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UNESCO confirms first female director-general

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-16 02:37

PARIS - The General Conference of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) officially confirmed Bulgaria's diplomat Irina Bokova as new director-general late Thursday.

Newly-elected UNESCO Director-General Irina Gueorguieva (C), outgoing Director-General Koichiro Matsuura (R) and the President of the 35th session of the General Conference Davidson Hepburn attend a news conference after the election at UNESCO headquarters in Paris October 15, 2009. [Agencies]

The 193-member UNESCO General Assembly meeting in Paris approved the appointment of the first woman to lead the Paris- based UNESCO.

"I shall be guided in my concept of a new humanism for the 21st century," Bokova said after her election by the 35th session of the assembly.

She vowed to implement reforms for more efficient and less bureaucratic operations of the organization, and promote the values of dialogue, diversity, human dignity and human rights when representing her concept for the 21st century.

Bokova, 57, defeated Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny after a suspenseful and drawn-out race, sealing victory in the fifth round of balloting at the end of September.

She will take the oath of office in November to begin her four- year term as the incumbent Japanese Matsuura  Koichiro, 72, ends his second five-years terms then.

The incumbent Bulgarian ambassador to France and Monaco, a mother of two grown children, has been a member of the UNESCO Executive Board since 2007.

Thanks to her diversified study experiences in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, the University of Maryland and the Harvard University, she can speak fluent English, Russian, French and Spanish besides her mother tongue.