OREANDA-NEWS. October 2, 2009. The 35th session of the General Conference of the Organization will start its work on October 6 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Russia’s delegation will be led by Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko, who will participate in the general policy debate at plenary meetings.

The session’s extensive agenda covers issues concerning UNESCO’s general policy and program activities, methods of work, administrative, financial, statutory and legal matters, along with considering conventions, recommendations and other international legal acts.

The session is to examine and approve the Draft 2010-2011 Program and Budget, to elect new members of the Executive Board and to hold elections to the Organization’s auxiliary bodies.

The central event of this session will be the appointment of a new Director-General of UNESCO. The Executive Board has presented the candidacy of Irina Bokova (Bulgaria) for this position. She is to replace at this post Koichiro Matsuura (Japan), who has headed UNESCO since 1999.

The agenda of the General Conference features a Ministerial Forum on strategies to overcome the crisis and achieve international development goals and on the stance of the Organization as an effective partner of multilateral cooperation for the next decade. In addition, ministers will hold two roundtables: on education and on rational ocean management.

At the end of the session there will be the opening ceremony of the 17th session of the General Assembly of States Parties to the 1972 World Heritage Convention, which will continue work after the closure of the session of the General Conference.

The 35th session of the UNESCO General Conference will wrap up its work on October 23.