New U.S. Permanent Representative Takes Office

Ambassador Nix-Hines presents her credentials to UNESCO Director General Bokova. Read more about the new Ambassador.

Crystal Nix-Hines nominated as U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO

Crystal Nix-Hines, has been nominated to be the permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. The post, which must be confirmed by the Senate, carries to rank of ambassador.

I quote from Wikipedia:

Crystal Nix-Hines is Of Counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in Los Angeles.  Previously, she served as Of Counsel at Fairbank & Vincent from 2006 to 2007, Special Counsel in the Litigation Department of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP from 1997 to 2000, and Assistant to the General Counsel/Senior Vice President of Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. from 1992 to 1993.  From 1993 to 1997, she held several positions at the State Department, including Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Member of the Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and Special Assistant to the Legal Adviser.  From 1991 to 1992, she clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.  She also clerked for Justice William A. Norris on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit from 1990 to 1991.  During her career, Ms. Nix-Hines has also been a writer and producer on several network television shows such as Commander-in-Chief, Alias, and The Practice.  She began her career as a reporter for New York Times. 

Her law practice currently focuses on several areas, including  Entertainment and Media Litigation, Intellectual Property Litigation, Structured Finance and Derivatives Litigation and Transnational Litigation.

According to Variety:

Nix-Hines was a bundler for President Obama in the most recent election cycle, raising between $200,000 and $500,000. She was a classmate of Michelle Obama’s at Princeton and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1990, a year before Barack Obama.

This appears to be an exceptional appointment. Nix-Hines' career path indicates that she is exceptionally talented, energetic and innovative. She has appropriate, high-level experience in the State Department. Her legal work in structured finance should be invaluable in dealing with UNESCO's budget issues. Her television background givers her professional standing with respect to UNESCO's culture program. Her legal work in intellectual property law gives her professional standing with regard to UNESCO's copyright conventions and their implementation. As a former New York Times reporter she brings special understanding to UNESCO's defense of reporters and press freedom. And last, but not least, she has personal standing that means her voice can be heard in the halls of the State Department and the White House.

US Permanent Delegation to UNESCO

UNESCO lists the permanent delegation of the United States to the Organization as follows:

Permanent Delegation of the United States of America to UNESCO

U.S. Mission to UNESCO
American Embassy
12, avenue Raphaël
75016 PARIS

Telephone :	01.43.12.74.56
Fax :	01.43.12.74.58
E-mail :	ParisUNESCO@state.gov
Web site :	http://unesco.usmission.gov/

The Permanent Delegation requests that all correspondence be addressed to :
U.S. Mission to UNESCO
Miollis House - Room 4.45
75015 PARIS

H. E. Mr David Killion
Ambassador
Permanent Delegate (27/08/2009)
Mrs Kristin Eager Killion

Telephone :	01 43 12 74 16
E-mail :	ParisUNESCO@state.gov

Ms Kathleen A. Kavalec
Deputy Permanent Delegate, 

Telephone :	01 43 12 74 85
E-mail :	k.kavalec.us@unesco-delegations.org

M. Scott Turner
First Secretary (Political Affairs)

Telephone :	01 43 12 74 82
E-mail :	s.turner.us@unesco-delegations.org

Mrs Megan Larson-Kone
First Secretary (Communications/Culture)

Telephone :	01 43 12 74 46
E-mail :	m.larson-kone.us@unesco-delegations.org

Mr James Ryan Grizzle
Second Secretary (Education)

Telephone :	01 43 12 74 81
E-mail :	r.grizzle.us@unesco-delegations.org

Mrs Janel Heird
Second Secretary, Science Officer

Telephone :	01 43 12 74 99
E-mail :	j.heird.us@unesco-delegations.org

Mrs Daniela Morich
Program Specialist

Telephone :	01 43 12 74 53
E-mail :	d.morich.us@unesco-delegations.org

FYI -- The Repercussions if UNESCO Admits Palestine

I quote extensively from an article in UN Dispatch by Mark Leon Goldberg:

UNESCO member states are poised to admit Palestine as the newest member of the UN body. This is an achievement for the Palestinian leadership, which is seeking admission to various UN agencies, but potentially catastrophic news for UNESCO and American leadership at the UN. And through no fault of her own, even Beyonce may suffer. 

