Morocco lost its seat on the Unesco Executive Board on Wednesday after failing to secure enough votes in favour its candidacy, thus suffering a new political defeat at the international level.
Morocco will no longer sit on the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), as it obtained less than a hundred votes in an election held on 17 November.
Samir Addahre, Morocco’s ambassador to UNESCO, who was a candidate for this election, had to step down. Kuwait took the place of the Kingdom of Morocco in the council with a total of 153 votes, followed by Jordan (126 votes) and Egypt (130 votes).
Beyond the possibility of holding a seat within Unesco, the candidacy to the Executive Council of this organisation is an opportunity to measure the aura of the countries in the running. Morocco, which has suffered another defeat at the international level, does not seem to attract the sympathy of the organisation’s members. And at Unesco, as elsewhere, the setbacks seem stinging and especially successive for this country.
At the end of October, the US Senate decided to freeze funds intended to support Moroccan participation in joint or multilateral military drills. The American institution made the freezing of this measure conditional on the conclusion of a peace agreement between Morocco and Western Sahara.
A month earlier, the European Union’s Court annulled the two fisheries and agriculture agreements linking Morocco to the European Union and expanded to include occupied Western Sahara.
The court considered that these agreements were concluded in violation of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) decision of 2016 and without the consent of the people of Western Sahara.
Morocco’s rather poor reputation, particularly in recent months, can be explained by the numerous violations committed in the occupied Saharawi territories since the resumption of hostilities with the Polisario Front over a year ago.
The violations also denounced by various international organisations and which concern Moroccan citizens also explain the increasingly palpable unpopularity of the kingdom internationally.
Morocco will no longer sit on the executive council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), reports the letter a this Friday. The election, which took place on November 17, at a general conference, saw the renewal of one of the three governing bodies and the organization, it is said.
It was Samir Addahre, Ambassador of Morocco to Unesco, who had applied. “Morocco, however, did not pass the 100 vote mark and had to bow to Kuwait which obtained 153 votes”, we specify. “The emirate will sit alongside Jordan (126 votes) and Egypt (130 votes), which will retain their place until 2025”.
For the Parisian media, Letter A, revealing the information, Audrey Azoulay loses a precious ally within this body acting as Unesco’s board of directors.
