Netherlands National Annual Report

Transcription

1 Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO

2 Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO (CC Flickr/fras1977)

3 Content Foreword 5 Education 6 Science 11 Culture 14 Communication and information 19 Conflict, crisis and transition 22 General 27 List of activities 30 Composition of the Commission 31 Foreword How do organisations born from the experience of the Second World War contribute today to international peace and security? [ ] The queries are about the relevance of the activities of international organizations and about the effectiveness of their action. UNESCO s answers to these questions must be convincing. These words from Irina Bokova, UNESCO s Director-General, were the starting point for our work programme UNESCO s long term strategy and recent and relevant developments in The Netherlands are the basis for the work programme. In this annual report we present our activities in The 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention ( ) was an excellent focal point for a very wide range of Commission activities, that have increased the visibility of the organisation. The ratification of the 2003 Convention on Intangible Heritage caused a lot of media attention and involvement of the Commission in activities in the cultural sector. Theme groups 32 Colophon 34 Considerable attention was given in 2012 to current developments in the Middle East and North Africa. Following the Arab Spring and the destruction of cultural heritage in Mali and Syria, action taken by the Commission included the organisation of an expert meeting with professionals in the field. Cultural identity in crisis, conflict and transition areas will therefore remain a key theme in 2013 within UNESCO and society at large. The visit of Bokova to the Netherlands in April 2012 underlined the importance that UNESCO attaches to Dutch efforts with respect to global, sustainable water management- from technical knowledge to water governance and water diplomacy. The Commission has provided information on many recent developments through media and activities. Communication with the civil society and the general public is one of the main tasks of the Commission and an important condition to realise UNESCO s goals. That s why the Commission has intensified its communicative strategy. Part of this was an ameliorated version of the website unesco.nl, which was launched late In the coming year, the Commission will work to further develop the initiatives introduced in 2012 and engage as fully as possible with current issues of importance to UNESCO and the Netherlands. In this context, our efforts will certainly include the further strengthening of our relationships with other National Commissions and partners. Greetje van den Bergh President Robert J. Quarles van Ufford Secretary-General 5

4 Education Curricular capacity building research project In many countries, the government establishes a curriculum that denotes what schools must teach their students. There is often a wide gap, however, between this theoretical curriculum and classroom practice. Through training courses in curriculum development, UNESCO is helping to close that gap. The training courses are designed to enable teachers to properly translate curriculum requirements into practice. A study into the requirements for training courses in curriculum development was prepared in The Netherlands National Commission is cooperating in this area with the Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO) and the International Bureau for Education (IBE) in Geneva, Switzerland, and the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris, France, both UNESCO institutes. Members of the Commission discussed the possibility of cooperation between IBE and SLO with Clementina Acedo, IBE s director, during the General Conference in November The discussion revealed that both organisations would be happy to join forces in order to improve training courses in curriculum development. In this way the Commission was able to fulfil a meaningful linking function between UNESCO, its institutes and society. In February, the Commission organised a brainstorming session about activities in the context of Education for All from the Netherlands. This session revealed that a cooperation pro ject aimed at the exchange of expertise would be in keeping with the 2015 Education Agenda. This agenda was adopted during a meeting of a number of Dutch organisations and sets out what in their view must be done following the end of the Millennium Development Goals period in The purpose of the 2015 Education Agenda is to maintain Dutch expertise in the field of education in developing countries, since the government is now reducing its involvement in this area. It was determined that the cooperation project between SLO, IBE and the Commission must be directed primarily at research so that (policy) recommendations beneficial to all partners could be made. Meetings with various parties in the course of 2012 revealed a need for a broader knowledge base in the field of curriculum development. The parties involved wish to improve training courses and strengthen capacity among teachers. The question is how this can be achieved. There is as yet insufficient clarity regarding the conditions that a training course must meet in order to be successful. Previous and current projects of SLO, IIEP and IBE are being analysed in order to identify those conditions. The principles obtained from this analysis will subsequently be tested in practice in new projects. The study started in 2012 and the initial results are expected in A. Ruigrok Jan Sluimer is the Principal of the Oostvaarders College in Almere, which prepares pupils for university and offers general secondary education and preparatory secondary vocational education. Oostvaarders College has been a UNESCO- school since Learning to look beyond borders Even before the Oostvaarders College became a UNESCO- school, many of our staff were concerned with internationalisation. Our activities, however, were very supply-driven and ad hoc: we regularly obtained project subsidies from the European Platform, but not all students benefited from them. We wished to bring structure and cohesion to these activities and, to that end, sent invitations to a number of organisations, including UNESCO, in We ultimately decided to become a UNESCO- school because of the four UNESCO- themes of intercultural learning, peace and human rights, sustainable development, and world citizenship. We want to allow our pupils to experience the value of these themes, and by doing so we hope to make our own small contribution to the progress of our planet. Although all of our teaching embodies this principle, UNESCO is the mortar between the bricks. English is the language used in all of our UNESCO- activities. The pupils generally very much enjoy them, especially when they stay with host families. Most of these stays are within Europe, however in 2012 we had an exchange with pupils from India and we are currently looking into partnerships with a school in China. Our preparatory secondary vocational Consumer Technologies pupils recently prepared a meal together with Italian, Danish and Czech pupils their own age for members of the European Parliament in Brussels. It was nice, because VMBO students tend to have relatively few opportunities to benefit from international activities. We have a very active UNESCO- coordinator who organised the first MUNESCO Conference with the ten other UNESCO- secondary schools this year. During the conference pupils entered into debates about global food security issues. Pupils from Almere used to go on to study in Amsterdam and Utrecht, but now they can go to practically any university in Europe, the Americas or other parts of the world. There are many more opportunities for our children globally than locally. That is why we place so much importance on world citizenship. 6 Arenda Oomen 7