At issue here are two strict laws passed by the United States congress in 1994 which stipulate that “the United States shall not make any voluntary or assessed contribution to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.”  And if that were not clear enough, a second clause clearly states that the United States may not “provide funds [to] the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.”  The law authorizes no “waiver authority” by the executive branch, meaning that there is no way for President Obama to end run around this prohibition. 

In other words, if UNESCO admits Palestine as a member, the United States will be forced to effectively withdraw from the organization. That would be a huge financial blow to UNESCO, which receives 22% of its budget ($80 million) in dues payments from the United States. With that money, UNESCO promotes world press freedom, is the lead UN agency for the implementation of  the Millennium Development Goal number 2 (universal primary eduction) and administers the World Heritage site program, among other things. 

But the effect would be felt far beyond UNESCO. Several smaller UN agencies — including World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the UN Conference on Trade and Development — tie their own membership to other UN agencies. This means that when one UN agency accepts a new member, these three UN agencies automatically accept the new member as well. Once UNESCO admits Palestine, these other UN agencies will automatically admit Palestine as well…and the United States will be forced to automatically pull out.

U.S. Members of the UNESCO Executive Board

Title	Name	Years	Sessions
Member	Mr Archibald MacLeish	1946-1947	1-2
Member	Mr Milton Eisenhower	1947	3-4
Member	Mr George D. Stoddard	1947-1949	5-17
Member	Mr Luther H. Evans	1949-1953	18-34
Member	Mr John A. Perkins	1953-1954	35-39
Member	Mr Athelstan F. Spilhaus	1954-1958	40-50
Member	Mr George N. Shuster	1958-1963	51-65
Member	Mr William Benton	1963-1968	65-80
Member	Ms Katie S. Louchheim	1968-1969	81-83
Member	Ms Louise Gore	1969-1973	83-93
Member	Mr Edward O. Sullivan	1973-1974	93-95
Member	Mr Gordon H. Scherer	1974-1976	96-99
Member	Mr Robert B. Kamm	1976-1977	99-103
Member	Mr Henry E. Kerry	1977-1978	103-105
Member	Mr Esteban Edward Torres	1978-1980	106-109
Member	Ms Barbara W. Newell	1980-1982	109-114
Member	Ms Jean Broward Shevlin Gerard	1982-1984	114-120

The United States held membership on the Executive Board of UNESCO from the beginning of the Organization until the United States withdrew from the organization in 1984. Since the United States rejoined the Organization in 2003, the United States has been represented on the Executive Board by the Permanent Representatives to UNESCO, Louise Oliver and Daniel Killion.

I am impressed by the large number of distinguished people who served as the United States' members of UNESCO's Executive Board. Especially in the early years of UNESCO the members were distinguished public intellectuals such as Archibald MacLeish and Luther Evans (both of whom served as Librarians of Congress), President Eisenhower's brother Milton, Athelstan Spilhaus (scientist educator) and William Benton (Publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica). A number ran universities (Eisenhower, Perkins, Shuster, Kamm, Newell).

Controversy over UNESCO possible recognition of Palestine state

Map Source: InternationalRelations.com

The Executive Board of UNESCO voted today on a recommendation to admit Palestine to the Organization. From the 58 member-states on the Board, the recommendation was passed by a vote of 40 in favor to four against, with 14 abstentions. Palestine's request for membership will now be considered at the next session of the General Conference (October 26-November 10) where a two-thirds majority vote is required for membership to be granted. Decisions for admission are taken by the General Conference and the Executive Board which are UNESCO's governing bodies.

According to The New York Times:

Fourteen delegations abstained, including those from Belgium, France, Italy and Spain, while the American delegation joined Germany, Latvia and Romania in opposing the measure. (Israel does not presently sit on the executive board, where membership rotates.) Russia joined African and Arab states, among others, in support.

The United States government has opposed according Palestine full national status in UN agencies at this time on the basis that there should first be a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, and that premature recognition of Palestine would make getting the peace process under way more difficult. In general, the United States government has supported a two state solution.

The vote is especially important as the United Nations is also considering accepting Palestine as a member nation, and were a specialized agency such as UNESCO to recognize the Palestinians as a member state it might set a precedent for the vote in the UN. 

The New York Times reports that "Palestinians Win a Vote On Bid to Join Unesco". It reports further:

(F)ull membership in Unesco could mean a legally mandated cutoff of all contributions from the United States, both dues and voluntary. 

