At UNESCO, Bokova advocated for gender equality, improved education and preventing funding for terrorism, especially by enforcing the protection of intellectual goods.
[8] Subsequently, she worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, starting in 1977 as a third secretary and eventually becoming acting minister (ad interim) between 13 November 1996 – 13 February 1997.
[21] In 2009, while most of the Bulgarian media was supportive[22] of Ms. Bokova's future role at the helm of UNESCO, some raised questions about her past as a daughter of a member of the totalitarian communist elite.
[24] On the other hand, The New York Times not only published an article, explaining who Mrs. Bokova is,[25] but also officially supported her nomination on the grounds that "[s]he played an active role in Bulgaria's political transformation from Soviet satellite to European Union member.
In a letter to Bokova, Abdulla al Neaimi, an official from the United Arab Emirates, expressed "deep worry and great disapproval" over the program showing the age old connection between Israel and the Jewish people.
[31] The exhibition was opened on 11 June 2014 in Paris, in a ceremony with participation by Mrs. Bokova and the Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Marvin Hier.
As Director-General of UNESCO, Bokova led efforts to block the trade in Syrian and Iraqi cultural artifacts to fund ISIS and other radical Islamist groups.
This resolution officially recognized the link between illicit traffic and security, outlawed all trade in cultural goods from Iraq and Syria and requested that UNESCO coordinate efforts in this area with Interpol.
[38] On 19 October 2015, German DW reported that Japan threatens to halt funding for UNESCO over the organization's decision to include documents relating to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in the latest listing for its "Memory of the World" program.
[39] In October 2016, after opposing an Arab-backed resolution in UNESCO denying Temple Mount's connection to Judaism, Bokova received death threats, prompting her protection to be reinforced.
[42][43] In 2020[44] she was selected as an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Class V — Public Affairs, Business, and Administration, section Scientific, Cultural, and Nonprofit Leadership.
[48] That same month former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski wrote in an article at the Wall Street Journal, that her work at UNESCO is "highly regarded", and that the Bulgarian government has "nominated her to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the next U.N. Secretary-General, and she is widely believed to be the frontrunner for that position".
[48] According to the Government of Russia, Germany began to organize to nominate another Bulgarian – European commissioner Kristalina Georgieva – as candidate to become Secretary General.
It was alleged that German chancellor Angela Merkel put pressure on the government of Bulgaria to abandon Bokova's candidacy and instead nominate Georgieva, and had sought Russian support for this move.
[53] After five informal polls at the UN Security Council, in which Bokova took between third and sixth place, on 28 September 2016, the Bulgarian government announced [54] that it was nominating Kristalina Georgieva as secretary-general candidate.
When prompted by St. Vincent and the Grenadines and an informal dialogue at the UN, Bokova responded by emphasizing her understanding of the problem as she had recently traveled to Haiti, and her acknowledgement of the various UN agencies that have make substantial efforts to cope with this issue.
[57] In response to a plenary question on the UN's role in regards to cholera in Haiti at the International Peace Institute, Bokova responded, "Of course I know about this problem and I know that there is a legal process that is being engaged in currently.
Bulgarian weekly Capital wrote a page[62] about her candidacy, which states, among other, Bokova demonstrates diplomatic and governance skills in a big international organization – UNESCO, which she heads for a second term.
In it the author comments: "Of the women from Eastern Europe being discussed is Irina Bokova, the current head of UNESCO and former Bulgarian foreign minister.
The letter was signed by a number of prominent French, among them Christine Albanel, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Pierre Bergé, Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, Yves Coppens, Édith Cresson, Xavier Darcos, Pierre Gattaz, Jean-Michel Jarre, Bariza Khiari, Beate Klarsfeld, Serge Klarsfeld, Julia Kristeva, Catherine Lalumière, Laurence Parisot, Stéphane Richard, Eric de Rothschild.