US embassy cable - 05PARIS2990

UNCLAS PARIS 002990 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS 
STATE FOR L THESSIN, L/UNA OSBORN, IO MILLER, IO/EX TIERNAN, 
IO/T DRISCOLL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: APER, AMGT, UNESCO 
SUBJECT: USUNESCO ASSIGNMENT OF ATTORNEY TO THE MISSION 
 
RE:  USUNESCO MISSION PROGRAM PLAN 2006 AND 2007 
 
1.  The conclusion of UNESCO's biannual Executive Board 
meeting last Friday once again showed how important it is to 
assign an attorney advisor to this Mission.  Both Judy 
Osborn and Mike Peay did a fantastic job as usual, but we 
were left for over a week without legal advice and certainly 
felt the lack of continuity in our legal representation 
while we were engaged in various issues with legal 
connotations, including our tough negotiations with the 
European Union.  As it was, Mike Peay stayed an extra day to 
complete the EU negotiations, but the presence of a lawyer 
in the week between Judy's departure and Mike's arrival 
might have helped us avoid the last minute drama on the EU 
issue. 
 
2. The US Mission's efforts to push back on new normative 
instruments is having some success, but this last Executive 
Board meeting made it clear that many member states see 
UNESCO's normative instruments as a key part of the 
organization's work.  In other words, they are never going 
to go away.  Presently we are in the final stages of the 
Anti-Doping Convention, but how it will be implemented, and 
other related issues, will require sustained legal advice. 
We do not want to see the cultural diversity negotiations 
rushed and hope they will continue after the next General 
Conference (October 2005), which means they could go on two 
more years.  The bioethics declaration being elaborated is 
clearly the first step toward a convention, and we keep 
hearing talk about a convention on environmental ethics, a 
declaration on the ethics of space and one on 
nanotechnology. 
 
3.  Active, on-site legal advice during the entirety of the 
Executive Board deliberations would have been useful, 
particularly regarding our efforts to get UNESCO to focus on 
new ways of implementing conventions.  We kept having 
current UNESCO treaty implementation practice waved at us 
when someone readily at hand with knowledge about this is 
handled throughout the UN system would have been invaluable 
for an effective rebuttal.  The UNESCO legal advisor's 
office is appropriately cautious but we need regular, on- 
going relations with that office, especially when they make 
assertions like the European Union can participate in 
cultural diversity negotiations primarily because the UNESCO 
constitution does not expressly prohibit this. 
 
4. Clearly, there's enough to keep a lawyer busy in this 
mission but we would propose that a lawyer assigned here 
also serve as back-up attorney for Geneva.  It is our 
understanding that Geneva has enough legal work that they 
have been requesting a third lawyer for some time. 
 
5. Finally, I understand that it may take a while to 
actually get someone in place.  That being the case, in view 
of the weighty legal issues we will be confronting, I would 
like, in the interest of protecting and advancing U.S. 
foreign policy at this multilateral institution, to make an 
early plea that our mission be provided with constant legal 
coverage throughout this fall's UNESCO Executive Board and 
General Conference.  They will extend for six weeks from mid 
September to late October. 
 
 
OLIVER