UNESCO: Difference between revisions

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Abbreviation	UNESCO
Formation	4 November 1945; 78 years ago (1945-11-04)
Type	United Nations specialised agency
Legal status	Active
Headquarters	Paris, France
Head	Director-General Audrey Azoulay
Parent organization	United Nations Economic and Social Council
Website	www.unesco.org
Politics portal

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO;^[1] French: Organisation des Nations unies pour l'éducation, la science et la culture) is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at contributing "to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.^[2][3] It is the successor of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.^[4]

UNESCO has 193 member states and 11 associate members.^[5] Based in Paris, France, most of its field offices are "cluster" offices that cover three or more countries; national and regional offices also exist.

UNESCO seeks to build a culture of peace and inclusive knowledge societies through information and communication.

.

UNESCO is a member of the

.

History

UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, to elect a Commission to study feasibility.

]

After the signing of the

The first General Conference took place from 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General.^[14] The Constitution was amended in November 1954 when the General Conference resolved that members of the Executive Board would be representatives of the governments of the States of which they are nationals and would not, as before, act in their personal capacity.^[15] This change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the ICIC, in how member states would work together in the organization's fields of competence. As member states worked together over time to realize UNESCO's mandate, political and historical factors have shaped the organization's operations in particular during the Cold War, the decolonization process, and the dissolution of the USSR.^{[citation needed]}

Among the major achievements of the organization is its work against racism, for example through influential

In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO saying that some of the organization's publications amounted to "interference" in the country's "racial problems".[18] South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela.^{[citation needed]}

UNESCO's early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947.^[19] This project was followed by expert missions to other countries, including, for example, a mission to Afghanistan in 1949.^[20] In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory and universal.^[21] In 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in

Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, led member governments to commit to achieving basic education for all by 2015.^[23]

UNESCO's early activities in culture included the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960.^[24] The purpose of the campaign was to move the

] The organization's work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.[25] The Since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 (Convention for the Safeguarding of the ).

An intergovernmental meeting of UNESCO in Paris in December 1951 led to the creation of the

later on, in 1954.

Arid Zone programming, 1948–1966, is another example of an early major UNESCO project in the field of natural sciences.[30] In 1968, UNESCO organized the first intergovernmental conference aimed at reconciling the environment and development, a problem that continues to be addressed in the field of sustainable development. The main outcome of the 1968 conference was the creation of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme.^[31]

In the field of communication, the "free flow of ideas by word and image" has been in UNESCO's constitution from its beginnings, following the experience of the Second World War when control of information was a factor in indoctrinating populations for aggression.^[32] In the years immediately following World War II, efforts were concentrated on reconstruction and on the identification of needs for means of mass communication around the world. UNESCO started organizing training and education for journalists in the 1950s.^[33] In response to calls for a "New World Information and Communication Order" in the late 1970s, UNESCO established the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems,^[34] which produced the 1980 MacBride report (named after the Chair of the Commission, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Seán MacBride).^[35] The same year, UNESCO created the

]

UNESCO admitted Palestine as a member in 2011.[39]^[40] Laws passed in the United States after Palestine applied for UNESCO and

Activities

UNESCO implements its activities through the five program areas: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information.

• Education: UNESCO supports research in comparative education; and provide expertise and fosters partnerships to strengthen national educational leadership and the capacity of countries to offer quality education for all. This includes the
  • UNESCO Chairs, an international network of 644 UNESCO Chairs, involving over 770 institutions in 126 countries
  • Environmental Conservation Organisation
  • Convention against Discrimination in Education
    adopted in 1960
  • Organization of the International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA) in an interval of 12 years
  • Publication of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report
  • Publication of the Four Pillars of Learning seminal document
  • UNESCO ASPNet
    , an international network of 8,000 schools in 170 countries

UNESCO does not accredit institutions of higher learning.^[50]

