Hope Coming With UNESCO
03/11/2015The Republic of Kosovo is in a process of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) membership bid. To such an end, it has carried out a dignified campaign, faced with an aggressive counter-campaign by the neighbor country, Serbia. Kosovo has already passed the first challenge at the Executive Board of UNESCO, by including its application on the agenda. The next challenge is the upcoming session of the General Conference.
In addition to the formal and diplomatic support, we have seen support from renowned world personalities, including Noble Prize winner Dr. Ferid Murat, celebrated artists Inva Mula and Rita Ora, and other dignitaries. In general, Kosovo has performed a very positive campaign, by highlighting the needs and real benefits from the UNESCO membership.
UNESCO enjoys an exceptionally high reputation worldwide as the house that promotes culture, science, education, and environment. In this respect Kosovo is seeking a place in it as a knowledge-oriented country, a country that strives for the preservation of the cultural heritage values and encourages science and education.
Hundreds of projects and campaigns take place under the UNESCO’s umbrella aimed at promoting education and science all over the world. By becoming a new member of the organization, Kosovo would attract much more attention with projects, whose ultimate goal is advancement of the quality of education and science in general. In this regard, being a founder and the leader of a higher education institution, I understand how important it is to be part of UNESCO and to be able to benefit from the projects of an organization like this.
Our Campaign
The institution I lead has made earnest efforts to contribute to the campaign of Kosovo’s UNESCO membership. Years ago, the UBT initiated the bid for establishing the ICOMOS Kosovo (International Council of Monuments and Sites). A group of experts, local and international staff members and associates from the UBT, including scholars like Professor Karoilne Jaeger Klein from the Vienna University of Technology and ICOMOS Austria, established a lobbying network for Kosovo’s membership of ICOMOS.
ICOMOS is an international non-governmental organization which serves as a technical scientific body in charge of the implementation of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention. ICOMOS is closely linked to UNESCO and as a global NGO it gathers 110 national committees, 28 international scientific committees, and over 9000 individuals engaged in 144 countries of the world. Our bid to becoming a member with full rights of ICOMOS may become a reality once Kosovo is admitted a UNESCO member, thus removing all obstacles we have faced so far to such an end.
Recently, we have joined an initiative of the higher education institutions to address, through a letter, the UNESCO General Director and the EU Committee of Research, Science, and Innovation, asking them to treat Kosovo’s application on a merit-based evaluation and not based on the unscrupulous political campaign of Serbia.
By being a UNESCO member, Kosovo would benefits in the field of education, science, and culture. On the other hand, Kosovo would also give its contribution to enriching UNESCO with its cultural, historic heritage values, and religious diversity. Kosovo in UNESCO will not be no more and no less but enabling a nation with ancient culture and rich history to be part the family of the nations of the world that are already members of the organization.
I wish that at the General Conference, which starts this week in Paris, the logic of peace and cooperation will prevail over the calls for conflicts between civilizations.