39th Session of UNESCO General Conference

30th October – 13th November 2017 – 39th Session of UNESCO General Conference

New DG at UNESCO A new Director General , Audrey Azoulay, was confirmed in the post . She was France’s Minister of Culture and Communication and was a European Commission legislative expert on issues of culture and the media. On taking her oath she emphasized the importance of preserving cultural diversity and respect among peoples, while launching a message of unity despite cultural, geographic and temporal distances. The new director acknowledged her predecessor, the Bulgarian Irina Bokova, ‘a pioneer who was the first woman to head UNESCO, and thus opened the way’.