Paris, 14 November 2021 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has urged members States of UNESCO to give “moral and ethical issues… greater prominence in [the organisation’s] agenda”.

Minister Grange made the call during her address to the plenary meeting at the UNESCO General Conference now underway in Paris, France.

Minister Grange said that UNESCO was “the conscience of the UN and international framework” and must “resolve to construct a world built on the everlasting pursuit of peace, not war.”

In this regard, Minister Grange said that Jamaica was in full support of the UNESCO’s Slave Route Project which was working towards “de-racialising of our vision and the decolonising of our imaginations.”

The Culture Minister thanked UNESCO for assisting Jamaica to strengthen its legislative framework to protect its cultural assets, and highlighted progress on the EU UNESCO Project which is assisting in the development of the Creative Economy Act.

Representatives from 190 countries are attending the UNESCO General Conference which will, among other things, approve the organisation’s Programme and Budget for the next five years.

Meanwhile, Minister Grange has met with a high-level delegation from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on the margins of the General Conference. The meeting explored possible cooperation in the creative and cultural industries as well as water management.

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