Livaneli Resigns as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

Livaneli resigns as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

Zülfü Livaneli, who had served since 1996 as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has resigned from this post. Announcing his resignation in a letter sent to Director-General Irina Bokova, Livaneli stated that, because UNESCO is by its very structure an intergovernmental organisation financed by states, it had fallen into a position of being unable to criticise government policies. Drawing attention to human rights violations and to the blows dealt to freedom of thought and of the press, Livaneli stressed that to hold “Humanity Summits” and to engage in abstract discourses of peace while remaining silent in the face of these things stands in contradiction to UNESCO's fundamental ideals.

Zülfü Livaneli, the only Turkish Goodwill Ambassador appointed internationally by the United Nations, did not attend the “Goodwill Ambassadors” meeting held in Paris on 10 May, nor the Humanitarian Summit organised in Istanbul two days earlier, staying away in criticism of the support given to that summit. Emphasising that to make speeches on the Protection of World Cultural Heritage in Istanbul while the historical treasure of Sur was being destroyed amounts to hypocrisy, Livaneli had been appointed to this post in 1996 by Federico Mayor for “his contributions to world peace in the fields of music and literature.”

The group of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors includes such names as Forest Whitaker, Jean Michel Jarre, Pierre Cardin, Mehriban Aliyeva, Christiane Amanpour, Herbie Hancock, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Princess Caroline of Monaco and Claudia Cardinale.

24.05.2016