Delegations
The General Conference consists of the representatives of the States Members of the Organization. It meets every two years, and is attended by Member States and Associate Members, together with observers for non-Member States, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Foundations.
The General Conference determines the policies and the main lines of work of the Organization (article IV of the Constitution):
- discussing all the issues concerning the general policy of the Organization, and occasionally by focusing on certain major themes;
- adopting for the next four years a programme and, for the next two years a budget, the draft of which is submitted to the General Conference by the Executive Board and is the outcome of a consultation process between the Member States and the Secretariat;
- electing the Members of the Executive Board;
- appointing, every four years, the Director-General;
- adopting the (eight-year) Medium-Term Strategy of the Organization.
The General Conference meets every two years in ordinary session. If required, it may also hold extraordinary sessions.
Since the founding of UNESCO, the General Conference has met 41 times in ordinary session and 4 times in extraordinary session.
The General Conference begins with an opening ceremony in plenary, temporarily presided over by the President elected at the previous session.
It approves its agenda, prepared by the Executive Board, then elects its President and Vice-Presidents, on the proposal of the Nominations Committee.
Next, the Chairperson of the Executive Board and Director-General introduces the general policy debate by presenting the report on the activities of the Organization and the draft programme and budget.
During the last days of the session, the Plenary resumes its work in order to consider and adopt the reports of the Commissions and the budget by the Commissions. Once adopted, they become Resolutions of the General Conference.
Security badges bearing a picture of the holder are necessary to accede and circulate in all buildings. ID-size pictures must be uploaded while doing registration online. All delegates having registered online (and provided an ID-size picture) will find their badges ready on arrival.
- Plenary meeting
The general assembly of the Member States, or plenary meeting, examines the recommendations submitted to it and takes all decisions. Heads of delegation attend the plenary meetings and take part in the General Policy Debate.
- Bureau of the Conference
The Bureau of the General Conference consists of the President and Vice-Presidents of the General Conference, and the Chairpersons of its subsidiary bodies. The Bureau steers the work of the session and coordinates the work of the commissions and committees. It sets the agenda of the plenary meetings, draws up the list of speakers in the general policy debate, and examines requests for the inclusion of new items in the agenda. The chairperson of each commission makes a regular report to the Bureau on the progress of the work.
- Subsidiary bodies
The General Conference may set up, at each session, whatever subsidiary bodies (generally commissions) it deems necessary for the conduct of its work. In view of the many topics to be addressed, the plenary meeting refers a large part of the agenda items to the commissions and committees. The elected bureau of each commission consists of a Chairperson, four Vice-Chairpersons and a Rapporteur, who are assisted by a secretariat composed of staff members specially seconded to the commission for the duration of the session. The agendas of the commissions are organized around one of the main themes (major programmes) of UNESCO’s programme, but each commission considers a great variety of topics connected with the central one.
- Four statutory committees
- The Legal Committee consists of 24 members elected at the previous session; it is responsible for considering draft amendments to the Constitution or Rules of Procedure of the General Conference, and legal matters which are submitted to it. Acting as a credentials committee, the Committee shall also examine and report to the Conference on the credentials of the delegations of Member States and Associate Members, of representatives of the United Nations and the specialized agencies, and of observers sent by non-Member States and other intergovernmental organizations.
- The Nominations Committee consists of the heads of all the delegations with voting rights at the General Conference; it examines and submits to the General Conference proposals concerning the composition of commissions and committees and other bodies whose members must be elected by the General Conference.
- The Bureau steers the work of the General Conference and coordinates the work of commissions and committees; it is made up of the President and Vice-Presidents of the General Conference and the chairpersons of the subsidiary organs.
- The Headquarters Committee consists of 24 members elected at the previous session; it advises the Director-General on questions concerning the Organization’s Headquarters. It reports thereon to the General Conference.
The Delegates’ Information Bureau is responsible for the website of the General Conference; the daily e-journal; the announcements on the flat-screens and the MAG.
The e-journal of the General Conference includes the agenda of the proceedings of the day and reports on the debates and the proceedings of the previous day. It provides information on the side events such as special meetings and official visits.
The Information team coordinates the information available on the screens - located throughout Fontenoy, Miollis and Bonvin buildings - announcing the agenda and timetable of the programme commissions, results of elections etc.
The MAG is a magazine which will be available on the first day of the session of the General Conference. It offers an overview of the special meetings and the side events taking place throughout the Conference.
Delegates are welcome to contact the Delegates’ Information Bureau for any update on the work of the General Conference.
The UNESCO Digital Library houses a collection of all the documents of the General Conference. The UNESCO Digital Library provides full-text access to documents published since 1945, as well as resolutions from all the main bodies and documents from the plenary sessions since 1946.
The QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) present on each document allows you to download the text onto smart devices.
The agendas bear annotations and hyperlinks to the documents.
Two documents: C/1 (Agenda) and C/2 (Organization of work) must be read so that you can decide which commissions and meetings you will attend.
The same applies to the Journal of the General Conference, which is issued every day, starting on the first day of the session.
In the plenary meeting rooms and in the commissions, Member States have a place which is allocated in alphabetical order according to the name of each country in French, starting with a country which is chosen by drawing lots. For the 42nd session, seating will start by Lebanon.
The number of seats per delegation varies according to the room. Places will be set aside for observers.
The working languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Simultaneous interpretation is provided in these six languages; all documents which require a decision by the General Conference are also published in these languages.
Information documents (C/INF.), reports (C/REP) and the Journal of the General Conference are available in English and French only.
Credentials must be sent to the Director-General one week before the opening date of the session (Rule 23 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Conference).
Delegations whose credentials have not been presented in advance to the Director-General are requested to hand them directly to the Secretariat of the Legal Committee, which is responsible for checking the credentials of all the delegations.
Before or at the beginning of the session, check the Speakers’ List on the General Conference website that the day and time when the head of your delegation is due to speak in the General Policy Debate in Plenary correspond to the request made by your delegation.
If your country is not yet on the Speakers’ List, and if the head of your delegation would like to speak in plenary, please send an email to GPD42@unesco.org as early as possible.
- Each Member State and Associate Member shall appoint no more than five delegates, who shall be selected after consultation with the National Commission, if established, or with educational, scientific and cultural bodies.
- Each delegation may also include not more than five alternate delegates and as many advisers and experts as each Member State and Associate Member deems necessary.
The head of a delegation may designate any delegate, alternate delegate, adviser or expert in his/her delegation to represent his/her delegation in a committee, commission or other subsidiary organ of the General Conference. Unless otherwise specified in these rules, the principal representative of a delegation on any committee, commission or other subsidiary organ of the Conference may be accompanied by such other members of his/her delegation as he/she may require to assist him/her; however, the committee, commission or other subsidiary organ concerned may adopt special restrictions if the nature of the business or physical conditions so require.
Security badges bearing a picture of the holder are necessary to accede and circulate in all buildings. ID-size pictures must be uploaded while doing registration online. All delegates having registered online (and provided an ID-size picture) will find their badges ready on arrival.