Fact of the Day

"Fact of the Day" presents a fact, figure or quote plucked out of the mass of daily information.

The 34th General Conference in figures:

185 Member States registered

9 Heads of State

279 Ministers, Vice-Ministers and Secretaries of State

3 463 Delegates

117 observers from IGOs

293 observers from NGOs

360 00 page views of the Conference website from over 190 countries

100 000 connections to video and audio files worldwide during the General Conference and the177th session of the Executive Board

Over 700 permanent and temporary staff on the special support teams, including 156 interpreters and 87 people working on the preparation and production of documents.

Up to 70 people per day pass through the UNESCO Medical Service during the General Conference

Over 3,600 people can attend meetings simultaneously in UNESCO’s 16 meeting rooms. Room I alone holds 1360 people.

Three teams of up to eight people work around the clock printing the General Conference documents

Some 7,000 badges have been created especially for the General Conference

There are currently 660 cultural, 166 natural and 25 mixed sites on the World Heritage List, located in 141 Member States.

The film library of the Bureau of Public Information references about 11,000 film copies representing 2,400 films, all produced or co-produced by the Organization.

Did you know that the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) 2008 has already begun? It runs from January 2007 to December 2009.

The UNESCO Archives preserve 10,000 linear metres of textual records, 120,000 microfiches and 2,500,000 electronic records.

The French word ‘terroir’ is difficult or even impossible to translate. The concept is being proposed at the General Conference (in four words) as a model of site-specific sustainable development.

Resilience refers to the capacity of a social system or an ecosystem to absorb shocks as well as the capacity to recover afterwards. The concept is being applied to the biosphere at the General Conference.

183 Member States were registered for the 34th Session of the General Conference on 16 and 17 October. Also present were two Heads of State, seven Prime Ministers and Deputy Prime Ministers, 289 Ministers and some 3,086 Delegates and Observers.

UNESCO stores almost 2000 flags, big and small, in its flag room, with approximately 10 flags for each Member State.

Montenegro became UNESCO’s 192nd Member State on 1st March 2007. Singapore became the 193rd on 8 October 2007, returning to UNESCO after 22 years absence.

The UNESCO photographers take over 14000 photos during the General Conference.