Egyptian Minister of Foreign affairs, Nabil al-Arabi met today with Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO who was visiting Cairo for a day. Bokova told reporters she had discussed with al-Arabi cooperation in the fields of education, culture, media support and combating the smuggling of antiquities. She said she informed the Minister that UNESCO is ready to cooperate with Egypt to prevent the smuggling of antiquities. Bokova suggested that customs officials, police, special units, youth and civil society join forces to prevent the smuggling of antiquities. According to Bokava, the meeting with al-Arabi included discussions on the 1997 agreement regarding imports and exports. "We decided to cooperate on the basics of this convention in order to prevent smuggling operations, something that is very important for Egypt especially in its transitional period. Egypt is a very important country in the international community," said Bokova. In response to a question posed by Youm7 regarding the support that UNESCO is willing to give Egypt for its democratic transition she said her organization encourages the establishment of new democratic institutions. She said that culturally speaking, UNESCO trying to assess Egypt in terms of the existence and extent of freedom of expression and information, and is trying to provide assistance for the development of any new legislation at a time when Egypt is seeking to develop a new constitution. According to Bokova, UNESCO is also willing to help train journalists on how to apply the rights and responsibilities of the profession in a responsible manner, as well as to work with young people so they know their rights. She said UNESCO's long term ambitions is working to combat illiteracy and to help Egypt achieve the dream of eradicating illiteracy by the year 2015. It also aims to pay attention to the quality of education as well as human and civil rights. Bokova said that UNESCO is interested in developing education in Egypt, especially regarding literacy programs. Given that illiteracy is a big problem in Egypt and the majority of the illiterate are women, UNESCO will start a new initiative for the education of girls and will work to keep them in school. It has already created three initiatives which Bokova hopes will attract private institutions to help.