5 Education UNESCO Associated Schools and Open Educational Resources (OER) The World OER Congress was held in Paris on June During this meeting, experts from across the world spoke about OER and adopted a declaration that calls on Member States to encourage the use of OER. In addition to the National Commission, the Dutch delegation included representatives of the Open University of the Netherlands, the collaborative organisation for ICT in Dutch higher education and research SURF, Delft University of Technology and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Fred Mulder, who holds the UNESCO Chair in OER, also attended. The parties involved will actively promote awareness of the 2012 Paris OER Declaration in the Netherlands. In November, secondary schools that are members of the network organised a Model UNESCO (MUNESCO) event, which simulates an international UNESCO conference. Students from five UNESCO Associated Schools gathered in Zwolle, the Netherlands, for two days to discuss the challenge of global food security and sustainable production. The event was a success and will be repeated in 2013, this time together with Stichting Herdenking Slavernijverleden 2013, a foundation that focuses on the past and present of slavery and works to achieve a world that is free of slavery. At the end of 2012, the network consisted of 20 schools: 1 primary school, 11 secondary schools, 5 senior secondary vocational education schools and 3 universities of applied sciences. There are four orientation schools. The Commission is working to achieve a qualitatively substantial expansion of the network. In addition, the Commission will focus particularly on the role that OER can play in substantively strengthening the UNESCO Associated School profile. The school network has grown in recent years and the associated schools have devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to quality. Among other things, they developed a quality framework and strengthened coordination within the network. xxxx To further improve quality and place OER on the agenda, the National Commission entered into a partnership with Kennisnet, an organisation that focuses on ICT in education. The two organisations started a small-scale pilot project that helps UNESCO Associated Schools in the secondary education sector to exchange teaching materials through Wikiwijs, an online platform built for the creation, modification and exchange of teaching materials. The aim is to compile a basic collection of materials to incorporate the four UNESCO themes (peace and human rights, intercultural learning, sustainability and world citizenship) into the teaching programme. Although the schools are free to decide how to incorporate these themes into their respective education programmes, they have indicated that they would also like to share materials and experiences. By compiling a basic collection of materials prepared and approved by the schools, they will all have the same starting point. Each school can then simply upload new materials. For example, the basic collection could include the new introductory film for young people about UNESCO. In the film, Anne, a former UNESCO Youth Delegate, explains what UNESCO is as an organisation and what it does. The film can be viewed on YouTube ( Introductie UNESCO ). Through the website specially developed for the UNESCO Associated Schools ( the schools inform each other about their activities and receive relevant information from, among others, the Commission and the UNESCO Secretariat in Paris. Class 3A1A of Oostvaarderscollege in Almere won the UNESCO online game (see under Communication). As a prize, the class was allowed to donate an amount of money to a good cause of its choosing and the students were invited for a visit to The Hague as the International City of Peace and Justice. They visited Museon and Humanity House. The class chose to donate the money to Save the Children, which symbolically received it during the visit to The Hague. During the prize-giving ceremony, the Secretary-General stressed that young people are important to UNESCO and that connections must be established between the organisation s different fields of activity, which is the aim of the online game. Arenda Oomen Ministerie van OCW/Xandra Baldessari 8 9