Existing United States legislation appears to mandate the cutoff of money to the United Nations or any of its agencies if they grant “full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood,” and more legislation along the same lines has been introduced. The United States contributes 22 percent of Unesco’s budget...... 

The State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said that lawyers were busily reviewing how and when the Palestinian membership would affect the American financing. She said the administration would try to block a vote of the full Unesco membership even as it encourages a resumption of talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The fiscal year for the U.S. Government started October 1, 2011 so presumably U.S. funding from the last fiscal year (that ended September 30th) has already been transferred to UNESCO. Were the action of the General Conference to trigger a withholding of U.S. contributions to UNESCO, that would presumably occur in 2012 or thereafter. Member states have a responsibility to pay their assessed contributions to the Organization, but there have been many occasions in which a country is in arrears on those contributions, so the United States might withhold payment to UNESCO for a period of time and then pay the amount in arrears. Indeed, the Congress has in the past withheld contributions to the United Nations as means of pressuring the UN to change management or policy, later paying the arrears.

When the decision was made by the United States Government in the Reagan administration to withdraw from UNESCO, the Government provided the required one year notice of withdrawal, paying its assessed contributions for the period the United States remained a member state. The withdrawal, combined with that of the United Kingdom and Singapore, created a major financial crisis for UNESCO.

The return of the United States to UNESCO in 2004 did not result in a massive immediate increase in its budget, but rather a reduction in the assessed contributions of the other member states. Still, withholding 22 percent of the budget would cause serious financial problems for the organization. Were the United States again to withdraw from UNESCO the crisis would be greater and longer lasting. Were other major donors to also withhold contributions and/or withdraw, the result might be fatal to the Organization.

As in other United Nations system forums, the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab controversy has come up regularly at UNESCO Executive Board and General Conference meetings. Often those debates have led to useful conclusions, and to the best of my knowledge, none led to crises in UNESCO governance.

The U.S. Delegation Brings World Heritage Photo Exhibit to UNESCO

“World Heritage Sites around the World,” is a U.S. sponsored photographic exhibition by award-winning U.S. photographer Tom Till that was recently installed at UNESCO. The exhibit included breathtaking photographs of 32 World Heritage sites taken in 23 different countries, reflecting both the natural and manmade beauty and grandeur found in countries around the world and highlighted by the World Heritage program.

Among the photos were six American sites – including the Grand Canyon and five of the other most visited landmarks and natural wonders found in the U.S. Also on display during the exhibition was a short video about the United States’ most recent addition to the World Heritage list, Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, inscribed at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Brasilia, in July 2010. Read more....

You can purchase original prints of Mr. Till's photos online from his website.

Tom Till photograph

Alpenglow at Mather Point, 

Grand Canyon National Park

A Recommendation to the U.S. Permanent Representative to UNESCO

Boston’s Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, a sculpture by Saint-Gaudens

I recommend that the U.S. delegation to UNESCO arrange for a showing of the American Masters show on Augustus Saint-Gaudens. He was the greatest American sculptor of the 19th and early 20th century, and his sculpture includes important tributes to Lincoln and the Civil War memorial shown above. His work is included in the most important American museums, He was also the first American sculptor to be recognized in France. The Saint-Gaudens home and studio in New Hampshire, which was the center of an important art colony, is now maintained by the National Park service as a national historical site.

The hour long show is very good, and its showing by the U.S. delegation would both be entertaining and help acquaint the UNESCO related community in Paris with the depth and history of American high culture.

John Daly
(The recommendation is mine alone, and does not necessarily represent that of Americans for UNESCO).

Fulbright Scholar Helps Generate $75,000 for UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network

A U.S. Fulbright scholar, Jacqueline Bishop, recently completed her four-month fellowship at UNESCO with a big win: working with the U.S. Mission to UNESCO, she submitted a project proposal that has been awarded $75,000 in funding from the State Department. During her fellowship Ms. Bishop was placed in the Creative Cities Network at UNESCO, where she discovered that there was a need to help less developed cities become part of the network.

UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network connects cities who want to share experiences, ideas and best practices for cultural, social and economic development. There are currently twenty-one cities in the network, including Iowa City, Iowa and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Read more!

