Decision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 9.COM 13.G

The Committee,

  1. Having examined document ITH/14/9.COM/13.g,
  2. Recalling its Decision 8.COM 5.c.2,
  3. Further recalling the Internal Oversight Service’s Audit of the Working Methods of Cultural Conventions (Document IOS/AUD/2013/06), and its recommendation to ‘synchronize the meetings of the State Parties to the conventions, when efficiencies can be achieved’,
  4. Noting that States Parties regularly express concerns when the governance meetings of the UNESCO culture conventions follow one another too quickly and instead request that they be spaced out over the biennium in order to allow sufficient time between meetings to fully prepare for the debates,
  5. Considering that potential savings on mission costs of governmental experts to be gained by synchronizing meetings of different conventions in close succession, for those countries where the same experts follow several conventions, would be counterbalanced by their protracted absence from their functions at the national level,
  6. Further considering that in many countries different experts follow each convention and there would therefore be no potential savings on mission costs of governmental experts from synchronizing meetings in close succession,
  7. Expresses its concern that synchronizing meetings of the States Parties to the different conventions in close succession would risk diminishing the effectiveness of such meetings without substantial increase in cost-efficiency;
  8. Takes note that the centralization of many technical and administrative services within the Convention Common Services Unit depends on the possibility to spread its work evenly over the course of the year, and synchronizing meetings too closely in succession would thus risk creating congestion at periods of high demand;
  9. Emphasizes that participation by States Parties in the governance meetings of the conventions is greatly facilitated by confirming their time and place at the earliest possible opportunity;
  10. Encourages the UNESCO Secretariat to strengthen its efforts to coordinate the meetings of the States Parties of the different conventions with particular care to scheduling them as far ahead as possible and with adequate time between them.

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