ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: Minister for Education Zobaida Jalal will lead Pakistan’s delegation to the 32nd session of Unesco’s General Conference scheduled to be held in Paris from Sept 29 to Oct 17.

According to an official statement, Ms Jalal has also been nominated to preside over the important Commission II on education.

The statement said one of the high points of the event was that on October 1 the United States would rejoin Unesco after 19 years.

More than 3,000 participants are expected to attend the general conference. Among them are a large number of ministers and five heads of states, including Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (Italy), Askar Alcaev (Kyrgyzstan) and Jacques Chirac (France).

The main item on the agenda of the general conference will be the examination and adoption of Unesco’s draft programme and budget for 2004-05, and the preparation of the same for 2006-07.

Other major items on the agenda include: a preliminary draft international convention for safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage, a draft declaration concerning the intentional destruction of cultural heritage, a draft international declaration on human genetic data, a draft recommendation on the promotion and use of multilingualism and universal access to cyberspace and a draft charter on the preservation of the digital heritage.

The conference will also debate the desirability of drawing up an international standard-setting instrument on cultural diversity, and study a proposal for Unesco to prepare an international anti-doping convention in sport.

During the general conference, a round table of education ministers will be organized on the theme of ‘The Quality of Education’ (Oct 3-4) and another one for communication and information ministers on ‘Towards knowledge societies’ on Oct 9 and 10.