6 Science Water In its own programme, the Commission s main focus in the field of sustainable development is on the theme of water. In cooperation with, among others, the OECD, Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Water Theme Group organised the Water allocation and green growth workshop, the fourth in a series focusing on the theme. In light of increasing global water scarcity, the workshop addressed two central questions: 1) what do we need to use water more productively, and 2) what social and environmental issues must we take into account in this context? Policymakers face a dilemma in this regard. On the one hand, serious investments require reliable and stable property rights while, on the other, maximum flexibility is needed to meet the challenges of the future. During the World Water Week in Stockholm, the theme group prepared the workshop by further defining the scope in a round-table discussion. The outcomes of the water-theme meeting are a contribution to an OECD project concerning green growth. IOC On 13 September, a successful workshop identified the interest in and the importance of cooperation between Dutch knowledge institutes, the Dutch government and the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). Although the Netherlands is as yet not really active in the IOC s scientific programmes, the Dutch government has had special responsibilities with respect to the special municipalities of Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius in the Caribbean since The workshop revealed that the contribution of Dutch knowledge institutes to IOC programmes is considerable. In addition, the practical use of different IOC programmes and activities in relation to the work of Dutch oceanographers was discussed. Regional Consultation on Groundwater Governance The National Commission worked hard to organise the fifth Regional Consultation of the Groundwater Governance Project for countries in Europe, North America and Central Asia in Unsustainable groundwater extraction is threatening the supply of food and drinking water in large parts of the world. In addition, groundwater extraction is causing a rise in sea levels, which constitutes a direct threat to a country like the Netherlands. Solving these problems requires the kind of direction that transcends the boundaries of specific disciplines and unites theory and practice. Rio+20 UNESCO actively participated in the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Brazil. In April, the Commission sent a letter to the Minister of Education, Culture and Science to draw his attention to the importance of UNESCO s perspectives with respect to this conference. In the letter the Commission highlighted the importance of international cooperation in the field of science and the need for the scientific community and governments to cooperate in order to solve sustainability problems. UNESCO is a known platform in this regard. Flickr/bertknot 11

7 CC Flickr/d.FUKA Judith Rietjens is a health scientist and university lecturer at the Erasmus Medical Centre s Community Healthcare Department. She also works as a senior researcher in the End-of-Life Care Research Group run by Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). In 2012 she became the first winner of the Dutch L Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science grant for her research on palliative sedation. Award for talented women At my job, I subscribe to an service that sends monthly overviews of the deadlines for all research proposals and awards, which included the new L Oréal-UNESCO grant. Some time after my submission, I received the tele phone call informing me that the judging committee had chosen me for the award. It was fantastic news, of course, and now gives me the opportunity to work full-time for three months on a single research project. I ve done something similar twice before in the United States, and found it very inspiring. Receiving a grant puts you in the academic spotlight, which helps when applying for subsidies for future research. And let s not forget an award for female researchers helps to increase the number of women professors, an area where there is still plenty of ground to be covered. The award amounts to EUR 25,000, to be spent mostly at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). NIAS is a place where scientists and academics from around the world come to conduct their research. It is a multidisciplinary institute, which will allow me to cooperate with professionals from the social sciences, for example. I will have the opportunity to organise a workshop for experts in my field, and I will probably also attend an international congress. This award will enable me to deepen my understanding of palliative sedation in practice. This type of health care is aimed at patients in the final stage of their lives. If people are in severe suffering with no hope of relief, they are put to sleep until they die. I am interested in why palliative sedation is applied differently in different countries, as the way in which people deal with death is determined to a large extent by cultural factors. Palliative care as a scientific discipline is still in its infancy, and a lot of scientific research is required to support current practice. This grant will help to do just that. The difficulty is that palliative care involves contact with extremely vulnerable patients, some of whom can no longer respond to questions. Plus, death remains a taboo subject for many people. I see it as a challenge to conduct research that will be of value to doctors, caregivers and loved ones, despite these limitations. L Oréal-UNESCO For Women In Science Fellowship Programme Cosmetics company L Oréal and UNESCO formed a partnership in 1998 under the motto The world needs science and science needs women. The prestigious programme gives awards to outstanding women scientists and grants fellowships to young women researchers. The L Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Programme consists of three parts: the National Fellowships, the International Fellowships and the Awards. All are granted each year. Dutch scientist Elza van Deel received one of the 15 International L Oréal-UNESCO Fellow - ships of USD 40,000 in Paris in March Van Deel works at the Cell Biology and Genetics Department of Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. On 11 October, the first Dutch L Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship was awarded to Judith Rietjens during the Pump your career event organised by the National Network for Female Professors (LNVH) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The purpose of the fellowship programme is to increase the likelihood of women scientists advancing to the position of professor. Rietjens was granted the fellowship for her research into cultural differences in the context of palliative sedation. The Dutch programme is operated by the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO, L Oréal, the National Network for Female Professors and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). Wadden lectures The cooperation with the Wadden Academy and Tresoar, the Frisian Historical and Literary Centre, in a series of public lectures on the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site was again successful. In the lecture and documentary series Wadblik, organised by the Wadden Academy, former Permanent Delegate to UNESCO Bas ter Haar gave a lecture in January titled Waddenzee wereldzee: UNESCO als rentmeester? (Wadden Sea World Sea: UNESCO as a Steward?). The 13th International Scientific Wadden Sea Symposium, organised by the Wadden Academy in cooperation with, among others, the, focused on An integrated approach to emerging challenges in a World Heritage Site. Based on different perspectives ranging from climate to biodiversity and from tourism to ecosystem services, a comprehensive explanation was given of what this status of the area means for further policy development and research questions, and in terms of national and international obligations. The symposium was held in preparation for the trilateral conference of ministers that will take place in Denmark at the beginning of UNESCO chairs With its chairs programme, UNESCO supports research, training and programme development within its areas of expertise. The holders of the chairs serve as think tanks and bridge builders between the academic world, society, local communities and policymakers. In October, the two chair holders in the field of learning for sustainable development took part in an international meeting of UNESCO chairs in this domain

