EDU.INT
INTER-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
BELGIUM
H.E. Katalin Bogyay, President of the General Conference of UNESCO meets H.E. Irving Levance
Between July 2006 and April 2009, Ambassador Bogyay served as the State-Secretary for International Affairs at the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture.
EDU has been a member organization of the UNESCO | IBE COP (Community of Practice) since 2011. The Ambassador personally thanked Secretary-General Levance for the continued commitment and for EDU's support of educational and cultural programs.
Since September 2009 she has been based in Paris as Hungary's Ambassador to UNESCO.
In 1999 she became a diplomat and began working for the Hungarian Ministry for Culture.
As Director General she opened the Hungarian Cultural Centre in 1999 in the heart of London's Covent Garden. She was the director of the Centre until 2006.
To mark Hungary's entry to the EU in 2004, Bogyay created Magyar Magic, a seventeen-month long festival celebrating Hungarian talent throughout Britain under the dual patronage of Queen Elizabeth II and H.E. Dr. Ferenc Mádl, the President of the Republic of Hungary.
Bogyay was selected by the London School of Economics as one of the Top 50 thinkers in the publication EU The Next Fifty Years. In her invited editorial she wrote about the new European cultural space.
In 2007 she represented Eastern, Central and Southern Europe as one of the deputy chairpersons of the Cultural Committee at the UNESCO's General Conference. Between July 2006 and April 2009, she served as the State Secretary for International Affairs at the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture. Since September 2009 until December 2014 she was based in Paris as Hungary's Ambassador to UNESCO. In 2009 she served as one of the vice presidents of the 35th General Conference of the UNESCO.
Presidency of UNESCO
On 25 October 2011 the General Conference unanimously elected Ms Bogyay as President of UNESCO's 36th General Conference, making her the first woman to hold the position.
