Russia Expelled from Key UNESCO Body
For the first time, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has not elected Russia to its Executive Board, one of the organisation's key bodies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter (X).
According to him, this is the first time in history that Russia has been "expelled from the UNESCO Executive Board".
"For the first time in history, Russia has been expelled from the UNESCO Executive Board. The era of Russian influence is over, and rightly so: Russian terrorists have no place at the head of important international organisations. Russia's international role will only weaken," he wrote.
As you know, the Executive Board is one of the three main organs of UNESCO, along with the General Conference and the Secretariat, which manages its budgetary and programme activities.
The body has 58 members elected by the General Conference, an advisory body composed of all UNESCO members. The members of the Executive Board are elected on a quota basis, with quotas allocated to each region by relative majority vote.
Russia was a member of the Eastern Europe group, from which Serbia (137 votes), Albania (134), Slovakia (117) and the Czech Republic (99) were elected.
Besides, last week, Russia's representative was not elected to the International Court of Justice for the first time: he lost to Romania's representative, former Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu.
As previously reported by The Gaze, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has strongly condemned another rocket attack by Russian troops on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, which damaged the 124-year-old National Art Museum.
Russian forces shelled Odesa on 6 November. The next morning after the Russian missile attack, the Odesa National Art Museum was scheduled to celebrate its 124th anniversary and hold an open house. However, the museum was closed as the damage assessment process continued. The museum's website posted a message with preliminary information about the museum's condition and damaged exhibits.
The day before, the European Union introduced the 12th package of sanctions against Russia. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, together with the European Commission, proposed new restrictions for Russia.