8 Culture Cultural conventions World heritage 2012 marked the 40th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention). Since 1972, over 900 monuments, cultural landscapes and natural areas have been given World Heritage status because of their unique and universal value to mankind. UNESCO had called on Member States, National Commissions and other organisations involved to devote attention to this anniversary. The Netherlands celebrated the World Heritage Convention s 40th anniversary at different times, though specifically during the third weekend of June On 15 June 2012, together with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the National Service for Cultural Heritage and the Dutch World Heritage Foundation, the organised a meeting on the value and reality of world heritage in Teylers Museum in Haarlem. Over 70 heritage specialists, managers, policymakers and local politicians listened to speakers from organisations including the World Heritage Centre in Paris, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Municipality of Amsterdam. They discussed the opportunities and limitations of World Heritage status for Dutch heritage. The participants were very positive about the programme, indicating that they had acquired new knowledge and valued the diverse composition of the audience and networking opportunities. In the presence of State Secretary Zijlstra and Mayor Van der Laan of Amsterdam, World Heritage Weekend, organised by the same partners, was officially opened in Rode Hoed in Amsterdam on 16 June. During the weekend, the nine Dutch World Heritage Sites hosted a range of activities for members of the public. The 36th session of the World Heritage Committee took place in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation from 24 June to 6 July The was represented in the Dutch delegation. As was the case last year, the session was subject to a degree of political influence. The Netherlands National Commission actively counters this politicisation and emphasises that the World Heritage Committee s work concerns substantive criteria. In the Commission s view, the quality of heritage preservation and management must be the central consideration; protection and transfer to subsequent generations should be given higher priority. To this end, the Dutch and Flemish Commissions organised a workshop that took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, during the regional consultations for member states on 10 September. Broad support from the countries represented provided a good foundation for further activities aimed at depoliticising the World Heritage Convention. Intangible heritage The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage entered into force in the Netherlands on 15 August Outgoing State Secretary Zijlstra marked the start of the convention s implementation in the Netherlands on 2 September during the flower parade in Zundert. The wishes to fulfil a communicative role regarding implementation, emphasising the correct interpretation and international dimension of the convention. The Commission received numerous questions about the possibility of placing a tradition, such as the search for plover eggs or the Tilburg Fair, on a national or international list of tangible or intangible heritage. Questions were also asked about the difference between this convention and the World Heritage Convention. The Commission explained matters in radio interviews, lectures, presentations, workshops, letters and website messages. 14 Martijn Manders is the head of the Maritime Programme at the National Service for Cultural Heritage (RCE). His team is working on the Dutch ratification of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. Submerged archaeological treasures A shipwreck does not tell the isolated story of a single country or crew. Take the Burgzand Noord 10 wreck, for example: the ship was probably built in northern Germany, and it sank in the seventeenth century on the Texel Roads carrying cargo from the Iberian peninsula. Underwater heritage is an excellent source for drawing connections between countries and people. The Monuments and Historic Buildings Act applies to within 24 nautical miles of the Dutch coast, but in many respects it does not offer enough protection or clarity. Take illegal digging, for example: does it only count as digging if you dis turb the soil? What if you just pick something up from a discovery site? Beyond those 24 nautical miles, there are no instruments that we can use to protect heritage. But there are shipwrecks there too, as well as in other areas of the North Sea, such as the spectacular prehistoric landscape of the North Sea Basin that covers Dutch, English and Norwegian territory. It would be nice if we could provide more protection under the UNESCO convention, and if we could start collaborating internationally based on the quality requirements it sets out for archaeological research. Large parts of the world are being scanned for laying cables, pipelines and constructing wind farms. The devices used to scan the ocean floor nowadays are affordable for any company or individual, and many discoveries are being made. Thankfully there is a growing community of people who see the value of protecting underwater heritage. Around 40 countries have ratified the convention, including Spain, Portugal, and recently France. We hope that the Netherlands will join them in Dutch shipwrecks can be found all over the world. It s not so much that we want archaeologists from the National Service to go digging them up and conduct research. What we do is increase the level of knowledge in the countries themselves, by running courses on the study and management of cultural heritage. The National Service developed these courses in conjunction with the regional UNESCO organisations in Paris and Thailand, and the collaboration with UNESCO has enabled more people from more countries to participate. They now have a platform that they can use to cooperate or keep each other informed, so they no longer need to come to Europe for information. The National UNESCO Commission can mobilise people and raise awareness of the importance of the convention. Hopefully it also takes a critical view of what the National Service is doing. The most I can offer is a charm offensive. At lectures and conferences, I talk to people from all walks of life about the importance of protecting underwater heritage, and of conducting archaeological research on it. After all, it can teach us a lot about our history. NATIONALE UNESCO COMMISSIE Jaarverslag Flickr/ppborla

