”. The women who have gracefully contributed to this publication come from different parts of the world and from widely different backgrounds, experiences and careers. They are, however, remarkably in unison in their call for dialogue, education, empowerment and gender equality, and for building a culture of peace.

Complete pdf document: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001475/147530E.pdf