National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO

Overview

The National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO is Azerbaijan’s national cooperating body for UNESCO, based in Baku. It is the liaison between Azerbaijan’s educational, scientific and cultural institutions and UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is a national commission — a body set up by a Member State — and not UNESCO itself, nor a UNESCO office (UNESCO World Heritage Centre; UNESCO).

UNESCO defines National Commissions as national cooperating bodies established by Member States to associate their governmental and non-governmental bodies with the work of the Organization, and notes that all Member States have established one (UNESCO World Heritage Centre). The Azerbaijani commission was created by presidential decree in 1994, about two years after Azerbaijan joined UNESCO, and it works across education, science, culture, communication and information, youth and sport, and gender equality (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO; National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO).

Origins and legal basis

The commission traces its origin to a meeting on 21 December 1993, when President Heydar Aliyev met UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor in France and the two discussed establishing a National Commission (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO). By a decree of President Heydar Aliyev dated 21 February 1994, the commission was established under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Charter was adopted (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO).

The commission’s own account grounds this in Article 7 of the Constitution of UNESCO, under which each Member State forms a National Commission as a link between its educational, scientific and cultural institutions and UNESCO (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO). A presidential decree of 15 September 2005 placed it under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan; later decrees in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020 modified its composition (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO).

Structure and composition

The commission is chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs — named on the commission’s own site as Jeyhun Bayramov — and its deputy chairs are the President of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and deputy ministers for culture, transport, communications and high technologies, and education (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO; National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO). Its membership is drawn from across the state: presidential-administration departments for foreign policy, youth policy and sport, humanitarian policy, and interethnic relations, multiculturalism and religious issues, plus the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO).

Other members: the ecology and youth-and-sport deputy ministers, the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs chairperson, AZERTAC’s board chairman, the Academy of Public Administration rector, the Icherisheher Administration chairman, and the Book Society chairperson (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO). The composition is defined by offices, not named individuals, so no headcount is given.

What the commission does

The commission’s stated fields of collaboration are education, science, culture, communication and information, youth and sport, and gender equality, mirroring the breadth of UNESCO’s own mandate (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO). In practice, its public record shows it operating as a convening and liaison body: its site carries news of Azerbaijani participation in UNESCO meetings, cooperation discussions, cultural events, and partnerships like the Azerbaijan UNESCO Clubs Association’s memorandum with a counterpart association in Gansu, China, covering education, science, AI and youth development (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO).

Azerbaijan’s relationship with UNESCO also runs through funding and membership channels. A Foreign Ministry statement reported in 2022 said Azerbaijan supports UNESCO programmes through a Trust Fund established under the Framework Agreement signed with UNESCO in 2013, was among the first to contribute to UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition during the COVID-19 pandemic, and sat on UNESCO’s Executive Board for 2021–2025 (Azernews).

Heritage work and the chovgan question

The commission presents Azerbaijan’s inscribed heritage prominently. Its site lists tangible heritage including the Walled City of Baku, Gobustan Rock Art, the Historic Centre of Sheki, Khinalig and the Köç Yolu Transhumance Route, and the Hyrcanian Forests, plus intangible elements such as mugham, Ashiq art and Novruz (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO). The profile does not credit the commission alone with any inscription.

On chovgan, the commission’s stated position is expansive: its page calls the word Turkic for “to strike, waving a stick”, calls chovqan the predecessor of modern polo, and says its 2013 inscription “proves the damage caused to the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan by the perpetrators” (National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO). UNESCO’s entry is narrower: it describes a two-team, five-a-side game on Karabakh horses, records the 2013 Urgent Safeguarding inscription, and notes weakened transmission (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage). The polo-origin and damage claims are the commission’s, not UNESCO’s.

Area	What the sources show
Legal basis	Presidential decree of 21 February 1994; repositioned under the President in 2005
Chair	Minister of Foreign Affairs (named by the commission as Jeyhun Bayramov)
Membership	Offices across ministries, the Academy of Sciences, the Ombudsman, AZERTAC, Icherisheher and the Book Society
Fields	Education, science, culture, communication and information, youth and sport, gender equality
Funding channel	Trust Fund under the 2013 Framework Agreement with UNESCO
Public face	News, events, heritage listings and a “Destroyed Monuments” section presenting Azerbaijan’s position

Frequently asked questions

Is the National Commission the same thing as UNESCO? No. It is Azerbaijan’s national cooperating body for UNESCO, set up by Azerbaijan to link its own institutions with UNESCO’s work. UNESCO is the United Nations agency; the commission is the national liaison body, distinct from UNESCO itself and from Azerbaijan’s Permanent Delegation to UNESCO in Paris.

When was the commission established? It was established by presidential decree on 21 February 1994, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with its Charter adopted at the same time. Preparatory work had begun after President Heydar Aliyev met UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor in France on 21 December 1993.

Who leads the commission? The commission is chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Its own site names that minister as Jeyhun Bayramov. Its deputy chairs are the President of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and deputy ministers for culture, transport and communications, and education.

What does the commission actually do? It works across education, science, culture, communication and information, youth and sport, and gender equality. Its public record shows liaison and convening work: UNESCO meetings, cooperation discussions, cultural events, club partnerships, and presenting Azerbaijan’s inscribed heritage to domestic and international audiences.

What is the commission’s position on chovgan? The commission presents chovqan as an ancient Azerbaijani horse-riding game, the predecessor of modern polo, inscribed by UNESCO in 2013 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. UNESCO’s own entry confirms the 2013 inscription and describes the game, but does not endorse the commission’s polo-origin or damage claims.

What this profile does not claim

• It does not claim the commission is UNESCO, a UNESCO office, or the Permanent Delegation; those are three distinct bodies, and the profile keeps them apart.
• It does not credit the commission alone with any World Heritage or intangible-heritage inscription; inscriptions belong to Azerbaijan’s heritage and are decided by UNESCO bodies.
• It does not endorse the commission’s interpretive claims about chovgan — Turkic word origin, predecessor of modern polo, or the meaning it reads into the 2013 inscription. Those are reported as the commission’s stated position; UNESCO’s own entry does not endorse them.
• It does not adjudicate the heritage-destruction dispute. The commission’s site carries a “Destroyed Monuments” section presenting Azerbaijan’s position on Armenian aggression; the Foreign Ministry statement likewise presents Azerbaijan’s position. This profile reports that those positions are stated, without endorsing them.
• It does not assert a street number for the Baku address, a membership headcount, or named members beyond the chair, because the sources disagree or do not give them (see openItems).
• It does not assert that the chair named on the commission’s site is current on the publication date; that naming is first-party and undated.