9 The relationship with the other cultural conventions was the subject of the Heritage Arena organised together with the Reinwardt Academy. The Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO invited Cécile Duvelle, Chief of the Intangible Heritage Section of UNESCO in Paris, as a special guest. Around 100 students, heritage professionals and policy officers of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and Ministry of Foreign Affairs took part in the Heritage Arena. Museums and collections An expert meeting on the Protection and promotion of museums and collections in the context of the UNESCO 1954 and 1970 Conventions, likewise organised in cooperation with the Reinwardt Academy, was held on 27 April. The meeting was organised in response to the resolution submitted by Brazil during the General Conference in 2011 to develop a new UNESCO instrument designed to protect museums and collections and raise awareness of them. Fifteen Dutch museum experts discussed the position of museums within the current 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, the Code of Ethics of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the desirability or otherwise of a new international instrument. CC Flickr/fras1977 Armed conflict and illegal trade The 1954 and 1970 Conventions were frequently referred to in the news in The World Heritage Sites in Mali and Syria suffered acutely as a result of armed conflict. Other heritage and cultural properties were also threatened and sometimes even destroyed. On several occasions, the used its website and other communication channels to draw attention to the destruction of cultural heritage and emphasise international obligations under the 1954 and 1970 conventions. Underwater heritage On several occasions in the course of 2012, based on the advice that it issued in 2011, the Commission drew the attention of the government institutions involved to ratification of the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Sites in the City The Sites in the City symposium about the preservation of archaeological and historical heritage in an urban context took place on 9 January. The symposium was organised by the Commission and the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities. The effects of mass tourism and political interventions on cities like Luxor, Saqqara, Mecca, Rome, Athens and Amsterdam were analysed through case studies. Cultural education Together with Cultuurnetwerk Nederland and the Cultural Participation Fund, the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO organised a symposium on Arts education with quality for everyone? The event took place in May during the first UNESCO International Arts Education Week. CC Flickr/David Sessoms 17

10 communication and information Arenda Oomen International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) Marco de Niet is the Director of Digital Heritage Netherlands (DEN) and a member of the Dutch Memory of the World Committee. Digital past and present Many people are familiar with the UNESCO World Heritage List. Less well-known, however, is the list of documents of special cultural, scientific and/or historical importance. This Memory of the World (MoW) Register also contains contributions from the Netherlands, such as the diary of Anne Frank. The Netherlands has had a Memory of the World Committee since The Netherlands was elected to the Council of the IPDC during the 36th General Conference in the autumn of In preparation for the council meeting of March 2012, the Commission advised on a number of agenda items. This advice concerned The Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, a UN-wide action plan, and the debate on Gender and Media: getting the balance right. In cooperation with the Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, consultations were held with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the possibilities of the IPDC as a platform for the Freedom Online Coalition. UNESCO was involved in the organisation of the second conference of this coalition in Nairobi, Kenya, in September Open Access Digitisation helps to protect fragile originals, and sometimes it is enough to store the digital version. It is also possible to enrich the original by digital means. One example of that is the use of handwriting recognition software on the archives of the West-India Company. This is not feasible for all archives, and organisations will need to digitise their collections little by little. There is also information that is only available online, some of which is worth preserving. As early as 2003, in one of its Charters UNESCO pointed out the need for policy for the preservation of digital cultural information. A conference held last September in Vancouver focused primarily on this subject. I gave a presentation in Vancouver on our experiences with large-scale digital archiving here in the Netherlands. The KB, the National Library of the Netherlands, was the first library in the world to have an archive for digital scientific publications. The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision is the coordinator of one of the biggest digitisation projects in the world. Both organisations are having to deal with the large variety of digital information. Many written publications, for example, are supplemented with short videos, and the infrastructure required to store such materials is growing fast. Although permanent facilities are being created for the management of digital archives, they are often financed on a project-by-project basis. Maintenance therefore suffers, giving rise to the associated risks. Another issue is that of our relationship with private parties. Both the National Library and Sound and Vision collaborate with businesses that invest in technological developments. If companies like these cannot make a system profitable, they may withdraw. The creation of shared services is also important. The National Library and Sound and Vision have developed their own systems for themselves, but it would be nice if museums and other archives could use them too. UNESCO is involved in setting up a platform to provide libraries and archives with information on the direction of developments in the media industry, helping them to determine the best form in which digital information should be stored. This is how the UNESCO and MoW committees are collaborating in various fields. In April, the General Assembly of the All European Academies (ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities), adopted the Open Science for the 21st Century declaration in the presence of Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda for Europe, and Jānis Kārkliņš, Assistant Director-General for UNESCO s Communication and Information Sector. The idea for this declaration arose during a meeting between the European Commissioner and the chairpersons of the Nether lands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO following the expert meeting on A global perspective on Open Access. In consultation with the Commission, parts of UNESCO s view on Open Access were included in the text of the ALLEA declaration. The Commission introduced UNESCO as a partner when organising the Berlin 10 Open Access Conference, which took place in Stellenbosch, South Africa in November. It organised the Flickr/Muffet 18 Jaarverslag NATIONALE UNESCO COMMISSIE 19

