UNESCO’S OFFICIAL PARTNER NGOs OMAEC REPORT
– Tunisia, September 26/27, 2018 –
Mr.Raoul FORE, Correspondent of the OMAEC in Tunisia
Under the topic “Another perspective on human migration“, OMAEC took part as an official partner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 26 and 27 September in Tunisia. This time, OMAEC, UNESCO’s official partner, was represented by its delegate in Tunisia, Mr. Raoul FONE.
Chaired by Mr. Hatem Ben Salem, Tunisian Minister of National Education, the Tunisia edition focused primarily to UNESCO’s official NGO partners, while remaining open to the participation of other NGOs and institutions, as well as to representatives of the Organization’s Member States. It should be noted that the Forum was organized as part of 70th anniversary celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with emphasis to identify concrete examples of field good practices and perspectives in the areas of protection, reception and inclusion of migrants and refugees in conditions that respect their dignity. It was also discussed to analyze and propose global guidelines about the management of social transformations in the societies of countries of origin, transit and destination; always based in a perspective of respect for fundamental human rights and the needs of the persons involved.
In this respect, almost all speakers welcomed the example of Tunisia, which has been undergoing a political transition and social transformation since the revolution of January 2011. This country is indeed today among the countries at the heart of current events on migration issues, due to what has been called “Arab Spring”, which has caused social upheavals in the sub-region, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria. It was also discussed to share the example of local actors on the management of migrant flows that have arrived massively from Libya to the Tunisian borders, but also the work done to try to control, or even control, the migration flow from Tunisia to the Mediterranean coasts.
With this purpose in mind, the attendances’ exchanges focused mainly on themes and workshops focusing on: art and culture to raise awareness of the situation of migrants; media and information management, specifically on informing the greatest number of people and raising public awareness on these issues; education and training of migrants; the essential role in protecting, welcoming and including migrants; all this in an effort to reach a global agreement for safe, regular and orderly migration.
Among other things, and as the Tunisian Minister of National Education pointed out, we have taken up civilizational challenges, since crossing the sea is a disgrace for all humanity, not only for the sending countries. The world needs clear signals that humanity is one and indivisible, because migration should be a choice and not a necessity.
According with the guidelines concerning UNESCO’s partnership with NGOs that the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee is called upon to organize, in close collaboration with the UNESCO Secretariat, NGO Forums on priority issues for the Organization. Eight forums were held beforehand, including Paris, France – 2013, Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast- 2014, Sozopol, Bulgaria – 2014, Paris, France – 2015, Beijing, China – 2016, Querétaro, Mexico – 2016, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -2017 and Paris, France – 2017.
