The Sixth Extraordinary Session of the General Assembly of the International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilization under auspices of UNESCO (IISNC) was held in a Mongolian ger at the Embassy of Mongolia in France on 22 November 2023.
At the opening ceremony, Dr. Bum-Ochir Dulam, Culture and Religion Policy Advisor to the President of Mongolia and the Head of the Academic Council of the IISNC, conveyed the official message of the President of Mongolia. In this session, official representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Türkiye and representative of UNESCO participated.
Throughout the conference, topics such as International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilization’s operation in Central Asia whilst studying countries with nomadic civilizations in the Middle East and other continents, highlighting the significance of intercultural, open, and respectful dialogue, promoting peaceful and sustainable world, protecting and promoting of diversity of cultural expressions of the humanity, engaging these matters into academic discussions, and solving funding issues were discussed and consensus was reached.
H.E Ms. Nyamkhuu Ulambayar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Delegate of Mongolia to UNESCO, who participated in the conference, highlighted the recent adoption of “UNESCO Collection on History of Nomadic Civilizations” – an initiative proposed by Mongolia of which aims to promote nomadic culture to the world, raise awareness and deepen knowledge of the nomadic civilization’s contribution to the general progress of humanity, during the 42nd Session of the UNESCO General Conference.
Furthermore, topics such as reflection on its activities implemented under the mandate of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the past two years and activities for the upcoming years, including academic and scientific research and promoting those work to the world, was discussed.
At the initiative of UNESCO’s former Director-General, Mr. Federico Mayor, the International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations under auspices of UNESCO (IISNC) was established by an intergovernmental and multilateral agreement in 1998 between the governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Türkiye. The IISNC is the only UNESCO Category 2 Institute whose Secretariat is based in Mongolia and has been studying countries with nomadic culture, particularly the lives of their people, from socio-political and socio-economic perspectives for 24 years since 1999.