11 well attended workshop on Open Access advocacy through academies of sciences and other national scientific organisations. The purpose of this workshop was to study the role of national academies and other national scientific organisations in improving access to scientific knowledge, particularly in Africa. Speakers were invited from the African Academies of Sciences, the International Council for Science (ICSU) and ALLEA. During the workshop the idea arose to have the Berlin Declaration signed by Director-General Irina Bokova, which idea was adopted by the UNESCO Secretariat in Paris. The Secretariat invited the Commission to present the results of the workshop during the WSIS+10 review meeting ( Towards knowledge societies for peace and sustainable development ) held in Paris in February Following up on these activities, the European Commission asked the UNESCO Secretariat in Paris and the National Commission to continue cooperating in the area of Open Access in Memory of the World In May, during a UNESCO expert meeting in Warsaw, Poland, about the Memory of the World Programme, the Commission presented the plans for a study into the operation of several large Dutch projects concerning digital storage. This study, conducted in cooperation with the National Library of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, resulted in the article titled Preserving digital heritage: the UNESCO Charter and developments in the Netherlands. The Commission and the Netherlands Memory of the World Committee presented this article during the Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation international conference held in Vancouver, Canada, in September. The Commission assisted in preparing for the Vancouver conference s closing session, in which ideas about a possible revision of the UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage (2003) were put forward. In addition, the Commission was a member of the committee that drafted the text of the Vancouver Declaration. In this context, use was made of both the results of the Commission s work with respect to the Charter and the idea of a digital agenda proposed by the state archivist of the Netherlands in his role as chairman of the International Council of Archives (ICA). The digital agenda concerns the establishment of a flexible consultative structure to enable heritage institutions, government authorities and industry to remove obstacles to the sustainable storage of digital material. Bert Brugman - CC Flickr/stacy CC Flickr/Jesper2cv

