LHE/20/8.GA/INF.1 - page 81

- expected with regard to these recommendations. Hence the need to push forward with this work. Nonetheless, the delegation expressed the need for tangible, concrete results to be made ready for the 40th General Conference. The next Assembly of the States Parties would be in 2020 after the General Conference, so it wished to propose that these documents and all the amendments be adopted by this Assembly, at least those that had been suggested, so that this could be presented to the next General Conference. The delegation noted the important and precise work of the Committee, as well as the Secretariat 's support in having clear recommendations to integrate into the statutes and the Rules of Procedure of the Committee. The delegation believed that certain recommendations should be implemented as they had already been practised, for example on the issue of membership periods, not least because the Assembly would not meet again until 2020. Moreover, some amendments were linked to other agencies and it was thus important to link the recommendations that were not going to be adopted right now to the work of the ad hoc working group. In this way, the working group would be informed of the themes so that its work could be presented at the next Committee meeting so as to have something to present to the General Conference in November 2019 with regard to improving its procedures and statutes.
- 433. The delegation of the Philippines thanked the Secretariat for the very good report, especially the Annex, which it believed other Committees and governing bodies could use as a template of good practice when examining the follow-up and implementation of the recommendations of the Working Group on Governance adopted by the General Conference. This methodology and progress could be presented to the Working Group on Governance when it reconvened in 2019 for the decision of the General Conference on the implementation of the recommendations across all relevant bodies under the UNESCO framework. As recognized by the Working Group on Governance, the 2003 Convention is a source of other good practices such as the overall results framework, adopted the previous day, and for achieving a high number of ratifications in a short space of time, as well as the very good focus on International Assistance and capacity building. Regarding some of the recommendations in the Annex, the delegation spoke of Recommendation 60 [on politicization] and how dialogue could be an essential tool to help reduce and manage politicization. On Recommendation 61 [on enhancing visibility], it was felt that this work was a continuous effort and could be further improved in view of the communications plan being prepared. The delegation agreed with the assessment for Recommendations 65, 66, 67 and 73. On Recommendation 68 [on the intergovernmental nature of the Bureau], as discussed in the ad hoc working group, the Secretariat could be requested to distribute guidelines on the responsibilities of Bureau members contained as an appendix to the document adopted by the General Conference. Likewise, in Recommendation 71 [on transparency and open Bureau meetings], States Parties could be informed of the time and date of Bureau meetings as they were open to Observers. In Recommendation 76 [on orientation sessions for new members], there was a suggestion in the ad hoc working group to look at the possibility of holding an additional orientation session a few months before the actual Committee for new members elected to the Committee, perhaps on the side-lines of the information meeting for the Committee session. In Recommendation 96 on the harmonization of amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly and other culture Conventions, the delegation noted that this would be addressed under item 13. In response to Ecuador 's concern, the ad hoc working group had taken up this issue and continued to do so, and it had identified certain elements and areas where further action could be recommended for States Parties and the Committee to consider, the outcomes of which would of course be presented to the Working Group [on Governance] in 2019 and then to the General Conference in 2019.
- 434. The delegation of Turkey thanked the Secretariat for its comprehensively prepared follow- up report on the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the Open-Ended Working Group on Governance, and it thanked the Philippines for its eloquent remarks. The delegation commended the Secretariat's categorization of the recommendations in line with the required action and was pleased to note that eleven of the twenty-six recommendations had already been implemented. Having said that, the remaining recommendations still required attention. These included the issues pertaining to the harmonization of the Bureau