The National Commission of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO held a meeting

NUR-SULTAN, January 31, 2020, - A regular meeting of the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO under Culture and Sport Minister, Chair of the National Commission AktotyRaimkulova was held at the National Academic Library of Kazakhstan.

Permanent members of the Commission - heads of interested state bodies, prominent figures of education, science and culture of Kazakhstan  attended the meeting. 

Summing up the results of the last two years, specific results of the work of the Commission, its thematic committees, clubs and associated schools of UNESCO were noted. In particular, two more national parks of Kazakhstan - Charyn and Zhongar-Alatau entered the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Two nominations of Kazakhstan - “Heritage of Korkyt” and “Traditional spring ceremonies of Kazakh horse breeders - ‘kymyzmuryndyk’, ‘biebailau’ and ‘aigyrkosu’” supplemented the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Great Steppe: Cultural Heritage and Role in the World History international forum was successfully held in Paris under the auspices of UNESCO.  

Kazakhstan was elected to the International Coordinating Council of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme, and head of the relevant Kazakhstan National Committee Roman Yashchenko was appointed to the International Advisory Committee for Biosphere Reserves.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Deputy Chairman of the National Commission YerzhanAshikbayev pointed out that UNESCO remains an important partner of Kazakhstan in solving social and cultural problems and is a unique platform for promoting national achievements in culture, science, education, and information technology. 

The meeting’s participants also discussed the priority areas of the Commission's activities for 2020, including the preparation and promotion of new national nominations on the UNESCO World Heritage and Intangible Heritage lists. 

The Commission’s members placed particular attention to discussing the celebration of the 1150th anniversary of Al-Farabi and the 2200th anniversary of Shymkent, which arelisted in the UNESCO calendar of memorable dates this year.