The Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) welcomes the election of Audrey Azoulay of France as director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), reads a press statement released by MAE on Friday.
The election took place at the 39th session of the UNESCO’s General Conference. Azoulay’s tenure at UNESCO’s helm begins on Wednesday.
The MAE also reiterates Romania’s commitment to UNESCO, “including asserting the importance of UNESCO inside United Nations system as well as globally, and expresses its full willingness to cooperate with the new UNESCO director-general to fulfill UNESCO’s basic role: building peace in the spirit of mankind, according to the organisation’s constitution.”
At the same time, MAE extends outgoing UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova “thanks for the very good cooperation during the two terms in office,” that started in 2009. MAE praises Bokova for her activity to ensure the efficiency of and strengthening the organisation amidst numerous challenges facing UNESCO.
Under the UNESCO constitution, the director-general is the highest official of the organisation, and in such capacity runs the UNESCO Secretariat. The director-general is nominated by the Executive Board and appointed by the General Conference for a period of four years.
Audrey Azoulay was born in 1972 in France. She served as minister of culture and communications in the French Government from February 2016 until May 2017. She began her career in the audio-visual sector in France, where she held executive offices, and then she was a rapporteur at the French Court of Auditors and a legal expert with the European Commission in the field of culture and communications.
