This important body, of which he is the president from now on, will next year propose to the member states the successor of the current director general of Unesco, the Frenchwoman Audrey Azoulet.
Franco-Lebanese Vera El-Hourry Lakegi was elected today to a key position at Unesco, under the banner of the small Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, which is represented in this UN organization by a Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire who has repeatedly engaged the justice system.
El-Hourry received 36 votes to Brazil’s Paula Alves de Souza’s 20 — with two abstentions — among a total of 58 voting board members.
This important body, of which he is the president from now on, will next year propose to the member states the successor of the current director general of Unesco, the Frenchwoman Audrey Azoulet.
“I am extremely touched by this honor and recognition,” said El Khoury, who was warmly applauded by the executive board.
After weeks of stormy campaigning, “we are turning a page, a page of unity, solidarity, cooperation among all of us,” continued the candidate from Saint Lucia, who ran unsuccessfully in 2017 for the post of director-general, representing Lebanon .
Her election ends weeks of psychodrama at the UN agency for education, science and culture.
Rejecting the candidacy of Vera El-Hourry, several governments had supported the candidacy of the former Minister of Justice of Argentina, Marcela Losardo.
But she pulled out at the last minute on Wednesday after the controversial Javier Millay was elected president of Argentina, and a Brazilian candidate then entered the race.
Diplomats speaking to AFP expressed outrage at Saint Lucia’s candidacy over the identity of its permanent representative to Unesco, Gilbert Sagouri, a controversial Nigerian.
Although an inscription in the Louvre museum certifies his action as a sponsor, this philanthropist, a close associate of the former Nigerian dictator Sana Abacha, was convicted in 2000 in Geneva of a fine of one million Swiss francs in a case of money laundering.
The Swiss judiciary noted his “commitment to return to the Federal Republic of Nigeria the sum of 66 million dollars” (60.4 million euros), according to a court order available online.
He also paid $1.8 million (€1.6 million) to US justice in 2021 to close an investigation into illegal campaign financing.
Sagouri made his fortune from oil, according to two security sources, when Unesco is fighting global warming.
Source :Skai
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