The works of the “Programme and External Relations” (PX) Commission opens today at UNESCO as part of the 219th session of the Executive Council. The Commission will be chaired by Ambassador Liborio Stellino, Permanent Representative of Italy to UNESCO, elected to this role for the two-year period 2024-2025. This is the main commission of the Executive Council, which, among other things, will discuss the situation in Ukraine and Gaza in UNESCO’s fields of expertise (education, science and culture) and the Organisation’s programmes to combat racial discrimination and promote gender equality.
Italy continues to play a leading role in UNESCO: in the biennium 2022-2023 it was the second largest contributor to the Unesco agency, right after China, financing in particular projects in Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan and Jordan. UNESCO works to coordinate the policies of its 194 Member States and implement projects on the ground in areas ranging from cultural heritage to artificial intelligence, from education – particularly in emergency and degraded contexts – to the protection of biodiversity and the safety of journalists.
