Bulgaria's former foreign minister Irina Bokova and Egyptian candidate Faruq Hosny face each other later on September 22 in the fifth and final round of voting to become director general of Unesco.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) is a specialised agency of the United Nations established in 1945. Unesco's stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter.

Bokova, 57, is currently Bulgaria's ambassador to France and Monaco. She attended the English-Language School in Sofia, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and the University of Maryland school of public affairs.

One of nine original candidates for the top job, Bokova enjoys the oficial backing of the Bulgarian government and was once foreign minister under the troubled socialist government of Zhan Videnov.

On her website Bokova sets out her vision for the future of Unesco. "I am more confident than ever before that notwithstanding Unesco’s universal mandate, Africa’s development needs, especially in education, and those of the Small Island Developing States as the most crisis-stricken countries in the world, should continue to be a strong priority," she says.

"The greatest challenge is to lead the world into a new era of peace and humanism, to create more inclusive, just, and equitable societies through sustainable economic and social development, based on science, innovation and new technologies that will serve mankind and will preserve the environment," she adds.

The voting so far to choose the occupant of Unescos's top job has been inconclusive. A fourth round of voting on September 21 by the UN culture body's executive council ended in a draw with neither Hosny, nor Bokova, picking up enough votes.

Hosny's supporters say the Egyptian's election would send a positive signal to the Muslim world but detractors, including Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel, claim that alleged anti-Israeli/Semitic comments Hosni made last year make him unsuitable.
 
At issue are comments Hosny made during an exchange before the Egyptian parliament last year when he reportedly said he would burn Israeli books if he found them in Egyptian libraries.

Wiesel as well as Bernard-Henri Levy and Claude Lanzmann recently wrote an article in Le Monde in which they declared that "the international community must spare itself the shame of appointing Farouk Hosny to the post of Unesco director general".

If neither candidate receives the required 30 votes from the 58 nations represented on the council on ballot then lots will be drawn to pick the successor to Japan's Koichiro Matsuura.