Remarks of the U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO at the February meeting of the Executive Board

Ambassador Killion and

Director-General Bokova

Mr Killion (United States of America) congratulated the Director-General, indicating she was off to a tremendous start, and that her efforts to raise the visibility of the Organization were already bearing fruit. She has proven to be an effective communicator on the world stage. Having accompanied the Director-General for part of her visits in Washington DC, he could report that they had been incredibly successful, and had included the first meeting between a Director-General and a United States Secretary of State since his country re-entered UNESCO. The Secretary of State had expressed a strong desire to work with the Director-General on tackling the problem of education for girls.

The United States of America applauded and supported the Director-General’s efforts to put
UNESCO at the lead of the international effort to preserve Haiti’s patrimony. Mr Killion knew that the Director-General had written to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others on the subject. The U.S. delegation, however, was concerned about reports recently received that the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) had not yet begun to address the issue of preserving Haiti’s cultural heritage. Ambassador Killion asked:

• What replies had been received to those letters?
• Was MINUSTAH now firmly committed to saving cultural property in Haiti, and what, specifically, was being done on the ground?

Secretary Clinton During Her Visit to Paris

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, yesterday in Paris acknowledged the Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UNESCO, David Killion. She thanked Ambassador Killion for helping the Untied States to reenter UNESCO, and for setting the right tone, and for his work on many of the important issues that matter to our country.

She said:

I also want to acknowledge Ambassador Killion’s work with the new UNESCO Director-General Bokova, whom I met with last week. I was proud to offer our support for the organization’s comprehensive agenda, not only encouraging freedom of expression and promoting advances in science and engineering, but concentrating on women and girls around the world, particularly their education, something which is key to America’s efforts to stabilize countries, to resolve conflicts, to raise the aspirations and incomes of societies. And I look forward to working with David.

David Killion Sworn In as U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO

David Killion was sworn in yesterday as the new American Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UNESCO. The oath to support the Constitution of the United States was administered by the Under Secretary of State. Ambassador Killion acknowledged the support of his wife, who coincidentally he met first in Paris, and of his mother, a teacher, and his father, a chemist. His acceptance speech was a reprise of the message he provided to the Congress at his confirmation hearing.

The ceremony was held in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department. It seems fitting that the Ambassador to UNESCO was sworn in in a room named after Franklin, who was among other things America's first great scientist, a writer whose autobiography and sayings are still read today, the founding President of the Academy which eventually became the University of Pennsylvania, the founder of the first public lending library in America, one of America's most accomplished and successful diplomats who loved Paris (where UNESCO is headquartered), a newspaper publisher and generally a man who exemplified in his lifetime the spirit of UNESCO.

Incidentally, the diplomatic rooms of the State Department are beautiful, furnished with American antiques from the 18th century of great beauty and value.

The ceremony was well attended, with perhaps 100 people in the audience. As I waited in line to get through the security screening needed to enter the State Department I had the pleasure of meeting Ivonne Baki, a candidate for Director General of UNESCO, who was directly in front of me. I also had the pleasure of chatting with the couple standing directly behind me, Bob Kahn (one of the inventors of the Internet) and his wife, Patrice Lyons (one of the members of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO). I suspect that many of the others who attended the ceremony were comparably distinguished.

A Factoid from the History of U.S. Involvement with UNESCO

Myrna Loy, the actress who won an Academy Award for her lifetime career achievement in films, became a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO in 1948, the first Hollywood celebrity to do so.

She was married from 1950 ro 1961 to Howland H. Sargeant, the only American to serve as Chairman of the General Conference of UNESCO (6th Session, 1951).

Time magazine reported at time of the General Conference:

A Republican charge that Cinemactress Myrna Loy and her new State Department husband Howland H. Sargeant had enjoyed a Paris honeymoon at government expense is just not so, declared Georgia's Democratic Congressman Prince Preston Jr. The bridegroom did indeed travel on government funds because he was on an official mission; the honeymoon was coincidental and he paid his wife's bills. Besides, Preston added, since conferences frequently started at 8 a.m. and lasted until 2 a.m., "Paris turned out to be a mighty poor place to spend a honeymoon."

Sargeant, a Rhodes Scholar, was a career diplomat who became Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs before leaving government to run Radio Liberation, which broadcast to the Soviet Union.

Senate Hearing on David Killion

David Killion has been nominated by the Obama administration to serve as the U.S. Permanent Representative to UNESCO. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing today on his nomination, as part of the confirmatin process. Killion has many years of experience in the State Department and as a Congressional aid, and deep knowledge of UNESCO. It is expected that he will be quickly confirmed.