12 Conflict, crisis and transition A wave of revolutionary activities and demonstrations, known as the Arab Spring, has been sweeping through many parts of the Arab world since 18 December Dissatisfaction about the social and economic policies of authoritarian regimes and a lack of freedom and future prospects have led to protests and uprisings in many Arab countries. These developments are having a major impact on communities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and are throwing up new challenges for UNESCO in post-conflict situations and countries in transition. Recent events underline the role that UNESCO can fulfil as a specialised UN organisation in post conflict situations and countries in transition, particularly in terms of improving education, press freedom, freedom of expression and culture. One of UNESCO s objectives is to promote the recovery of education, science, culture and the media during and after conflicts or disasters. The National Commission, too, focused on conflict and post-conflict situations and countries in transition in the past year. UNESCO s role in conflict and post-conflict situations and countries in the MENA region was the main subject during the international expert meeting that the National Commission hosted on 17 and 18 December The theme of this meeting, held at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, was UNESCO s conflict and post-conflict approaches, its Conventions and other international (policy) initiatives in North Africa and the Middle East. The meeting discussed possible ways of practically implementing and strengthening international policy and programmes for conflict and post-conflict situations and transformation processes. The international meeting was attended by a select group of experts and policy officers, including a range of representatives of UNESCO Paris, the UNESCO regional and liaison offices in Amman, Beirut, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva and Tunis, the Dutch government and international organisations like the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO), the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development and the Centre for International Heritage Activities (CIE). The discussions followed on from those conducted in previous meetings that the Commission organised in 2010 and 2011 in the area of post-conflict and post disaster situations (PCPD). Through presentations and feedback discussions, the participants formulated recommendations within the framework of the following main themes: heritage-related cooperation aimed at achieving social cohesion, reconstruction and recovery; capacity building as an educational strategy; the visibility of UNESCO in conflict and post-conflict situations and transformation processes; the role of the media in these processes. The focus was on UNESCO s role in the different phases of reconstruction, with an emphasis on the coordinating role of the field and regional offices. In addition, unlike some other UN organisations, UNESCO has the expertise required to develop guidelines and programmes for reconstruction and the promotion of peace in the long term. 22 Mogens Schmidt of UNESCO Paris is responsible for the field operations of the sixty UNESCO offices worldwide, and is also the head of the Post-conflict and Post-disaster Platform. Prospects for rebuilding In countries recently ravaged by war or natural disasters, the initial focus is quite naturally on primary survival needs, such as housing, food and health care. At the same time, the UNESCO Post-conflict and Post-disaster (PCPD) Platform works from the very beginning on the restoration of culture and education. Care for children is particularly crucial to prevent an entire generation from being lost because they cannot attend school, or because there is no support available to help them process traumatic experiences. This risk is greatest in countries with young populations. In some Arab countries, over half of the population is aged under 30; a lack of educational or employment opportunities will turn these countries into a breeding ground for radicalism. In December 2012, the Netherlands UNESCO Commission ran an expert meeting on culture, media and education in the Middle East and North Africa. Meetings of this type are very important to UNESCO, as they bring together international experts who work in PCPD situations every day. By exchanging knowledge and experiences, they evaluate our programmes from a practical perspective, giving us information on what is working and where we need to modify our strategy. To me, the most important outcome from the expert meetings is the acknowledgement of UNESCO s potential contribution to recovery in PCPD regions. Our activities focus on the longer term, with the aim of enabling people to rebuild their societies. This support cannot start early enough. In Mali, you cannot wait for months to see how a conflict will play out you need to head to Timbuktu and salvage what you can of the cultural heritage. You need to help set up media centres so that people can inform each other in their own language and via familiar sources of where medical care is available, for example. In Liberia, our efforts with the reconciliation commission contributed to restoring peaceful relationships between former enemies. The expert meeting has also shown that the prevention of disasters and wars deserves attention too. Tsunami warning systems have enabled the damage caused by earthquakes in the Indian and Pacific Oceans to remain limited. In Pakistan, UNESCO helped build systems to protect the population against floods. Colleagues of mine recently attended a conference on the Great Lakes region, where we launched a campaign to encourage peace and culture in the area. This is one way in which we are trying to break the endless cycle of conflict. One major problem is finding countries that are prepared to support our work financially. Most donations go towards primary survival needs. It is therefore important for people to trust UNESCO, and for them to see how our work really does contribute to long-term peace and security. That s where the National UNESCO Commissions can make a big difference, and the Dutch commission certainly does just that. NATIONALE UNESCO COMMISSIE Jaarverslag Flickr/scjody

13 The meeting s key conclusions and recommendations are summarised in the Leiden Recommendation. Among other things, these recommendations state that UNESCO s work in areas affected by disasters or conflicts must be strengthened so that the organisation can play a coordinating role in the recovery of education, culture and the media in such areas. One of the recommendations is to develop practical guidelines to support UNESCO s work in the field, particularly in terms of culture. In addition, training courses and capacity-building programmes are required to create awareness about the existence of guidelines and their implementation. An important conclusion was that UNESCO should be more involved in international crisis response plans and that culture must be included in the UN system for humanitarian assistance. Since this successful meeting, the Commission has been holding consultations with UNESCO in Paris about feasible follow-up activities in the area of conflict and post-conflict situations and countries in transition. Participating in the development of practical guidelines for the protection of cultural heritage in crisis situations is one of the possibilities, which will be further elaborated by the Commission in The complete list of conclusions and recommendations is included in a report that was presented in the first quarter of CC Flickr/DVIDSHUB CC Flickr/Thomas Matthews

