The forum was held in Paris from November 9 to 24, with relevant moments such as the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and French Audrey Azoulay’s ratification as its director general, for a second four-year term.

In a communique, UNESCO highlighted the approval of the Paris Declaration, a global call to invest in the future of education, an agreement adopted at a meeting that brought together heads of State and Government and ministers from 40 countries.

The impact on education of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has kept 1.6 billion children and adolescents out of the classrooms, with the risk that some of them, living in countries of the South, could never return to schools, was also discussed.

The 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference also allowed to adopt the first world recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence, a text that will be presented to the press by Azoulay this Thursday.

Regarding the Open Science principle, the 193 member States’ forum approved recommendations to implement it globally, with a view to making science more accessible, efficient, transparent and beneficial to all.

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