Read his statement to the committee!

You can also watch the hearing on streaming video. Mr. Killion is one of several nominees, and during the video he reads from his prepared statement and responds to a question from Senator Barbara Boxer with regard to the poor educational opportunities for girls in Afghanistan. Killion responded to the effect that UNESCO focuses on gender issues and that it can be even more credible than bilateral efforts in promoting education in some circumstances; he pledged to work on girls education in Afghanistan if confirmed.

Only two Senators participated in the hearing, which Senator Boxer interpreted as a good sign for the nominees since there were few if any concerns about their nominations. She indicated that a vote was scheduled on the nominations on August 4th, prior to the August Congressional recess.

UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education

Opening Session Keynote Address by Dr. Jill Biden

Dr. Jill Biden at the

UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education

© UNESCO/M. Ravassard

Dr. Jill Biden, educator and wife of U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden, led the U.S. delegation to UNESCO’s second World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE), held at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters from July 5-8, 2009.

Dr. Biden was a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, where she spoke about her passion for teaching and the influential role that community colleges play in America’s university system.

Full Text of Dr. Jill Biden’s Keynote Speech

More about U.S. Participation in the 2009 UNESCO WCHE

WCHE 2009 Final Communiqué

Biden at UNESCO's WCHE 2009

Source: Associated Press

"Jill Biden, the wife of the U.S. vice president and longtime educator, says American community colleges could be a pillar of economic recovery and a source of new skills after layoffs — and a model for poorer countries struggling to educate their citizens.

"The World Bank had a similar message in a report Monday that denounces the "hype" surrounding elite universities. The report says developing countries, especially in times of recession, would be better off meeting the educational needs of their local communities and economies than trying to build world-class schools.

"Community colleges are "a gateway in this economy, as people are losing jobs and going for new training," Biden told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Sunday.

"Biden, who teaches English as a second language at Northern Virginia Community College, called on 28 years of education experience in a keynote speech at a UNESCO forum on higher education in Paris."

Read the full article!

Editorial comment: One would not want to underestimate the contributions made to this country by Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, Cal Tech or the University of Chicago. On the other hand, one should not underestimate the contributions of the other 4000 institutions of higher education. Dr. Biden's suggestion -- that community colleges are an important model that developing nations should study and perhaps utilize -- is clearly useful. Failure to recognize the value of world class research universities would be as dangerous as overvaluing them or assuming they were easier to develop than is in fact the case. JAD

Martha J. Kanter, New Under Secretary of Education, at a Unesco Conference in Paris

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

Two days after being sworn in as under secretary of education, Martha J. Kanter was on her way here to attend the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education, held by Unesco, the United Nations education and science agency.

Editorial comment: This is a good sign that the Obama administration will take a serious interest in UNESCO. JAD

NAFSA APPLAUD NEWLY NOMINATED UNESCO AMBASSADOR

NAFSA: Association of International Educators have publicly championed President Obama’s announcement that he has nominated David T. Killion to be the next US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to be the next ambassador, on their website.

Read more!

David Killion to be U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO

According to the Associated Press:

David Killion, a senior member of the professional staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was picked to lead the U.S. mission at the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. As an adviser on U.N. issues to the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., Killion worked on the legislation that was passed in 2001 authorizing U.S. re-entry to UNESCO.

Read:

• Mr. Killion's biography
• The White House announcement of the nomination

Dept of Ed Policy Attache to UNESCO Cut from U.S. Budget

Tuesday the Washington Post had a story that the White House had cut the position of Education Attache from the staff of the Permanent Representative of the United States to UNESCO. The cut is estimated to save between $631 thousand to $713 thousand.

That includes the following: one GS-15 salary, plus benefits; one Paris apartment, plus parking; travel and moving expenses; education costs for children of up to $60,000; and $170,000 for International Cooperative Administrative Support Services, an expenses-sharing mechanism used by agencies for overseas staff.

Sally Lovejoy, formerly a Congressional aid, was appointed to the job in 2006 and resigned at the end of the Bush administration. I assume that we will replace Ms. Lovejoy with a considerably junior officer, who has much less luxurious support services.

No Wonder This Woman Is Smiling
Photo credit: Susan Walsh - AP