• UNESCO also issues public statements to educate the public:
  • Seville Statement on Violence: A statement adopted by UNESCO in 1989 to refute the notion that humans are biologically predisposed to organised violence.
• Designating projects and places of cultural and scientific significance, such as:
  • Global Geoparks Network
  • Programme on Man and the Biosphere
    (MAB), since 1971
  • City of Literature; in 2007, the first city to be given this title was Edinburgh, the site of Scotland's first circulating library.^[51] In 2008, Iowa City, Iowa became the City of Literature.
  • linguistic diversity
    projects
  • Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
  • Memory of the World
    International Register, since 1997
  • Water resources management, through the International Hydrological Programme
    (IHP), since 1965
  • World Heritage Sites
  • World Digital Library
• Encouraging the "free flow of ideas by images and words" by:
  • Promoting
    freedom of information legislation, through the Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development,^[52] including the International Programme for the Development of Communication^[53]
  • Promoting the safety of journalists and combatting impunity for those who attack them,^[54] through coordination of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity^[55]
  • Promoting universal access to and preservation of information and open solutions for sustainable development through the Knowledge Societies Division,
    Information for All Programme^[58]
  • Promoting pluralism, gender equality and cultural diversity in the media
  • Promoting
    Multi-stakeholder participation (summarized as the acronym R.O.A.M.)^[59]
  • Generating knowledge through publications such as World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development,[60] the UNESCO Series on Internet Freedom,^[61] and the Media Development Indicators,^[62] as well as other indicator-based studies.
• Promoting events, such as:
  • International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World
    : 2001–2010, proclaimed by the UN in 1998
  • freedom of expression and freedom of the press
    as a basic human right and as crucial components of any healthy, democratic and free society.
  • Criança Esperança in Brazil, in partnership with
    Rede Globo
    , to raise funds for community-based projects that foster social integration and violence prevention.
  • International Literacy Day
  • International Year for the Culture of Peace
  • Health Education for Behavior Change program in partnership with the Ministry of Education of Kenya which was financially supported by the Government of Azerbaijan to promote health education among 10-19-year-old young people who live in informal camp in Kibera, Nairobi. The project was carried out between September 2014 - December 2016.^[63]
• Founding and funding projects, such as:
  • Migration Museums Initiative: Promoting the establishment of museums for cultural dialogue with migrant populations.^[64]
  • UNESCO-CEPES, the European Centre for Higher Education: established in 1972 in Bucharest, Romania, as a de-centralized office to promote international co-operation in higher education in Europe as well as Canada, USA and Israel. Higher Education in Europe is its official journal.
  • Free Software Directory: since 1998 UNESCO and the Free Software Foundation have jointly funded this project cataloguing free software.
  • Effective School Health.^[65]
  • OANA
    , Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies
  • International Council of Science
  • UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors
  • ASOMPS
    , Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants and Spices, a series of scientific conferences held in Asia
  • environmental pollution
  • The UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, translating works of world literature both to and from multiple languages, from 1948 to 2005
  • GoUNESCO, an umbrella of initiatives to make heritage fun supported by UNESCO, New Delhi Office^[66]

The UNESCO transparency portal has been designed to enable public

registry, respectively based on the IATI Activity Standard and the IATI Organization Standard.

There have been proposals to establish two new UNESCO lists. The first proposed list will focus on movable cultural heritage such as artifacts, paintings, and biofacts. The list may include cultural objects, such as the

Media

UNESCO and its specialized institutions issue a number of magazines.

The UNESCO Courier magazine states its mission to "promote UNESCO's ideals, maintain a platform for the dialogue between cultures and provide a forum for international debate". Since March 2006 it is available online, with limited printed issues. Its articles express the opinions of the authors which are not necessarily the opinions of UNESCO. There was a hiatus in publishing between 2012 and 2017.[69]

In 1950, UNESCO initiated the quarterly review Impact of Science on Society (also known as Impact) to discuss the influence of science on society. The journal ceased publication in 1992.^[70] UNESCO also published Museum International Quarterly from the year 1948.

Official UNESCO NGOs

UNESCO has official relations with 322 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).^[71] Most of these are what UNESCO calls "operational"; a select few are "formal".^[72] The highest form of affiliation to UNESCO is "formal associate", and the 22 NGOs^[73] with formal associate (ASC) relations occupying offices at UNESCO are:

Abbr	Organization
IB	International Baccalaureate
CCIVS	Co-ordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service
EI	Education International
IAU	International Association of Universities
IFTC	International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication
ICPHS	International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies which publishes Diogenes
ICSU	International Council for Science
ICOM	International Council of Museums
ICSSPE	International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education
ICA	International Council on Archives
ICOMOS	International Council on Monuments and Sites
IFJ	International Federation of Journalists
IFLA	International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
IFPA	International Federation of Poetry Associations
IMC	International Music Council
IPA	International Police Association
INSULA	International Scientific Council for Island Development
ISSC	International Social Science Council
ITI	International Theatre Institute
IUCN	International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
IUTAO	International Union of Technical Associations and Organizations
UIA	Union of International Associations
WAN	World Association of Newspapers
WFEO	World Federation of Engineering Organizations
WFUCA	World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations

UNESCO Institute for Water Education in Delft

Institutes and centres

The institutes are specialized departments of the organization that support UNESCO's programme, providing specialized support for cluster and national offices.

Abbr	Name	Location
IBE	International Bureau of Education	Geneva[74]
UIL	UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning	Hamburg[75]
IIEP	UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning	Paris (headquarters) and Buenos Aires and Dakar (regional offices)[76]
IITE	UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education	Moscow[77]
IICBA	UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa	Addis Ababa[78]
IESALC	UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean	Caracas[79]
MGIEP	Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development	New Delhi[80]
UNESCO-UNEVOC	UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training	Bonn[81]
UNESCO-IHE	UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education	Delft[82]
ICTP	International Centre for Theoretical Physics	Trieste[83]
UIS	UNESCO Institute for Statistics	Montreal[84]

Prizes

UNESCO awards 22 prizes[85] in education, science, culture and peace:

• Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize
• L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science
• UNESCO/King Sejong Literacy Prize
• UNESCO/Confucius Prize for Literacy
• UNESCO/Emir Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah Prize to promote Quality Education for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities
• UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education
• UNESCO/Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teachers
• UNESCO/Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science
• UNESCO/Institut Pasteur Medal for an outstanding contribution to the development of scientific knowledge that has a beneficial impact on human health
• UNESCO/Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation
• Great Man-Made River International Water Prize for Water Resources in Arid Zones presented by UNESCO (title to be reconsidered)
• Michel Batisse Award for Biosphere Reserve Management
• UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights
• UNESCO Prize for Peace Education
• UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence
• UNESCO/International José Martí Prize
• UNESCO/Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science
• UNESCO/Juan Bosch Prize for the Promotion of Social Science Research in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture
• Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes (UNESCO-Greece)
• IPDC-UNESCO Prize for Rural Communication
• UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize
• UNESCO/Jikji
  Memory of the World
  Prize
• UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences
• Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology

Inactive prizes

• International Simón Bolívar Prize (inactive since 2004)
• UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education
• UNESCO/Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences (inactive since 2010)
• UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts

International Days observed at UNESCO

International Days observed at UNESCO is provided in the table given below^[86]

Date	Name
27 January	International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
13 February	World Radio Day
21 February	International Mother Language Day
8 March	International Women's Day
20 March	International Francophonie Day
21 March	International Day of Nowruz
21 March	World Poetry Day
21 March	International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
22 March	World Day for Water
23 April	World Book and Copyright Day
30 April	International Jazz Day
3 May	World Press Freedom Day
21 May	World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
22 May	International Day for Biological Diversity
25 May	Africa Day / Africa Week
5 June	World Environment Day
8 June	World Oceans Day
17 June	World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
9 August	International Day of the World's Indigenous People
12 August	International Youth Day
23 August	International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
8 September	International Literacy Day
15 September	International Day of Democracy
21 September	International Day of Peace
28 September	International Day for the Universal Access to Information
2 October	International Day of Non-Violence
5 October	World Teachers' Day
2nd Wednesday in October	International Day for Disaster Reduction
17 October	International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
20 October	World Statistics Day
27 October	World Day for Audiovisual Heritage
2 November	International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists[87]
10 November	World Science Day for Peace and Development
3rd Thursday in November	World Philosophy Day
16 November	International Day for Tolerance
19 November	International Men's Day
25 November	International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
29 November	International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
1 December	World AIDS Day
10 December	Human Rights Day
18 December	International Migrants Day

Member states

As of January 2019, UNESCO has 193 member states and 11 associate members.

Governing bodies

Director-General

There has been no elected UNESCO Director-General from Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central and North Asia, Middle East, North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, South Africa, Australia-Oceania, and South America since inception.

The Directors-General of UNESCO came from West Europe (5), Central America (1), North America (2), West Africa (1), East Asia (1), and East Europe (1). Out of the 11 Directors-General since inception, women have held the position only twice. Qatar, the Philippines, and Iran are proposing for a Director-General bid by 2021 or 2025. There have never been a Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian UNESCO Director-General since inception. The ASEAN bloc and some Pacific and Latin American nations support the possible bid of the Philippines, which is culturally Asian, Oceanic, and Latin. Qatar and Iran, on the other hand, have fragmented support in the Middle East. Egypt, Israel, and Madagascar are also vying for the position but have yet to express a direct or indirect proposal. Both Qatar and Egypt lost in the 2017 bid against France.

The list of the Directors-General of UNESCO since its establishment in 1946 is as follows:^[95]

Name	Country	Term
Audrey Azoulay	France	2017–present
Irina Bokova	Bulgaria	2009–2017
Koïchiro Matsuura	Japan	1999–2009
Federico Mayor Zaragoza	Spain	1987–99
Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow	Senegal	1974–87
René Maheu	France	1961–74; acting 1961
Vittorino Veronese	Italy	1958–61
Luther Evans	United States	1953–58
John Wilkinson Taylor	United States	acting 1952–53
Jaime Torres Bodet	Mexico	1948–52
Julian Huxley	United Kingdom	1946–48

General Conference

This is the list of the sessions of the UNESCO General Conference held since 1946:^[96]

Session	Location	Year	Chaired by	from
39th	Paris	2017	Zohour Alaoui[97]	Morocco
38th	Paris	2015	Stanley Mutumba Simataa[98]	Namibia
37th[99]	Paris	2013	Hao Ping	China
36th	Paris	2011	Katalin Bogyay	Hungary
35th	Paris	2009	Davidson Hepburn	Bahamas
34th	Paris	2007	George N. Anastassopoulos	Greece
33rd	Paris	2005	Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan	Oman
32nd	Paris	2003	Michael Omolewa	Nigeria
31st	Paris	2001	Ahmad Jalali	Iran
30th	Paris	1999	Jaroslava Moserová	Czech Republic
29th	Paris	1997	Eduardo Portella	Brazil
28th	Paris	1995	Torben Krogh	Denmark
27th	Paris	1993	Ahmed Saleh Sayyad	Yemen
26th	Paris	1991	Bethwell Allan Ogot	Kenya
25th	Paris	1989	Anwar Ibrahim	Malaysia
24th	Paris	1987	Guillermo Putzeys Alvarez	Guatemala
23rd	Sofia	1985	Nikolai Todorov	Bulgaria
22nd	Paris	1983	Saïd Tell	Jordan
4th extraordinary	Paris	1982
21st	Belgrade	1980	Ivo Margan	Yugoslavia
20th	Paris	1978	Napoléon LeBlanc	Canada
19th	Nairobi	1976	Taaita Toweett	Kenya
18th	Paris	1974	Magda Jóború	Hungary
3rd extraordinary	Paris	1973
17th	Paris	1972	Toru Haguiwara	Japan
16th	Paris	1970	Atilio Dell'Oro Maini	Argentina
15th	Paris	1968	William Eteki Mboumoua	Cameroon
14th	Paris	1966	Bedrettin Tuncel	Turkey
13th	Paris	1964	Norair Sisakian	Soviet Union
12th	Paris	1962	Paulo de Berrêdo Carneiro	Brazil
11th	Paris	1960	Akale-Work Abte-Wold	Ethiopia
10th	Paris	1958	Jean Berthoin	France
9th	New Delhi	1956	Abul Kalam Azad	India
8th	Montevideo	1954	Justino Zavala Muñiz	Uruguay
2nd extraordinary	Paris	1953
7th	Paris	1952	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	India
6th	Paris	1951	Howland H. Sargeant	United States
5th	Florence	1950	Stefano Jacini	Italy
4th	Paris	1949	Edward Ronald Walker	Australia
1st extraordinary	Paris	1948
3rd	Beirut	1948	Hamid Bey Frangie	Lebanon
2nd	Mexico City	1947	Manuel Gual Vidal	Mexico
1st	Paris	1946	Léon Blum	France

The 40th General Conference On 12th To 27 November 2019.

Executive Board

Term	Group I (9 seats)	Group II (7 seats)	Group III (10 seats)	Group IV (12 seats)	Group V(a) (13 seats)	Group V(b) (7 seats)
2019-2023[100]	France  Germany  Italy  Netherlands  Spain   Switzerland	Hungary  Poland  Russia  Serbia	Argentina  Brazil  Dominican Republic  Uruguay	Afghanistan  Kyrgyzstan  Philippines  Pakistan  South Korea  Thailand	Benin  Congo  Guinea  Ghana  Kenya  Namibia  Senegal  Togo	Saudi Arabia  UAE  Tunisia
2017–19[101]	France  Greece  Italy  Spain  United Kingdom	Lithuania  Russia  Serbia  Slovenia	Brazil  Haiti  Mexico  Nicaragua  Paraguay	India  Iran  Malaysia  Pakistan  South Korea  Sri Lanka  Vietnam	Cameroon  Ivory Coast  Ghana  Kenya  Nigeria  Senegal  South Africa	Lebanon  Oman  Qatar  Sudan
2014–17[102]	Germany  Netherlands  Sweden	Albania  Estonia  Ukraine	Argentina  Belize  Dominican Republic  El Salvador  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Trinidad and Tobago	Bangladesh  China  India  Japan    Nepal  Turkmenistan	Chad  Guinea  Mauritius  Mozambique  Togo  Uganda	Algeria  Egypt  Kuwait  Morocco
2012–15	Austria  France  Italy  India  Spain  United Kingdom  United States	Czech Republic  Montenegro  North Macedonia  Russia	Brazil  Cuba  Ecuador  Mexico	Afghanistan  Indonesia  Pakistan  Papua New Guinea  South Korea  Thailand	Angola  Ethiopia  Gabon  Gambia  Malawi  Mali  Namibia  Nigeria	Jordan  Tunisia  United Arab Emirates

Offices and headquarters

UNESCO headquarters are located at Place de Fontenoy in Paris, France.

UNESCO's field offices across the globe are categorized into four primary office types based upon their function and geographic coverage: cluster offices, national offices, regional bureaus and liaison offices.

Field offices by region

The following list of all UNESCO Field Offices is organized geographically by UNESCO Region and identifies the members states and associate members of UNESCO which are served by each office.^[103]

Africa

• Côte d'Ivoire
• Abuja – National Office to Nigeria
• Accra – Cluster Office for Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo
• Economic Commission for Africa
• Bamako – Cluster Office for Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger
• Brazzaville – National Office to the Republic of the Congo
• Bujumbura – National Office to Burundi
• Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal
• Dar es Salaam – Cluster Office for Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Tanzania
• Harare – Cluster Office for Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe
• Juba – National Office to South Sudan
• Kinshasa – National Office to the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Maputo – National Office to Mozambique
• Nairobi – Regional Bureau for Sciences in Africa and Cluster Office for Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda
• Windhoek – National Office to Namibia
• Yaoundé – Cluster Office to Cameroon, Central African Republic and Chad

Arab States

• Amman – National Office to Jordan
• Beirut – Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States and Cluster Office to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine
• Cairo – Regional Bureau for Sciences in the Arab States and Cluster Office for Egypt, Libya and Sudan
• Doha – Cluster Office to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen
• Iraq – National Office for Iraq (currently located in Amman, Jordan)
• Khartoum – National Office to Sudan
• Manama - Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage
• Rabat – Cluster Office to Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia
• Ramallah – National Office to the Palestinian Territories

Asia and Pacific

• Apia – Cluster Office to Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Tokelau (Associate Member)
• Burma, Laos, Singapore and Vietnam
• Beijing – Cluster Office to North Korea, Japan, Mongolia, the People's Republic of China and South Korea
• Dhaka – National Office to Bangladesh
• Hanoi – National Office to Vietnam
• Islamabad – National Office to Pakistan
• Jakarta – Regional Bureau for Sciences in Asia and the Pacific and Cluster Office to the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and East Timor
• Manila - National Office to the Philippines
• Kabul – National Office to Afghanistan
• Kathmandu – National Office to Nepal
• New Delhi – Cluster Office to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka
• Phnom Penh – National Office to Cambodia
• Tashkent – National Office to Uzbekistan
• Tehran – Cluster Office to Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan

Europe and North America

• Almaty – Cluster Office to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
• Brussels – Liaison Office to the European Union and its subsidiary bodies in Brussels
• Geneva – Liaison Office to the United Nations in Geneva
• New York City – Liaison Office to the
  United Nations in New York
• Venice – Regional Bureau for Sciences and Culture in Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

the Americas.^[104] This center was, together with the historic centre of Kraków in Poland, the first to be declared World Heritage Site

by UNESCO on 18 September 1978.

• Brasilia – National Office to Brazil^[105]
• Guatemala City – National Office to Guatemala
• Havana – Regional Bureau for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean and Cluster Office to Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Aruba
• Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago as well as the associate member states of British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten
• Lima – National Office to Peru
• Mexico City – National Office to Mexico
• Montevideo – Regional Bureau for Sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean and Cluster Office to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
• Port-au-Prince – National Office to Haiti
• Quito – Cluster Office to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela^[106]
• San José – Cluster Office to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama
• Santiago de Chile – Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean and National Office to Chile

Partner Organisations

• ICRC
  )
• Blue Shield International (BSI)
• International Council of Museums (ICOM)
• ICOMOS
  )
• International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL)

Controversies

New World Information and Communication Order

UNESCO has been the centre of controversy in the past, particularly in its relationships with the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and the former Soviet Union. During the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO's support for a "New World Information and Communication Order" and its MacBride report calling for democratization of the media and more egalitarian access to information was condemned in these countries as attempts to curb freedom of the press. UNESCO was perceived as a platform for communists and Third World dictators to attack the West, in contrast to accusations made by the USSR in the late 1940s and early 1950s.^[107] In 1984, the United States withheld its contributions and withdrew from the organization in protest, followed by the United Kingdom in 1985.^[108] Singapore withdrew also at the end of 1985, citing rising membership fees.^[109] Following a change of government in 1997, the UK rejoined. The United States rejoined in 2003, followed by Singapore on 8 October 2007.^[110]

Israel

Israel was admitted to UNESCO in 1949, one year after its creation. Israel has maintained its membership since 1949. In 2010, Israel designated the

UNESCO described the sites as significant to "people of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions", and accused Israel of highlighting only the Jewish character of the sites.[113] Israel in turn accused UNESCO of "detach[ing] the Nation of Israel from its heritage", and accused it of being politically motivated.^[114] The Rabbi of the Western Wall said that Rachel's tomb had not previously been declared a holy Muslim site.^[115] Israel partially suspended ties with UNESCO. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon declared that the resolution was a "part of Palestinian escalation". Zevulun Orlev, chairman of the Knesset Education and Culture Committee, referred to the resolutions as an attempt to undermine the mission of UNESCO as a scientific and cultural organization that promotes cooperation throughout the world.^[116][117]

On 28 June 2011, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, at

In January 2014, days before it was scheduled to open, UNESCO Director-General,

On January 1, 2019, Israel formally left UNESCO in pursuance of the US withdrawal over the perceived continuous anti-Israel bias.

Occupied Palestine Resolution

On 13 October 2016, UNESCO passed a resolution on East Jerusalem that condemned Israel for "aggressions" by Israeli police and soldiers and "illegal measures" against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access to their holy sites, while also recognizing Israel as the occupying power. Palestinian leaders welcomed the decision.^[121] While the text acknowledged the "importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls for the three monotheistic religions", it referred to the sacred hilltop compound in Jerusalem's Old City only by its Muslim name "Al-Haram al-Sharif", Arabic for Noble Sanctuary. In response, Israel denounced the UNESCO resolution for its omission of the words "Temple Mount" or "Har HaBayit", stating that it denies Jewish ties to the key holy site.^[121][122] After receiving criticism from numerous Israeli politicians and diplomats, including Benjamin Netanyahu and Ayelet Shaked, Israel froze all ties with the organization.^[123][124] The resolution was condemned by Ban Ki-moon and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, who said that Judaism, Islam and Christianity have clear historical connections to Jerusalem and "to deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site.^[125][126] "Al-Aqsa Mosque [or] Al-Haram al-Sharif" is also Temple Mount, whose Western Wall is the holiest place in Judaism."^[127]. It was also rejected by the Czech Parliament which said the resolution reflects a "hateful anti-Israel sentiment",^[128] and hundreds of Italian Jews demonstrated in Rome over Italy's abstention.^[128] On 26 October, UNESCO approved a reviewed version of the resolution, which also criticized Israel for its continuous "refusal to let the body's experts access Jerusalem's holy sites to determine their conservation status".^[129] Despite containing some softening of language following Israeli protests over a previous version, Israel continued to denounce the text.^[130] The resolution refers to the site Jews and Christians refer to as the Temple Mount, or Har HaBayit in Hebrew, only by its Arab name — a significant semantic decision also adopted by UNESCO's executive board, triggering condemnation from Israel and its allies. U.S. Ambassador Crystal Nix Hines stated: "This item should have been defeated. These politicized and one-sided resolutions are damaging the credibility of UNESCO."^[131]

In October 2017, the United States and Israel announced they would withdraw from the organization, citing in-part anti-Israel bias.^[132][133]

Palestine

Palestinian youth magazine controversy

In February 2011, an article was published in a Palestinian youth magazine in which a teenage girl described one of her four role-models as Adolf Hitler. In December 2011, UNESCO, which partly funded the magazine, condemned the material and subsequently withdrew support.^[134]

Islamic University of Gaza controversy

In 2012, UNESCO decided to establish a chair at the

The head, Kamalain Shaath, defended UNESCO, stating that "the Islamic University is a purely academic university that is interested only in education and its development".^{[138][139][140]} Israeli ambassador to UNESCO Nimrod Barkan planned to submit a letter of protest with information about the university's ties to Hamas, especially angry that this was the first Palestinian university that UNESCO chose to cooperate with.^[141] The Jewish organization B'nai B'rith criticized the move as well.^[142]

Che Guevara

In 2013, UNESCO announced that the collection "The Life and Works of Ernesto Che Guevara" became part of the Memory of the World Register. US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen condemned this decision, saying that the organization acts against its own ideals:^[143]

This decision is more than an insult to the families of those Cubans who were lined up and summarily executed by Che and his merciless cronies but it also serves as a direct contradiction to the UNESCO ideals of encouraging peace and universal respect for human rights.

UN Watch also condemned this selection by UNESCO.^[144]

Listing Nanjing Massacre documents

In 2015,

In October 2016, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed that Japan's 2016 annual funding of ¥4.4 billion had been suspended although denied any direct link with the Nanjing document controversy.^[146]

US withdrawals

The United States withdrew from UNESCO in 1984, citing the "highly politicized" nature of the organisation, its ostensible "hostility toward the basic institutions of a free society, especially a free market and a free press", as well as its "unrestrained budgetary expansion", and poor management under then Director General Amadou-Mahter M'Bow of Senegal.^[147]

On 19 September 1989, former U.S. Congressman Jim Leach stated before a Congressional subcommittee:^[148]

The reasons for the withdrawal of the United States from UNESCO in 1984 are well-known; my view is that we overreacted to the calls of some who wanted to radicalize UNESCO, and the calls of others who wanted the United States to lead in emasculating the UN system. The fact is UNESCO is one of the least dangerous international institutions ever created. While some member countries within UNESCO attempted to push journalistic views antithetical to the values of the west, and engage in Israel bashing, UNESCO itself never adopted such radical postures. The U.S. opted for empty-chair diplomacy, after winning, not losing, the battles we engaged in… It was nuts to get out, and would be nuttier not to rejoin.

Leach concluded that the record showed Israel bashing, a call for a new world information order, money management, and arms control policy to be the impetus behind the withdrawal; he asserted that before departing from UNESCO, a withdrawal from the

On 12 October 2017, the United States notified UNESCO that it will again withdraw from the organization on 31 December 2018 and will seek to establish a permanent observer mission beginning in 2019. The Department of State cited "mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO".^[132] Israel praised the withdrawal decision as "brave" and "moral".^[147]

The United States has not paid over $600 million in dues^[149] since it stopped paying its $80 million annual UNESCO dues when Palestine became a full member in 2011. Israel and the US were among the 14 votes against the membership out of 194 member countries.^[150]

Turkish–Kurdish conflict

On May 25, 2016, the noted Turkish poet and human rights activist

Atatürk

In 1981, UNESCO and the UN celebrated the Atatürk Centennial.

Products and services

• UNESDOC^[152] – Contains over 146,000 UNESCO documents in full text published since 1945 as well as metadata from the collections of the UNESCO Library and documentation centres in field offices and institutes.

Information processing tools

UNESCO develops, maintains and disseminates, free of charge, two interrelated software packages for database management (CDS/ISIS [not to be confused with UK police software package ISIS]) and data mining/statistical analysis (IDAMS).^[153]

• CDS/ISIS – a generalised information storage and retrieval system. The Windows version may run on a single computer or in a local area network. The JavaISIS client/server components allow remote database management over the Internet and are available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh. Furthermore, GenISIS allows the user to produce HTML Web forms for CDS/ISIS database searching. The ISIS_DLL provides an API for developing CDS/ISIS based applications.
• OpenIDAMS – a software package for processing and analysing numerical data developed, maintained and disseminated by UNESCO. The original package was proprietary but UNESCO has initiated a project to provide it as open-source.^[154]
• IDIS – a tool for direct data exchange between CDS/ISIS and IDAMS

See also