14 General Andrea Imhof Rob Zeldenrust Zeldenrust is a Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at UNESCO Paris, and a consulting member of the. Balancing work and politics The and the permanent representatives benefit from each other s knowledge and networks. The Commission members have backgrounds in all relevant social fields they are aware of what issues are at play among politicians and policymakers in the public and private sectors. They also have their own individual networks that we as government representatives are not automatically in contact with. Whenever members come to Paris for UNESCO meetings, we sometimes talk beforehand or make our way there to gether. Our delegation makes grateful use of the vast amount of specialist knowledge available among the Dutch Commission members, since many international dialogues have become more and more complex. As part of our activities in 2012, our organisations cooperated effectively in the area of freedom of speech and protection for journalists. Member states differ considerably on this issue, which is why it is useful for the parties that support the National UNESCO Commission to have their own international networks, enabling us to effect changes from various angles and at various levels. And of course, I keep the National Commission up-to-date on UNESCO developments in Paris. Major issues at the moment concern the restructuring of the organisation and its weakened financial position. The United States discontinued its contribution to UNESCO when the Palestinian Authority joined in According to a law from the early 1990s, the USA cannot contribute to any international organisations that have the Palestinian Authority as a member. As a result, UNESCO has now lost around one quarter of its regular funding, despite the Obama government being in full support of UNESCO. Political reality sometimes proves rather fickle. Visit of UNESCO s Director-General Irina Bokova, UNESCO s Director-General, was in the Netherlands on 24 and 25 April. She held the first UN Water Talk at the Institute for Water Education (IHE) on 24 April. The next day, she spoke at the graduation ceremony of IHE Master s students. On 25 April the National Commission organised a working lunch during which Commission members, the President, Secretary-General and a few invitees exchanged ideas with the Director-General about UNESCO themes. On the same day, Irina Bokova also opened an exhibition on intangible heritage in the hall of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. This exhibition was the result of the In the Picture project of the UNESCO Youth Delegates of the National Youth Council. Regional consultation The Secretary-General of the Commission took part in the regional consultation for member states and National Commissions in Bratislava, Slovakia. UNESCO s new Medium-Term Strategy for the period and the new four-year programme were discussed. During this meeting, the Secretary-General and the Flemish Commission gave a well-attended workshop about the future of the World Heritage Convention and the depoliticisation of the World Heritage Committee. Following this meeting, he took part in the 16th Quadrennial meeting of National Commissions for UNESCO of the Europe and North America Region. Discussion included the relationship of the National Commissions with the Secretariat in Paris and the member states in light of the recent evaluation of the organisation and its working methods. Cooperation between the Commissions themselves was also discussed. Best practices were used to identify the areas in which this cooperation could best take place. Concrete agreements have since been concluded in this regard with a number of Commissions from surrounding countries. Communication The Increasing Reach and Visibility project started in 2010 was completed in The renewal achieved in the context of the project has since been embedded in daily practice. Effects include intensified journalistic production, more visitors to the website ( a larger number of newsletter subscribers and more followers on social media. An online game specially developed for young people attracted hundreds of entries. A class of Oostvaarderscollege in Almere won the game (see the Education section). But attention to organisational matters must not be allowed to overshadow UNESCO s real work, such as the battle we are fighting against the persecution and intimidation of people due to their sexual orientation. Our Minister of Education is keen to work with UNESCO on this issue. The Netherlands is also playing an important part in the global effort against water shortage. For example, the Dutch government and UNESCO are collaborating closely at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft. Each year, this institute produces a nearly 200 Master s and PhD graduates in water management worldwide, who then return to their home countries to apply and share their knowledge. Delft is also home to the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), likewise supported by the Netherlands and UNESCO. This type of collaboration brings cultures and countries together, which is the object for which UNESCO was founded in the first place. 26 Jaarverslag NATIONALE UNESCO COMMISSIE 27

15 Flickr/FrankVassen The implementation of the new communication strategy led to a further analysis of the Commission s website. This analysis revealed that the technology and design of the website were a major obstruction to desired innovations in the communication policy. In consultation with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, a project proposal was formulated to redesign and redevelop the entire website to make it easier for the Commission to report in a contemporary fashion about its work, UNESCO s activities and related matters. The new website was launched in December and enables the Commission to respond more flexibly and rapidly to current issues. The website presents the four UNESCO domains education, science, culture, and communication and information in a more coherent way and in context, including an international context. After choosing the subject (usually world heritage), a visitor can view relevant files, for example in the field of education (heritage education) or science (heritage and climate change). The English section has been expanded, integration with social media has been substantially improved and meetings or other agenda items can be reported more clearly. The flagship of the website is the interactive World Heritage Map, which shows the location of every World Heritage Site with descriptions in Dutch and includes a series of photographs for virtually all of them. For the first time, the Commission issued a public version of its Annual Report in In addition, an introductory film for young people and poster and promotional material for UNESCO Associated Schools were developed. Commission members, the Secretary-General and office staff gave a range of lectures and presentations or participated in debates about aspects of UNESCO s work. Arenda Oomen 29