Ukraine has significantly strengthened its positions within UNESCO by joining the Organization’s Executive Board and expanding its presence in key programmes. These issues were discussed during the first meeting of the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO in 2026. The event was attended by the Chair of the National Council, Olha Herasymiuk, who also heads the Commission’s Communication and Information Sector.
Opening the meeting, the Chair of the National Commission, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Mariana Betsa, summarized Ukraine’s results within UNESCO in 2025. She emphasized that Ukraine’s election to the Executive Board was one of the most challenging yet most rewarding diplomatic processes in recent years.
As of today, Ukraine is represented in 11 UNESCO bodies and programmes, including in leadership positions, which, according to the National Commission, constitutes an unprecedented level of engagement.
The Permanent Delegate of Ukraine to UNESCO, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to France, Vadym Omelchenko, who joined the meeting online, confirmed the high level of Ukraine’s presence in the Organization and informed about the preparations for the visit of the newly elected UNESCO Director-General to Ukraine, scheduled for 2026, as well as about the work of the international coalition of the Group of Friends of Ukraine at UNESCO. Thanks to this coalition, issues concerning Ukraine have been secured on the permanent agenda of UNESCO’s governing bodies.
During the meeting, the Chair of the National Council, Olha Herasymiuk, focused on how Ukraine is strengthening its positions within UNESCO’s information and communication sector. She emphasized that one of the key achievements has been Ukraine’s active participation in the governing bodies of the intergovernmental programme “Information for All” (IFAP), which defines approaches to the development of information societies and access to knowledge. Ukraine is currently represented in all of the programme’s working groups – a result made possible through coordinated efforts with the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to UNESCO and the diplomatic corps.
At the same time, Olha Herasymiuk noted that the formal removal of Russian representatives from the governing bodies is not sufficient. According to her, it is important to intensify the work of individual working groups and to consistently counter Russian influence, particularly in the sensitive area of multilingualism.
Speaking about the preservation of national memory, the Chair of the media regulator highlighted the intensified work of the UNESCO “Memory of the World” programme committee, which is responsible for safeguarding the documentary heritage of humanity. Thanks to close cooperation with the State Archival Service of Ukraine, the nomination process and the digitization of documentary heritage have been strengthened.
The participants of the meeting discussed the protection of cultural heritage under conditions of armed aggression, the implementation of international support programmes in the fields of education, science, culture, and information, and also summarized the work of the National Commission in 2025. In addition, the priorities of the Commission’s activities for 2026-2027 were defined.
The next meeting of the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO is scheduled for March 2026, ahead of the spring session of the UNESCO Executive Board.
It should be recalled that the Chair of the National Council and of the National Committee of UNESCO’s “Information for All” programme (IFAP), Olha Herasymiuk, will represent Ukraine in the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO Programme.
During the extraordinary session of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council held in December last year, Ukraine was elected to the Bureau for the period 2026-2027. Accordingly, Olha Herasymiuk will serve as Vice-Chairperson.
