News and Views

It has been a very busy couple of months for the National Commission with some amazing highlights and exciting news. In May we welcomed a new Chair and Natural Sciences Commissioner to the National Commission whānau. We continued to build our international connections - find out more about these connections, as well as the latest news from our UNESCO programmes and download our 2022 Annual Review.

The Waitaki Whitestone Geopark has officially been designated as New Zealand's first and Australasia’s only UNESCO Global Geopark.

Liz Longworth has been appointed as the National Commission’s new Chair. She brings with her a wealth of Board experience and knowledge of UNESCO matters. We also welcome Linda Faulkner as our current Natural Sciences Commissioner. Linda has a comprehensive background working in the science and research sector in Aotearoa.

Learn what the National Commission has been up to in early 2023, and the exciting way that we finished off 2022.

Representatives from the NZ National Commission addressed more than 700 other international delegates at the High-Level Celebration of the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL) in Paris in December 2022.

On January 27, we joined together with others around Aotearoa and the globe in acknowledgement of UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945.

UNESCO established Holocaust Remembrance Day to pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and to reaffirm its unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance.