UNESCO in the Spotlight: Science and Communications

UNESCO: Combating drought in the Horn of Africa

2012-01-25T12:35:00.001-05:00

UNESCO begins mapping groundwater in January in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, in order to bring the population a sustainable water supply. Drought has caused the region’s worst famine in 60 years, with 12 million people at risk of starvation. Those living in refugee camps are particularly vulnerable.

Thanks to advances in geosciences, it is now possible to detect the precise location of groundwater in arid climates like that of the Horn of Africa. UNESCO is using new remote-sensing technology developed by Radar Technologies International to generate high-resolution groundwater potential maps of the area under study. These maps will in turn guide partners in determining where to drill boreholes to bring the water to the surface in a cost effective manner. These partners include UNHCR, UNICEF, USAID and a number of NGOs.

The first stage of the project is being supported by Flemish funds to the tune of US$396,000 with an additional US$100,000 from UNESCO. It involves a series of national consultations organized by UNESCO to mobilize stakeholders, partners and potential donors, followed by a regional workshop and the mapping of groundwater at pilot sites in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Last Year was the International Year of Chemistry

2012-01-25T12:31:00.001-05:00

From the news of October 29, 1958

2011-12-17T12:19:00.002-05:00

I quote from the New York Times:

Pope John XXIII, while an official observer of the Holy See at the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization, said in a 1952 sermon in Paris that Roman Catholics throughout the world should participate in the work of "this promising institution."

Contribute to UNESCO in this crisis

2011-12-05T08:27:00.001-05:00

The United States Government is withholding its contributions to UNESCO as the result of a decades old provision of the law. That means about one-quarter of the funding for the 1012-2013 project that was just approved will not be available.

UNESCO's mission is to promote a new humanism in the defense of peace. It seeks to promote international understanding. Its tools are directed towards education, the promotion of science, culture and communications.

UNESCO has created a new site to accept public donations in this financial crisis.

Donations can be made online at: http://www.unesco.org/donate

More selected press coverage / U.S. Withholding funds

2011-12-04T22:20:00.001-05:00

I previously posted links to several articles and opinion pieces (here and here) on the vote to admit UNESCO to membership in UNESCO and the consequent legal requirement to withhold U.S. contributions to the Organization. Here are some more:

"Don’t punish UNESCO," Irina Bokova (Director General of UNESCO), The Washington Post, October 23, 2011
"For the U.S., a forced withdrawal from UNESCO," Timothy Wirth (President of the United Nations Foundation), The Washington Post, October 24, 2011
"Fact sheet on the PLO's bid for UNESCO membership," Institute for Middle East Understanding, October 31, 2011
"Unesco Accepts Palestinians as Full Members," Steven Erlanger and Scott Sayare, The New York Times, October 31, 2011

Editorial: Repeal or Revise the anti-Palestine Legislation

2011-12-03T15:35:00.001-05:00

The law which now requires U.S. funds to be withheld from UNESCO should be repealed or revised because it is outdated, ineffective, unnecessary, counterproductive, unclear, and potentially unenforceable. Its application to UNESCO has diminished U.S. diplomatic effectiveness, will in fact hurt the Israeli interests it was designed to protect, and -- most important -- will hurt a lot of innocent people. Readers are encouraged to contact their representatives in Congress and call for the law's repeal or revision.

The General Conference of UNESCO voted to invite Palestine to become a member state of the Organization on October 31, 2011. The actual membership is to take effect when Palestine submits its accession papers.

As the members of the General Conference had been warned, that action triggered two parts of U.S. law (US Code - Title 22: Foreign Relations and Intercourse / 22 USC 287 - Sec. 287e. Authorization of appropriations; payment of expenses):

Pub. L. 101-246, title IV, Sec. 414, Feb. 16, 1990, 104 Stat. 70, provided that: "(a) Prohibition. - No funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states. "(b) Transfer or Reprogramming. - Funds subject to the prohibition contained in subsection (a) which would be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof (but for that prohibition) are authorized to remain available until expended and may be reprogrammed or transferred to any other account of the Department of State or the Agency for International Development to carry out the general purposes for which such funds were authorized."
Pub. L. 103-236, title IV, Sec. 410, Apr. 30, 1994, 108 Stat. 454, provided that: "The United States shall not make any voluntary or assessed contribution - "(1) to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, or "(2) to the United Nations, if the United Nations grants full membership as a state in the United Nations to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, during any period in which such membership is effective."

The first provision is found in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 and the second in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995. Those are unusual in that they do not provide the President the ability to wave the provisions if he determines doing so would be in the national interest.

The U.S. Government has announced that it is consequently withholding contributions to UNESCO. Both assessed contributions and voluntary contributions are being withheld. The United States remains a member state of UNESCO, and has in fact been newly elected to its Executive Board. If the United States continues to withhold all contributions until the next meeting of the UNESCO General Conference, it will not be allowed to vote in that conference.

Here are some reasons that the law should be revised or repealed.

The legislation is outdated: Since these provisions became law, the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization has changed, the Palestine National Authority has come into being, the Oslo accords and the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement have been signed, and Palestine is reported to be recognized as a state by 127 UN member states. The United States and the other members of the Quartet are maintaining that a two state solution should be negotiated to settle the Israel-Palestine issues.

The law is ineffective: It was intended to deny Palestinians membership in UN agencies until or unless a peace settlement was reached with Israel. UNESCO's General Conference voted membership for Palestine in full knowledge of the law. Several other UN agencies have constitutions that grant automatic membership on request from any national already a member of any UN agency. It seems likely that other UN agencies would also elect Palestine to membership if they received such a formal request.

The law is unnecessary: The Congress has the power of the purse and can vote to withhold funding from any UN agency as part of the annual appropriations legislation. Even without this law Congress has the power both to warn UN agencies of the consequences of admitting specific organizations or states to membership and withholding funds from agencies that do so in spite of the warnings. When the Palestinian membership was coming to the General Conference, letters were in fact sent from the House of Representatives to UNESCO informing the Secretariat and permanent representatives of member states to UNESCO that key committees would oppose funding UNESCO if it admitted Palestine.

The law is counterproductive: As Representative Keith Ellison has pointed out, UNESCO activities "include core U.S. interests like literacy education for the Afghan National Police, supporting a free press in countries like Iraq, Tunisia and Egypt, and promoting Holocaust education in the Middle East." Some of these activities will be stopped specifically because already promised voluntary contributions for their support must now be withheld. (See also "Cutting Off Unesco, U.S. May Endanger Programs in Iraq and Afghanistan")

The meaning of the law is unclear: Does the United States withhold contributions forever from UNESCO now that it has voted to accept Palestine as a member state? Does the United States continue to withhold funding from UNESCO even if a peace treaty is successfully concluded and Palestine is successful in meeting all of the internationally recognized standards of statehood. If existing member states of UN agencies for some reason no longer meet all of those standards but are not ejected from membership, must the United States withhold funding from those agencies.

The law may not be enforceable. The Congress ratified the accession document to UNESCO which I am told has the force of a treaty. In joining UNESCO, the United States agreed to abide by its Constitution (which was largely an American creation) and that Constitution requires member states to pay their assessed contributions; the obligation to pay overdue contributions does not go away even if a member state withdraws from the Organization. The United States is a signatory to other UNESCO Conventions which have been ratified by the Congress, such as the World Heritage Convention which also requires funding from member states. Thus, if the U.S. Government is taken to court it may have to stop withholding assessed contributions in spite of the law cited above. I have been informed that those concerns actually resulted in the United States not withholding contributions from UNESCO when it was proposed to do so during the 1970s.

Final Comments: As the law applies to UNESCO

The United States Government is forced by this law to act like the kid who takes his ball home when he is not elected captain of the football team. Diplomats of other countries see this "poison pill" of a law as a bullying tactic by the United States. They not only see it as anti-democratic but as politicizing UNESCO debates that should not be politicized. As a result, the influence of U.S. diplomats in UNESCO governance and other international forums is weakened.

Perhaps surprisingly, while the law was intended to protect Israel, Israel may suffer from its application. The United States has been the most important defender of Israel's interests in UNESCO as well as in other UN venues. U.S. influence is greater as the respect accorded to our diplomats and their tactics is greater. As the threat of withdrawing funding is disliked so our influence is decreased and thus our influence in protecting Israeli interests from unfair attacks by other member states.

In my mind, the most important reason for restoring funding to UNESCO is that if we do not do so, innocent people will suffer. Kids who would have gotten to school because of UNESCO's influence will remain uneducated. People who could have been saved from the threat of flood or tsunami by UNESCO programs will not be saved because UNESCO didn't have the resources we had promised. Reporters who might have been saved from coercive governments by the influence of UNESCO in favor of freedom of the press and freedom of speech will lose some of that protection; the public will lose information that those reporters could have provided. People who might have found work in UNESCO promoted cultural industries will lose that opportunity. People who might have been saved from the impact of unethical behavior by scientists will not receive the protection that might have been offered by the UNESCO ethics programs. People who might have been better served by their governments because of the influence of UNESCO's Management of Social Transitions (MOST) program will lose that opportunity.

Indeed, those of us who enjoy the Olympics may enjoy them a little less as UNESCO has less money to support the international convention against doping in sport. Those of us who enjoy visiting museums may enjoy them a little less as UNESCO has less money to support conventions to protect museum-quality artifacts and to support museum quality. Those of us who enjoy visiting sites such as the pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Majal, or the rose red city at the end of time (Petra, Jordan) may enjoy them less as UNESCO has fewer resources to advocate for their preservation and their appropriate presentation to visitors.

Recommendation

I will refrain from recommending to the Congress and the State Department how to deal with these laws. Those bodies are well able to deal with the specific issues of legislative reform.

For the readers of this blog, I recommend that you contact your Representative and your Senators and ask that they work to restore U.S. funding to UNESCO and that they reform the law to deal with the problems raised in the paragraphs above.

Here is the message I sent to my Representative in the House and to my Senators:

Recently the General Conference of UNESCO voted to offer membership in the Organization to Palestine. In response to the possibility of Palestine joining the Organization, the purpose of which is to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men, the United States is withholding all contributions to UNESCO, apparently permanently. This is due to clauses in the Foreign Assistance Authorization Acts for Fiscal 1990 and 1991, 1994-1995.

That action has cost the United States soft power in the United Nations system. It has created a financial crisis in UNESCO. It is threatening programs in Iraq and Afghanistan funded by U.S. voluntary contributions and implemented by UNESCO, programs important to our interests in those countries. In two years, that action will cost the United States its votes in the next General Conference. In the long run it will have a negative impact on programs promoting education, science, the preservation of cultural heritage, and freedom of the press.

Perhaps even worse, if Palestine follows through on announced plans and obtains membership in other UN organizations, the old clause in the Authorization will require the United States to withhold funding from such agencies as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Telecommunications Union, the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Ideally the clause should be repealed and decisions on the funding of these agencies made in the normal appropriations process. At a minimum, the clause should be amended to allow the President to waive the requirement to withhold funding when he determines that action is to the overall foreign policy advantage of the United States.

John Daly

The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.

The Press Covers U.S. Withholding UNESCO Funds

2011-12-03T01:14:00.001-05:00

The General Conference of UNESCO last month voted by a two-thirds majority to admit Palestine as a member state. The United States opposed the admission primarily on the basis that it would be counterproductive to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. U.S. laws passed two decades ago required that the United States Government withhold its funding of any UN agency that admitted Palestine as a member state. Consequently, that funding which currently accounts for 22 percent of UNESCO's regular budget and several million dollars of voluntary contributions is being withheld. This is causing a financial crisis in the UNESCO Secretariat.

Here are links to a selection of articles in the media that deal with the situation:

"Reporters again turn State Dep’t briefing into moshpit, scorning US ‘impotence’ in the conflict," Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, November 3, 2011

"Cutting Off Unesco, U.S. May Endanger Programs in Iraq and Afghanistan," Steven Erlanger, The New York Times, November 16, 2011

"US shouldn’t forfeit influence within UN," Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), The Hill, November 21, 2011

"UNESCO Science Braces for a Big Squeeze," Daniel Strain, Science, November 25, 2011

"UNESCO Promotes Peace, Not Conflict," Neil Ford, The Huffington Post, November 28, 2011

"US withdrawal of UNESCO funds puzzling," Kate Jenson, The Rice Thresher, December 1, 2011

"Without the U.S., UNESCO would be greatly diminished," Herbie Hancock, The Washington Post, December 2, 2011

Forum adopted declaration on new era of global science

2011-12-02T23:32:00.001-05:00

For the first time, the World Science Forum has adopted a declaration. Acknowledging that the landscape of science is changing rapidly, the declaration adopted by participants on 19 November contains five recommendations. Participants call for

the responsible and ethical conduct of research and innovation,
an improved dialogue with society on scientific issues,
the promotion of international collaboration in science,
collaborative policies to overcome knowledge divides in the world and, lastly,
a reinforcement of capacity-building for science.

The declaration echoes some of the key trends identified by the UNESCO Science Report 2010. It states, for example, that ‘the former triadic dominance of North America, Europe and Japan in global knowledge production has been seriously challenged and a new multipolar world of science has emerged, accompanied by the rise of new scientific powerhouses, which are now not only prominent actors in the world economy but have become key players in cutting-edge research and development activities. In this new context of global science, science diplomacy is now an acknowledged tool to promote partnership among nations by fostering scientific co-operation.

The declaration calls for a renewed engagement of all stakeholders to ensure that full use is made of the opportunities science may offer for development and prosperity. ‘It is the responsibility of those who promote science and scientists to maintain the primacy of moral and social concerns over short-term economic interest in the selection and implementation of industrialised research projects’, it states.

Read more....

Rotary And UNESCO-IHE Join Forces To Educate Water Professionals

2011-12-02T14:29:00.001-05:00

The global humanitarian organization Rotary and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education are teaming up to tackle the world's water and sanitation crisis by increasing the ranks of trained professionals critically needed to devise, plan, and implement solutions in developing countries that bear the brunt of the problem.

Through this new strategic partnership, The Rotary Foundation will provide grants to Rotary clubs and districts to select and sponsor eight students each year for scholarships to any of three Master of Science degree programs at UNESCO-IHE, a United Nations institute in Delft, The Netherlands, that is the world's largest postgraduate water education facility. The school's scholarship-eligible programs are Municipal Water and Infrastructure; Water Management; and Water Science and Engineering.

"This strategic partnership with UNESCO-IHE enables Rotary to work with a globally-recognized leader in the training of water professionals at a time when such experts are desperately needed in many parts of the world," said Rotary Foundation Chair William B. Boyd.

"We are delighted to have this new cooperation with Rotary. The task ahead is no less than training the next generation of water leaders to be equipped to deal with the enormous water challenges ahead in the coming decades," said Prof. Andras Szollosi-Nagy, UNESCO-IHE's Rector.

UNESCO Continues to Look at Ramifications of U.S. Funding Loss

2011-12-02T14:14:00.001-05:00

UNESCO continues to deal with the recent loss of U.S. funding.

Science Magazine recently did a piece describing how the loss of US dollars may effect programs in UNESCO's science sector, which you can read here.

The AP also recently did a piece describing how the loss of U.S. funding may effect UNESCO programs in education, social sciences, and the developing world. You can read that one here.

More on the National Commission Meeting

2011-12-02T14:00:00.001-05:00

This past Monday 11/28 about 85 members of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and friends of the Commission met for our annual meeting in Washington, DC.

Participants met for about 5 hours with a few breaks and engaged in a lively discussion about a range of topics related to UNESCO and U.S. engagement with UNESCO.

The defunding issue was of course a hot topic and meeting participants shared their views about the current situation, as well as ideas about the future of U.S. activity with UNESCO.

The State Department offers apologies for the quality of the picture/sound, but you can actually watch a video recording from most of Monday's meeting here. You can also see photos from our meeting here.

Thank you very much again to everybody who participated on Monday (either remotely or in person), for those who traveled in from far away, and our hosts at George Washington University.

Meeting of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO

2011-11-30T13:37:00.001-05:00

Photo courtesy of Laura Engel

The United States National Commission for UNESCO met on Monday, November 28th at George Washington University.

Updates on UNESCO

Education (Paul Kruchoski)

Secretary Clinton visits UNESCO – In May, Secretary Clinton visited Paris for the launch of the UNESCO Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education. The initiative brought together governments, foundations, and corporations to raise over $5 million for UNESCO’s work to strengthen education for women around the globe. This was the first visit to UNESCO by a U.S. Secretary of State.

Teaching Respect for All and Holocaust Education – In October, the United States announced two new extra-budgetary contributions to UNESCO education programs. The first will revive UNESCO’s work from the mid-1990s on using education to build respect in multiethnic and multicultural societies. The project – a partnership between the United States and Brazil – will offer new curricula and tools for educators. We plan to officially launch the program in early 2012. The second contribution will provide $250,000 to expand UNESCO’s Holocaust Education program, which provides educational resources on how to understand the underlying social factors that led up to the Holocaust and how individuals can help prevent mass atrocities in their own societies.

UNESCO helps to Lead ECOSOC Ministerial – UNESCO helped to shape the discussion leading up to and during the UN Economic and Social Council Ministerial in July. This year’s ministerial session focused on the internationally agreed development goals in education, including the Education for All Goals.

UNESCO Youth Forum – On the eve of the General Conference, UNESCO hosted its 7^th Youth Forum. This year, we piloted a new process for selecting the U.S. youth representatives. The process offered options for YouTube video submissions and drew heavily upon social media to spread the word. It also engaged youth in the selection of the finalists. Our two final reps – Blair Brettschneider and Andrew Leon Hanna – were outstanding. You can read their thoughts on the Forum here and here.

UNESCO Nat Com Youth Working Group hosts event in NYC – This fall, the National Commission, the State Department, and USAID co-hosted an event entitled “Youth Driving Change: Global Youth & Civic Engagement” in New York. The event, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, brought together Under Secretary of State Maria Otero and prominent youth voices from around the world to discuss how youth are shaping transformations around the world. The event was the first activity organized by our National Commission Youth Working Group. You can watch archival video of the event here.

Social and Human Science (Marlese Durr)

As of October 31, 2011 the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Social and Human Science sector has undergone re-organization. The focus of the sector continues to emphasize and promote human rights research; advances education in human rights; leads the action in the fight against all forms of discrimination at the national, regional, and international levels; fosters cooperation among all sectors and networks; promotes democracy and further reflects on new forms and combating violence; while encouraging human rights research with its partners.

Highlighting that using the idea that UNESCO Stands for Human Rights, the work within Major Program III on Social and Human Sciences will be conducted through the following streams:

· Human Rights and Social Inclusion

· Human Rights, Democracy, Youth and Social innovation

· Human Rights and Global Environmental Change

· Human Rights and Bioethics

Natural Sciences & Engineering (Jana Hall)

- L’Oreal Science Awards

- Malta Conference

- SESAME

- New Organization

- Obiang Prize

- Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)

- International Hydrological Program (IHP)

- Geoscience/Geoparks

- Biodiversity/Man and the Biosphere

Communications/Information (Aaron Mitchell)

In the Communication and Information Sector (CI), the latest projects currently underway deal with expanding access to educational and scientific information to developing countries through two initiatives: Open Educational Resources and Open Access to Scientific Research. Both initiatives aim to make publically-funded research and publications available to global audiences at no cost. UNESCO recently launched online platforms designed to expand the availability of these resources online. Additionally, the CI Sector, in partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning and the Hewlett Foundation, is planning a June 2012 international celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of Open Educational Resources, which will include an updated declaration of principles and values.

In addition to the above initiatives, the CI Sector continues its work on documentary preservation, press freedom, media development, and technology competency. As the culmination of ongoing programs, the sector recently released the “UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers.” This framework serves as curriculum guidance for secondary and tertiary level educators to develop coursework for increasing literacy, understanding and awareness of technological tools and their applications.

Culture (Mindy Fountain)

40^th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention

The Culture sector is gearing up for the celebration of the 40^th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention in 2012. We are working with interagency colleagues on planning and developing U.S. celebrations and would appreciate suggestions and input from the Commissioners.

International Jazz Day

One of the successes of this fall’s General Conference was the adoption of our resolution identifying April 30^th as International Jazz Day. The first celebration will be in 2012, and preparations are already underway in conjunction with Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO Herbie Hancock and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. More information will circulate as it becomes available.

The International Center for Women Artists (ICWA)

Another success at the General Conference was the approval of the International Center for Women Artists, to be established in Amman, Jordan, as a UNESCO Category II Center. As many of you know this is a project that has received leadership and support from both our Mission to UNESCO as well as members of the U.S. National Commission.

With the UNESCO Category II status now approved, it is hoped that UNESCO will help organize an international design competition for the creation of a new logo for ICWA, which will be paired with the UNESCO logo for all of ICWA's communications in the future.

Commissioner Sheree Wen is working on the formation of a new ICWA Advisory Council to bringing together international business partners to assist with development.

New Director General Elected at recent International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultureal Property (ICCROM) Conference

Stefano de Caro, a highly regarded museum expert with a background in archeology, was just elected by the ICCROM Council as their new Director General. De Caro, an Italian, is based in Naples and has worked on World Heritage issues in the past.

Ongoing work on Cultural Preservation

One program we’d like to highlight for you is the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, run out of the Education and Cultural Affairs office at the Department of State. ‘This program has supported more than 700 projects in over 100 countries since its inception in 2001, including more than 100 projects at over 60 World Heritage Sites. The program has expended more than 34 million dollars towards preserving tangible and intangible cultural heritage, such as the restoration of historic buildings, assessment and conservation of museum collections, and documentation of vanishing traditional craft techniques. Especially in the current political climate surrounding UNESCO, this is a great example to use of U.S. engagement with and commitment to cultural preservation around the world. The U.S. continues its commitment to cultural preservation and also remains engaged in work related to the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property, and of course the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

Appearance by Patrice Lyons

2011-11-19T23:41:00.001-05:00

Patrice Lyons, the Secretary-Treasurer of Americans for UNESCO, appeared this October in a panel discussion of the Internet of Things (that is available via streaming video). The Panel was part of ITU Telecom World '11, She spoke from the perspective of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (of which she is also Legal Counsel). CNRI works to develop a comprehensive information management system for assigning, managing, and resolving persistent identifiers, known as "handles," for digital objects and other resources in a networked environment. Her participation focused on the means to manage the information coming from the handles of an estimated 50 billion Internet connected objects in 2020 as well as other sources.

Meeting of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO

2011-11-19T14:47:00.001-05:00

Eric Woodard and Kelly Siekman from the State Department addressing the Board
Board members shown on right are Roger Coate, Patrice Lyons and Mary Futrell

A meeting of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO took place on Friday, November 18, 2011.

Kelly Siekman, the Director of the Office of UNESCO Affairs in the State Department, and Eric Woodard, the Chair of U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, provided the Board with a detailed briefing on the recent General Conference of UNESCO. Their discussion centered on the vote by the General Conference to admit Palestine to membership in UNESCO and its implications. They emphasized that, while the law requires the United States Government to withhold our contribution to UNESCO, the United States remains a member of the Organization and that the U.S. delegation to UNESCO in Paris and the related office in the State Department in Washington remain fully staffed and active. Under the law, both the assessed and the voluntary contributions to UNESCO are now being withheld. Since they have been authorized and appropriated by the Congress, the funds are currently being held by the State Department, but are subject to being reprogrammed for other purposes; currently no such action is contemplated.

The Obama administration remains convinced that UNESCO is a worthwhile organization useful to U.S. foreign policy interests. The media coverage of the Palestinian vote generated considerable interest in the United States, both by supporters and by opponents of UNESCO and U.S. membership in UNESCO. The State Department is investigating the complex issues of domestic U.S. law and international law involved in the admission of Palestine to UNESCO membership and in the withholding of U.S. funds. (Palestine will not be a member state of UNESCO until it files is accession documents, but the Congress is taking the vote of the General Conference as defining the intent of the Organization.)

The United States delegation lobbied against admission of Palestine but found it difficult to convince the delegates of other nations, although a great many abstained from the vote. Not surprisingly, it has been difficult to explain the complex domestic politics in the United States underlying our positions in this matter; the Constitutionally defined ability of the Congress to control funding and of the President to control foreign policy -- a situation underlying the current situation -- is perhaps poorly understood abroad.

Other Business

Two Board members were in Paris at the time of the General Conference and they too reported on the event. The impressions included great concern by members of the UNESCO Secretariat about the cuts and uncertainty caused by the U.S. withholding of funds, and disappointment of other delegations with the position taken by the United States with respect to the right of Palestine to membership in UNESCO.

The main focus of the rest of the Board meeting was a revision of the Bylaws of Americans for UNESCO. The revisions included an expansion of the membership of the Board and its Executive Committee and separation of the position of Secretary-Treasurer of the AU into two positions - Secretary and Treasurer.

The meeting marked the retirement of Nicole Varchaver who served for many years as a secretary to Americans for UNESCO, rendering a huge service to AU. We will miss her dedicated service, her cheerful demeanor, and indeed her presence.

The Board meeting offered an opportunity for members to meet Charles Prince who has become an intern for Americans for UNESCO. Paul Danaj who has been serving as intern will reduce his hours of service as he has accepted a position at the Department of State.

More on the United States Withholding of funds from UNESCO

2011-11-17T16:40:00.001-05:00

The General Conference of UNESCO has voted to accept Palestine as a Member State of the Organization. U.S. law requires that if a specialized agency of the United Nations accepts as a member an entity that does not meet the international standards to be considered a nation, then then the United States must withhold its contributions to that agency. It seems clear that the law was specifically intended to deny Palestinian membership in these agencies. Shortly after the vote, the United States government announced that in compliance with that law, the United States would withhold the final contribution for 2011 (some $60 million).

Here are some added materials on that situation:

The speech by UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova on the budgetary measures to be taken in response to the shortfall of funding (Video; the first part is in French without subtitles, the second in English).
"State Still Making the Case for UNESCO Funding", Josh Rogin, The Cable (Foreign Policy blog)
"UNESCO Approves Palestinian Membership Bid – A Case for US Countermeasures Against the Organization?", Christiane Ahlborn, European Journal of International Law
"INTERVIEW: UNESCO-chief: We'll pull through - just - without US funds", Ralf E. Krueger, M&C News
"US Funding Freeze Threatens UNESCO Science", Yojana Sharma, SciDev.Net
"Sen. Gillibrand wrong on UNESCO", Laura Myerson and Cortlandt Manor, Lohud.com
"American UNESCO Official On U.S. Funding Cut Off: ‘The Ramifications Are Serious’ In Iraq And Afghanistan", Ben Armbruster, Think Progress
"Cutting Off Unesco, U.S. May Endanger Programs in Iraq and Afghanistan", Steven Erlanger, The New York Times

UNESCO Water Specialist Casey Walther working on a project in Iraq

Rutgers University International Institute of Peace (IIP) Designated as UNESCO Category II Center

2011-11-17T16:00:00.001-05:00

IIP Co-Founder Aldo Civico (left) with
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Forest Whitaker (right)

At its recent General Conference, UNESCO approved the International Institute of Peace at Rutgers University as a UNESCO Category II Center.

UNESCO Category II Centers are institutions that don't receive funding from nor are legally part of UNESCO, but maintain association with UNESCO through a formal agreement.

The International Institute of Peace is the second UNESCO Category II Center in the United States. It joins the International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWARM) based at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Institute for Water Resources (IWR) based in Alexandria, VA.

For information about IIP and its designation as a UNESCO Category II Center, go here.

Congratulations IIP!

UNESCO Passed Engineering Initiative

2011-11-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

The recent General Conference passed a resolution stating that it:

Requests the Director-General to particularly focus on engineering education, especially at the universities and targeting curricular innovation, with a view to gear engineering education towards sustainable development, the attainment of the internationally agreed development goals and other emerging challenges, and to build in this regard, as well as on the lead role of UNESCO in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

The following was offered in support of that resolution:

1. Engineering is crucial for innovation and economic development, but it is also a key factor in advancing social and human development, especially in addressing global challenges such as poverty alleviation, energy, climate change, land degradation and water scarcity.

2. At the same time, engineering is an evolving part of society. As the UNESCO Engineering Report of 2010 has demonstrated, there are serious concerns all around the world about a decline of interest and enrollment by young people in engineering and therefore shortages of engineers, and about the brain drain from developing countries.

3. The Executive Board at its 185th session had asked the Director-General for proposals regarding the strengthening of education, capacity-building and research in the field of engineering, in the context of the submission of the Draft Programme and Budget for 2012-2013 (36 C/5).

4. In document 186 EX/INF.4, the Director-General made her first preliminary proposals on a flexible, cost-effective, cross-cutting UNESCO Engineering Initiative whose objective was to address key challenges of engineering education, capacity-building and development. Answers will be sought why young people around the world are turning away from engineering and how this may be addressed, the public understanding of engineering will be promoted, as well as the effective application of engineering and green technologies to poverty reduction, sustainable development and climate change.

5. Document 186 EX/INF.4 has noted strong interest on collaborating on this UNESCO Engineering initiative, as expressed by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), organizations such as the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS), International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and Engineers Without Borders (EWB). As could be witnessed at the World Engineering Convention in Geneva 2011, international and national engineering associations are interested in joining the UNESCO Engineering Initiative. A crucial objective will be to align engineering education with the objectives of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, in order to fully leverage engineering expertise to the benefit of mankind. This task can only be addressed by joining the efforts of UNESCO, its Member States, as well as international and national associations and institutions involved in promoting engineering.

The Gender Perspective in Bioethics

2011-11-17T15:41:00.001-05:00

Read about the International Conference on Gender and Bioethics.

UNESCO Seeks Donations Now!

2011-11-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

The Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova today launched an online site allowing Member States, public institutions, foundations and citizens to donate to UNESCO.

This new site is one of the emergency measures announced today to fill the immediate $65m shortfall in UNESCO’s budget arising from the US decision to with-hold dues owed to the Organization.

Donations can be made online at: http://www.unesco.org/donate

UNESCO suspends year-end projects due to U.S. funding cut

2011-11-11T13:53:00.001-05:00

CNN Reports:

UNESCO has suspended its projects and commitments until the end of year because the United States cut its $65 million funding in the wake of the agency's acceptance of Palestine for full membership, the agency's chief said Thursday.

Irina Bokova, the director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said the agency's $65 million deficit is now its "most pressing issue.""This deficit is the sum owed by the United States for the year 2011," Bokova said on the occasion of the closing of UNESCO's general conference."So we have to take drastic action, and we must take it now, at this general conference,"

Bokova said. "I have suspended all of our commitments. I have suspended our projects during this period of revision until the end of the year."We are reviewing all activities in all areas, in all sectors, including contractual commitments, staff travel, publications, communications costs, meetings, and the rest.

"With all these measures, we believe we can generate savings of $35 million. But this alone will not solve our problem," Bokova said.

Conversations With America: Bridging Divides: Youth, Peace and Reconciliation

2011-11-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Forest Whitaker and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Esther Brimmer recently sat down for a State Department interview to discuss youth, peacebuilding and UNESCO.

Click image below to see the full interview.

What happens after the UNESCO admission of Palestine

2011-11-08T15:13:00.002-05:00

In the short term, unless there is some new development, the U.S. retains its membership and vote at UNESCO; we will continue to participate in UNESCO meeting and programs. As our Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion has stated, we remain committed to working with UNESCO. However in the longer term, the funding issue prescribed by U.S. law - and the questions it opens regarding our long term membership at UNESCO - remain. You can see more about the official U.S. position by watching the State Department Press Briefing from 11/1/11. You can read a transcript of this briefing here.

World Science Day for Peace and Development

2011-11-06T00:34:00.003-04:00

Established by UNESCO in 2001, the WSDPD is celebrated on 10 November each year. The Day is an occasion to recall UNESCO's mandate for and commitment to science.

The WSDPD's objectives are:

To strengthen public awareness on the role of science for peaceful and sustainable societies
To promote national and international solidarity for a shared science between countries
To renew national and international commitment for the use of science for the benefit of societies
To draw attention to the challenges faced by science and raise support for the scientific endeavor

Meeting on STI Policy Instruments

2011-11-04T14:40:00.002-04:00

Fifty distinguished experts in science, technology and innovation from across the globe met at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris from 19 to 20 October to discuss science policy in their respective countries. A technical workshop “Towards a Global Observatory of Policy Instruments on Science, Technology and Innovation” aimed to expand UNESCO’s Science Policy Information Network (SPIN) from a regional to a global level.

During the seminar decision-makers from government, academia and multinational enterprises were to examine a range of policy instruments, as well as legal frameworks meant to improve methods for gathering, classifying and standardizing information around the world.

The Science Policy Information Network (SPIN) program was launched in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 2010 by UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science. The innovative SPIN information platform equips decision-makers and specialists in science and technology policy with powerful graphical and analytical tools, maps, and statistics.

31 new members elected UNESCO’s Executive Board

2011-11-03T15:32:00.002-04:00

UNESCO’s Member States attending the 36th session of the General Conference, the Organization’s highest governing body, have elected 31 new members to the 58-member Executive Board, the Organization’s other governing body.

Below is a list of elected countries, by electoral group:

Group I: Austria, France, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, United States of America.

Group II: Russian Federation, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Group III: Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico.

Group IV: Republic of Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea.

Group V (a): Nigeria, Namibia, Ethiopia, Mali, Gabon, Malawi, Angola, Gambia.

Group V (b): United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia.

Flash: U.S. Reelected to UNESCO Executive Board

2011-11-02T13:26:00.002-04:00

Statement by the Director-General of UNESCO on Withholding of Funds by the United States

2011-11-02T13:18:00.003-04:00

Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General© UNESCO / Eric Bouttier

In this time of economic crisis and social transformation, I believe that UNESCO’s vital work to promote global stability and democratic values is in America’s core interests.

The United States is a critical partner in UNESCO’s work. The withholding of U.S. dues and other financial contributions – required by U.S. law - will weaken UNESCO’s effectiveness and undermine its ability to build free and open societies.

U.S. funding helps UNESCO to develop and sustain free and competitive media in Iraq, Tunisia and Egypt. In Afghanistan, U.S. support is helping UNESCO to teach thousands of police officers to read and write. UNESCO literacy programmes in other areas of conflict give people the critical thinking skills and confidence they need to fight violent extremism. To sustain the democratic spirit of the Arab Spring, UNESCO is training journalists to cover elections objectively.

Across the world, we stand up for each journalist who is attacked or killed, because we are the UN agency with the mandate to protect freedom of expression. In Washington, earlier this year, I awarded the UNESCO Press Freedom Prize to an imprisoned Iranian journalist, Ahmad Zeidabadi.

UNESCO is the only UN Agency with a mandate to promote Holocaust Education worldwide. Using funding provided by the United States and Israel, UNESCO is developing curricula to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten. Last February I led a historic visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp with more than 150 political and religious leaders, mostly from Arab and Muslim countries. I still recall the words of Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, who said: “We must teach our young people in mosques, churches and synagogues what happened here.”

With U.S. support we put science at the service of people. UNESCO is leading a global effort to expand an ocean-based tsunami warning system. In January, this system saved tens of thousands of lives when a tsunami hit Japan. In the Middle East, UNESCO’s Sesame Programme enables world-class research and builds scientific and cultural bridges between neighbouring countries, including Israel and Egypt.

The U.S. Government recognizes the value of all this work. To quote the State Department: “U.S. engagement with UNESCO serves a wide range of our national interests on education, science, culture and communications issues…we will work with Congress to ensure that U.S. interests and influence are preserved.”

UNESCO is encouraged that the United States will maintain its membership in the Organization and hopes that a resolution to the funding issue will ultimately be identified. Until that happens, it will be impossible for us to maintain our current level of activity.

The announced withholding of U.S. dues owed for 2011 will immediately affect our ability to deliver programmes in critical areas: achieving universal education, supporting new democracies and fighting extremism. So I call on the U.S. administration, Congress and the American people to find a way forward and continue support for UNESCO in these turbulent times.

Irina Bokova

2 November, 2011

Video: Vote in UNESCO General Conference on Palestine Membership

2011-10-31T23:07:00.001-04:00

Unesco Approves Full Membership for Palestinians

2011-10-31T12:50:00.000-04:00

According to the New York Times:

Unesco defied a legally mandated cutoff of American funding and approved a Palestinian bid for full membership by a vote on Monday of 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions.

Legislation dating back more than 15 years stipulates a complete cutoff of American financing to any United Nations agency that accepts the Palestinians as a full member. Unesco — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — depends on the United States for 22 percent of its budget, about $70 million a year. More.....

According to the UNESCO press release:

The vote was carried by 107 votes in favor of admission and 14 votes against, with 52 abstentions.

"Will Congress’s defunding of the U.N. over Palestine hurt U.S. goals around the world?"

2011-10-28T15:43:00.000-04:00

Colum Lynch has an article by that title dated October 25, 2011 in Foreign Policy magazine. It discusses the repercussions if the Palestinian Authority bid to join UNESCO succeeds and the United States withholds funding from the organization as the law requires. The problem is exacerbated because it might start a chain reaction in which Palestine is automatically admitted to other decentralized agencies of the UN system which would apparently mean that the United States would automatically withhold funding also from those agencies.

The Palestinians are expected to follow by seeking membership in three other U.N. organizations -- the U.N. Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) -- that have reciprocation agreements that would allow UNESCO members in as full members. Consequently, the United States will be required to also cut funding to these agencies, jeopardizing funding to programs that protect international intellectual copy rights and promote trade in the developing world.

A congressional cut off of aid at UNESCO and other U.N. specialized agencies, however, would have no effect on many of the U.N.'s most high-profile operations, including billions of dollars spent on U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian relief work -- since any bid by the Palestinians to secure membership in the U.N. General Assembly would face a U.S. veto.

But the Palestinians have made it clear that they intend to seek membership in other international agencies affiliated with the United Nations, including the International Criminal Court, which receives no funding from the United States, and the World Health Organization, which has played a lead role in preventing the spread of deadly and debilitating diseases like polio, malaria, small pox and avian flu and HIV/AIDS.

The Palestinians would also have a good shot at gaining entrance into several other U.N. specialized agencies, including the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which require simple majorities or two-thirds majorities votes by the agencies' member states for membership. Ironically, the $238 million annual U.S. funding for the largest U.N. program in support of Palestinians, the U.N. Relief Works Agency, will not be directly affected by the UNESCO bid since it's not a U.N. member-based organization.

The Executive Board of UNESCO recommended that Palestine be admitted to UNESCO membership earlier this month, and the General Conference is expected to vote on the membership on Monday afternoon. It has been reported that there are very active discussions taking place in diplomatic circles and between the State Department and the Congress.

The article goes on to provide opinions from a number of knowledgeable source. Read more.....

A World of science Vol 9 n°4

2011-10-27T16:01:00.001-04:00

A World of science Vol 9 n°4

The Opening Messages

2011-10-27T15:45:00.000-04:00

"Don’t punish UNESCO"

2011-10-24T18:50:00.000-04:00

There is a letter to the editor in today's Washington Post from UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova. I quote from the letter:

UNESCO supports many causes in line with U.S. security interests. In Afghanistan and Iraq, we are helping governments and communities prepare for life after the withdrawal of U.S. military forces. We are bolstering the literacy of the Afghan National Police and are leading the country’s largest education program, reaching some 600,000 learners in 18 provinces. We work with the United States to advance democratic freedoms. Mandated to promote freedom of expression, UNESCO stands up for every journalist attacked or killed across the world. In Tunisia and Egypt, we are leading education reform and training journalists. We target the causes of violent extremism by training teachers in human rights and Holocaust remembrance.

Major U.S. private-sector companies are key partners. We work with Procter and Gamble on girls’ education in Senegal and with the Packard Foundation to reduce girls’ dropout rates in Tanzania and Ethiopia.

The issue of Palestinian membership should not be allowed to derail these initiatives, which go far beyond the politics of the Middle East......

Engineering Can Help Developing Nations Solve Critical Problems

2011-10-22T16:02:00.000-04:00

Engineering can help developing nations solve critical problems, but a worldwide shortage of engineers is hampering the effort, according to former UNESCO official Dr. Tony Marjoram.

To that end, he said, engineering education must become more exciting and better convey the key role engineers can play in improving people's lives. Marjoram will address these issues during the inaugural IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, 30 October -- 1 November 2011, in Seattle.

Marjoram, former head of engineering, Division of Basic and Engineering Sciences, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, will deliver the opening keynote address on Monday morning 31 October. He gave a preview of his talk on "The Promise of Tomorrow" radio show with Colonel Mason earlier this month.

"Engineering is extremely important in promoting humanitarian development," Marjoram said. "When young people can see that engineering is vitally important in this area ... [they] are more attracted towards a career in engineering."

You can listen to the interview at http://www.promiseoftomorrow.biz/bizradio/100311/100311.htm . (Go to the second half hour.)

U.S. National Commission Meets on Monday 11/28/11

2011-10-21T15:49:00.000-04:00

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO is set to convene a full meeting on Monday 11/28 at 10:00 am EDT, That is the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The meeting will convene on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, DC. The meeting will run from 10 am 2 pm. More details will be forthcoming.

This meeting will include some updates about UNESCO, but will mostly be designed for action - with plenty of caucusing, action teams, and whiteboards.

If you wish to attend, please inform the secretariat now right here!!!

36th UNESCO General Conference Begins

2011-10-21T15:32:00.000-04:00

Next Tuesday 10/25 UNESCO will convene its 36th meeting of the General Conference. Several Commissioners have generously volunteered to help represent the U.S. delegation and will attend several different pieces of the upcoming meeting.

U.S. Under Secretary of Education and Commission Member Martha Kanter will deliver the U.S. Delegation official statement to the General Conference.

The question of Palestinian membership still looms large on this upcoming meeting in terms of U.S. membership in UNESCO.

You can read some recent coverage here.

Americans for UNESCO recently circulated a letter about this issue, which you can read here.

FYI -- The Repercussions if UNESCO Admits Palestine

2011-10-18T13:17:00.000-04:00

I quote extensively from an article in UN Dispatch by Mark Leon Goldberg:

UNESCO member states are poised to admit Palestine as the newest member of the UN body. This is an achievement for the Palestinian leadership, which is seeking admission to various UN agencies, but potentially catastrophic news for UNESCO and American leadership at the UN. And through no fault of her own, even Beyonce may suffer.

At issue here are two strict laws passed by the United States congress in 1994 which stipulate that “the United States shall not make any voluntary or assessed contribution to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.” And if that were not clear enough, a second clause clearly states that the United States may not “provide funds [to] the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.” The law authorizes no “waiver authority” by the executive branch, meaning that there is no way for President Obama to end run around this prohibition.

In other words, if UNESCO admits Palestine as a member, the United States will be forced to effectively withdraw from the organization. That would be a huge financial blow to UNESCO, which receives 22% of its budget ($80 million) in dues payments from the United States. With that money, UNESCO promotes world press freedom, is the lead UN agency for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goal number 2 (universal primary eduction) and administers the World Heritage site program, among other things.

But the effect would be felt far beyond UNESCO. Several smaller UN agencies — including World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the UN Conference on Trade and Development — tie their own membership to other UN agencies. This means that when one UN agency accepts a new member, these three UN agencies automatically accept the new member as well. Once UNESCO admits Palestine, these other UN agencies will automatically admit Palestine as well…and the United States will be forced to automatically pull out.

The United States may withhold funding for UNESCO

2011-10-13T19:59:00.000-04:00

The Palestinian Authority's request for full membership in the United Nations has received wide public attention, but meanwhile a more silent but equally grave political situation is playing out at UNESCO.
UNESCO’s Executive Board ended its 187th session on 6 October marked by the request for membership to UNESCO by Palestine. The Board voted on the request for Palestinian membership on October 5. Forty members voted in favor of admission, four against and there were 14 abstentions. The Board’s recommendation for admission will now be submitted to UNESCO’s General Conference (26 October to 10 November), where it requires a two-thirds majority vote to become effective.

The United States Ambassador to UNESCO released a statement explaining the U.S. opposition to the membership at this time.

We take the floor to express our strong opposition to this resolution. Granting the Palestinians full membership now in a specialized agency such as UNESCO is premature. Given that the UN Security Council is reviewing the Palestinian application, we believe it is inappropriate for a UN specialized agency to also take up the same matter.

The New York Times reported:

The State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said that lawyers were busily reviewing how and when the Palestinian membership would affect the American financing. She said the administration would try to block a vote of the full Unesco membership even as it encourages a resumption of talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The issue is a hot one in Congress. In a statement on Tuesday, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, urged the Obama administration to “make clear that any decision to upgrade the Palestinian mission’s status by Unesco or any other U.N. entity will lead to a cutoff of U.S. funds to that entity.”

U.S. Code Title 22, Section 287e includes the following:

“No funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.” This was adopted by a Democratic Congress in 1989 as Public Law 101-246.

“The United States shall not make any voluntary or assessed contribution: (1) to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, or (2) to the United Nations, if the United Nations grants full membership as a state in the United Nations to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, during any period in which such membership is effective.” This was adopted by a Democratic Congress in 1994 as Public Law 103-236.

The first of these provisions was enacted into law in 1989. In that year Palestine applied for UNESCO membership and the Israeli government submitted a statement as to why it believed Palestine did not qualify for UNESCO membership:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000827/082712eo.pdf

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000827/082713EO.pdf

The Huffington Post reports:

Ismail Tilawi, the representative of UNESCO in the Palestinian territories, says that since the formation of the Palestinian Authority in the mid-1990s, a request for Palestinian membership has been on the agenda of every UNESCO General Conference, which convenes every two years.

The motion to admit Palestine fully to membership in UNESCO apparently enjoys wide support among the 193 Member States, certainly enough to receive the two-thirds majority of "States present and voting" required for admission as a full Member. However, there is hope that a compromise along the lines of some sort of Palestinian membership short of "full" might be reached.

Senior budget officers at UNESCO, analyzing the consequences of failure to receive the U.S. funding, foresee immediate slashes in program activity, layoffs in personnel beginning in January, and other credible threats, including to UNESCO's pension system. However, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries hint they might be willing to fill the funding gap, a gesture the implications of which remain to be examined.

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova will spend Thursday and Friday of this week in Washington attempting to explain the impossible position in which UNESCO has been placed. State’s Mid-East negotiator David Hale in Paris will attempt to find a solution, perhaps trying to convince Palestinians to accept something less than full membership.

UNESCO DG on the Evolving U.S.-UNESCO Relationship

2011-10-12T10:20:00.001-04:00

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova on the evolution of the United States' relationship with UNESCO

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize

2011-10-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

On 8 March 2006, the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirlea, opened an International conference entitled Women in Politics organized by UNESCO within the framework of the celebration of International Women's Day.

UNESCO Venice - Interview with Prof Pier Luigi Nimis, University of Trieste

2011-10-12T10:11:00.000-04:00

When asked:

How does biodiversity and internet interact? Prof. Nimis affirms that "in the past the main problem was finding information on organisms, animals and plants was difficult. One had to go to a library and get books; they were difficult to find and read. Today, it is much easier. If you know the name of an organism, a plant, or an animal search on Google and an enormous amount of related information will be found."

U.S. Members of the UNESCO Executive Board

2011-10-10T12:32:00.001-04:00

Title	Name	Years	Sessions
Member	Mr Archibald MacLeish	1946-1947	1-2
Member	Mr Milton Eisenhower	1947	3-4
Member	Mr George D. Stoddard	1947-1949	5-17
Member	Mr Luther H. Evans	1949-1953	18-34
Member	Mr John A. Perkins	1953-1954	35-39
Member	Mr Athelstan F. Spilhaus	1954-1958	40-50
Member	Mr George N. Shuster	1958-1963	51-65
Member	Mr William Benton	1963-1968	65-80
Member	Ms Katie S. Louchheim	1968-1969	81-83
Member	Ms Louise Gore	1969-1973	83-93
Member	Mr Edward O. Sullivan	1973-1974	93-95
Member	Mr Gordon H. Scherer	1974-1976	96-99
Member	Mr Robert B. Kamm	1976-1977	99-103
Member	Mr Henry E. Kerry	1977-1978	103-105
Member	Mr Esteban Edward Torres	1978-1980	106-109
Member	Ms Barbara W. Newell	1980-1982	109-114
Member	Ms Jean Broward Shevlin Gerard	1982-1984	114-120

The United States held membership on the Executive Board of UNESCO from the beginning of the Organization until the United States withdrew from the organization in 1984. Since the United States rejoined the Organization in 2003, the United States has been represented on the Executive Board by the Permanent Representatives to UNESCO, Louise Oliver and Daniel Killion.

I am impressed by the large number of distinguished people who served as the United States' members of UNESCO's Executive Board. Especially in the early years of UNESCO the members were distinguished public intellectuals such as Archibald MacLeish and Luther Evans (both of whom served as Librarians of Congress), President Eisenhower's brother Milton, Athelstan Spilhaus (scientist educator) and William Benton (Publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica). A number ran universities (Eisenhower, Perkins, Shuster, Kamm, Newell).

Happy Anniversary to UNESCO Natural Science Programs

2011-10-08T12:43:00.000-04:00

UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The United States was instrumental in the creation of both of these programs of UNESCO's Natural Science Sector.

Q&A: Gretchen Kalonji on UNESCO's plans for science

2011-10-08T12:15:00.001-04:00

SciDev.Net's Yojana Sharma interviewed UNESCO's Gretchen Kalonji about how a new panel of experts is breathing fresh life into the organisation's science plans.

The first ever UNESCO High Panel on Science for Development, tasked with strengthening the efforts of UNESCO (the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) in science, technology and innovation (STI), held its inaugural meeting in France earlier this month (15–16 September).The panel of eminent personalities — including former Pakistan science minister, Atta-ur-Rahman, and Jacob Palis, president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences — will meet twice a year. Its first report, based on September's meeting, will be released in a few weeks.

SciDev.Net spoke to Gretchen Kalonji, UNESCO assistant director-general for natural sciences, after the meeting to discuss the formation of the panel, how it will put its recommendations into practice, and its plans for shaping science and innovation in the developing world, particularly Africa.

Read the interview...

Executive Board Concludes Meeting

2011-10-08T11:27:00.000-04:00

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, and
Eleonora Mitrofanova, Chairperson of UNESCO’s Executive Board© UNESCO/Patrick Lagès

UNESCO’s Executive Board ended its 187th session on 6 October marked by the request for membership to UNESCO by Palestine, an endorsement of the Director-General’s “reform to perform” programme, and the Organization’s reinforced focus on Africa.

The Board voted on the request for Palestinian membership on October 5. Forty members voted in favour of admission, four against and there were 14 abstentions. The Board’s recommendation for admission will now be submitted to UNESCO’s General Conference (26 October to 10 November), where it requires a two-thirds majority vote to become effective.

The 58 Board Members also approved proposals to reform and reinforce UNESCO’s action in Africa through a strengthened network of field offices, which the Director-General stressed on several occasions as an absolute priority for the Organization.

"UNESCO is moving ahead very strongly with African priorities," Irina Bokova said. "I am determined to focus on the Priority Africa programme so that it becomes an effective instrument for developing education, for giving young people the tools with which to find jobs, and for giving recognition to African culture."

The Board also considered the issue of the UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences. After extensive debate it decided by consensus to establish a working group to undertake further consultations with a view to achieving a conclusion on the issue by the Board’s meeting in the spring of 2012.

Controversy over UNESCO possible recognition of Palestine state

2011-10-06T15:42:00.000-04:00

Map Source: InternationalRelations.com

The Executive Board of UNESCO voted today on a recommendation to admit Palestine to the Organization. From the 58 member-states on the Board, the recommendation was passed by a vote of 40 in favor to four against, with 14 abstentions. Palestine's request for membership will now be considered at the next session of the General Conference (October 26-November 10) where a two-thirds majority vote is required for membership to be granted. Decisions for admission are taken by the General Conference and the Executive Board which are UNESCO's governing bodies.

According to The New York Times:

Fourteen delegations abstained, including those from Belgium, France, Italy and Spain, while the American delegation joined Germany, Latvia and Romania in opposing the measure. (Israel does not presently sit on the executive board, where membership rotates.) Russia joined African and Arab states, among others, in support.

The United States government has opposed according Palestine full national status in UN agencies at this time on the basis that there should first be a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, and that premature recognition of Palestine would make getting the peace process under way more difficult. In general, the United States government has supported a two state solution.

The vote is especially important as the United Nations is also considering accepting Palestine as a member nation, and were a specialized agency such as UNESCO to recognize the Palestinians as a member state it might set a precedent for the vote in the UN.

The New York Times reports that "Palestinians Win a Vote On Bid to Join Unesco". It reports further:

(F)ull membership in Unesco could mean a legally mandated cutoff of all contributions from the United States, both dues and voluntary.

Existing United States legislation appears to mandate the cutoff of money to the United Nations or any of its agencies if they grant “full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood,” and more legislation along the same lines has been introduced. The United States contributes 22 percent of Unesco’s budget......

The State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said that lawyers were busily reviewing how and when the Palestinian membership would affect the American financing. She said the administration would try to block a vote of the full Unesco membership even as it encourages a resumption of talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The fiscal year for the U.S. Government started October 1, 2011 so presumably U.S. funding from the last fiscal year (that ended September 30th) has already been transferred to UNESCO. Were the action of the General Conference to trigger a withholding of U.S. contributions to UNESCO, that would presumably occur in 2012 or thereafter. Member states have a responsibility to pay their assessed contributions to the Organization, but there have been many occasions in which a country is in arrears on those contributions, so the United States might withhold payment to UNESCO for a period of time and then pay the amount in arrears. Indeed, the Congress has in the past withheld contributions to the United Nations as means of pressuring the UN to change management or policy, later paying the arrears.

When the decision was made by the United States Government in the Reagan administration to withdraw from UNESCO, the Government provided the required one year notice of withdrawal, paying its assessed contributions for the period the United States remained a member state. The withdrawal, combined with that of the United Kingdom and Singapore, created a major financial crisis for UNESCO.

The return of the United States to UNESCO in 2004 did not result in a massive immediate increase in its budget, but rather a reduction in the assessed contributions of the other member states. Still, withholding 22 percent of the budget would cause serious financial problems for the organization. Were the United States again to withdraw from UNESCO the crisis would be greater and longer lasting. Were other major donors to also withhold contributions and/or withdraw, the result might be fatal to the Organization.

As in other United Nations system forums, the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab controversy has come up regularly at UNESCO Executive Board and General Conference meetings. Often those debates have led to useful conclusions, and to the best of my knowledge, none led to crises in UNESCO governance.

U.NATIONAL COMMISSION MEETS ON MONDAY 11/28

2011-10-02T19:23:00.001-04:00

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO is set to convene a full meeting on Monday 11/28 around 10:00 am EDT

It is to convene on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, DC. The meeting will run from 10 am into the afternoon (maybe 2 pmish?). More details will be forthcoming.

This meeting will include some updates about UNESCO, but will mostly be designed for action - with plenty of caucusing, action teams, and whiteboards. We will be doing a lot of brainstorming re: programming for 2012.

If you plan to attend the annual meeting now inform the secretariat right here!!!

Unesco Director Asks Dictator to Withdraw Science Prize

2011-10-02T19:07:00.002-04:00

The director of Unesco called Friday for a West African dictator to withdraw the controversial prize he has endowed for the organization. The prize in the life sciences, financed by and named for President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, would damage the “prestige” and “credibility” of Unesco, its director general, Irina Bokova, said at a meeting of the group’s executive board in Paris.

Read more about the situation from"

UNESCO to resume cooperation with Libya

2011-10-02T19:02:00.000-04:00

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has welcomed the U.N. General Assembly’s recognition of Libya’s National Transitional Council as the country’s legitimate government and announced that UNESCO is looking forward to placing its expertise at the disposal of the new authorities.

"I welcome the return of Libya to the international community,” the Director-General said. “We stand ready to help the Libyan people in advancing human dignity and rights as part of a new era. May the raising of the new flag of Libya alongside those of UNESCO’s other Member States, herald the dawn of an age of reconciliation and recovery for the country.

"Our Organization is looking forward to assisting Libya in the fields of education, culture, science and media development to sustain their aspirations and efforts promoting human rights, freedom of expression, justice and women’s empowerment," concluded Irina Bokova.

UNESCO Panel Takes High-Level Look at Helping Development

2011-09-21T11:44:00.000-04:00

ScienceInsider reports on the first meeting of the UNESCO High Level Science Panel:

Science and sustainable development were the buzz words at the first meeting of a new advisory panel to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the end of last week. The charge to the High Panel on Science for Development is to identify trends in science and technology and to help UNESCO sharpen the focus of its work in promoting sustainable development, according to UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, who addressed the meeting. The brief is broad, as the panel has been asked to include in its discussions all the organization's work in the natural sciences, humanities, and engineering, as well as find links between science and culture, education, and communications and look for new partners in the private sector, civil society, and academia.

Among the challenges on the table are to pinpoint the best ways of harnessing science and technology for local economic development, incorporating indigenous knowledge systems into the global scientific base, wiping out disparities in access to resources, and preventing brain drain from developing countries. The panel is also to define UNESCO's role in promoting international cooperation in areas such as climate change and the climatic impact of the oceans, Bokova said at the meeting. Sustainable development "requires holistic approaches that cross disciplinary and policy domains and make the most of synergies between them," she said. "Better understanding is the first step to anticipating developments and designing better public policy."

The panel, which will meet here twice a year, is made up of 24 scientists and academics drawn from a multitude of scientific disciplines and from all regions of the world. Members include Susan Avery, director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; José Sarukhán Kermez, national coordinator of Mexico's National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity; Ahmadou Lamine N'Diaye, president of the African Academy of Science; Gong Ke, president of Nankai University; and Rolf Heuer, director general of CERN. But group deliberately has no chairperson, at least for the moment. "This is the way U.N. high panels usually work, Gretchen Kalonji, UNESCO assistant director-general for science told ScienceInsider. "But we may well change our methods of working as time goes by."

African biotech centre to target food security, disease

2011-09-21T11:09:00.001-04:00

The Nigerian government is about to sign an agreement with UNESCO (the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) for an international biotechnology centre that should begin operations in 2012.

Food safety, tropical disease research and the conservation of bioresources are all areas that it is hoped the centre will strengthen, not just in Nigeria but, through collaborations and training, across the whole of Africa.

The International Centre for Biotechnology, whose buildings are already near completion, is to be hosted by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and will be a Category 2 institution, under the auspices of UNESCO.

Read more in SciDev.Net....

UNESCO Chief at 2011 Clinton Global Initiative

2011-09-21T10:53:00.000-04:00

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova is to attend "Conversations on Courage" at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative. Read more....

Today is the International Day of Peace

2011-09-21T06:06:00.000-04:00

The United Nations' (UN) International Day of Peace is celebrated on September 21 each year to recognize the efforts of those who have worked hard to end conflict and promote peace. The International Day of Peace is also a day of ceasefire – personal or political.

Read UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova'a:

Democracy and Renewal in the Arab World: UNESCO in support of transitions to democracy

2011-09-18T14:52:00.000-04:00

In the light of current changes in the Arab world, UNESCO organized a high level round-table on the theme "Democracy and Renewal in the Arab World: UNESCO in support of transitions to democracy" in Paris on 21 June 2011. About 20 internationally renowned personalities participated in a dynamic and interactive debate.

Distinguished American Scientists at UNESCO Meet

2011-09-18T14:02:00.002-04:00

On 15 and 16 September 2011, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova hosted the first meeting of UNESCO’s High Panel on Science and Development at UNESCO Headquarters. The meeting brings together personalities who make up the Panel, including two distinguished American scientists:

Dr. Susan Avery, the President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Dr. Ahmed Hassan Zewail, the Nobel Laureate chemist -- and Egyptian American -- who holds the Linus Pauling Chair in Chemistry and Physics at the California Institute of Technology.

UNESCO has a long history focussing on capacity-building in the natural and social sciences, particularly in the developing world, and on mobilizing international communities to collaborate around scientific challenges that cannot be addressed by any one nation alone. UNESCO's broader goals include the use of science for poverty reduction, for sustainable development and for building a culture of peace.

UNESCO needs to lead an in-depth reflection on how the international community can cooperate more effectively to address these issues.

This is a priority for UNESCO’s Member States, who have requested the Director-General to propose new strategies and initiatives that can strengthen our efforts in science, technology and innovation. This High-Level Panel is a response to their expectation.

The panel is to provide UNESCO with guidelines for the development of working strategies to promote sustainable development and advance the fight for the eradication of poverty. The High Panel will meet twice a year with the objective of identifying current challenges in the social and natural sciences so as to help UNESCO fine-tune its actions. New partnerships with the private sector, civil society and academia are also to be examined.

Global Chemistry Experiment Webcast

2011-09-18T05:24:00.002-04:00

Thursday 9/22, 1 pm - 2 pm EDT

Students around the world are invited to join the American Chemical Society (ACS) and NASA in celebrating the International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011) through a live webcast on NASA’s Digital Learning Network on Thursday, 22 September 2011.

During the webcast, ACS and NASA scientists will conduct one of the Global Chemistry Experiments and discuss water purification on Earth and in space. Teachers and students can log on NASA’s Digital Learning Network on 22 September at 5 - 6 pm GMT (noon till 1 pm Central Time) to participate.

UNESCO History

2011-09-17T20:22:00.002-04:00

UNESCO was born on 16 November 1945. UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO'S mission and activities.Go to "Introducing UNESCO: what we are"

Inter-Agency meeting on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity

2011-09-17T08:01:00.001-04:00

A United Nations Inter-Agency meeting on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 13 and 14 September 2011.

The event brought together representatives of UN system organizations and provided them with a forum in which to consult with other invited international and regional institutions, professional organizations and NGOs, with a view to formulating a comprehensive, coherent and action-oriented plan of action to address the issue of safety of journalists and the impunity of perpetrators of assaults against journalists.

Over the last ten years, more than 500 journalists and media workers have been killed worldwide, and many more were wounded or injured while carrying out their professional responsibilities. The great majority of casualties were not international war correspondents, but local journalists working in their own countries, mostly in peacetime, and covering local stories. In most of these cases, impunity precludes the way of justice, and if this trend prevails, journalists will remain easy targets.

Professor Jan Servaes appointed UNESCO Chair

2011-09-17T07:23:00.001-04:00

The Massachusetts Daily Collegian reports that Jan Servaes has been appointed UNESCO Chair (in Communication for Sustainable Social Change). Dr. Servaes is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he hosts the show “Encounters” and where he started the Communication for Sustainable Social Change research center on campus. He is an editor of the Telematics and Informatics journal as well as editor of several books.

I quote from the article:

Serveas, who has a long history with UNESCO, first applied for the position in the spring of 2009. He received a recommendation from Sen. John Kerry (D – Mass.). His application was screened in the United States, then at the head offices of UNESCO in Paris, France. Afterwards, UNESCO and UMass negotiated the details of the contract, a process which was slowed by changes in administrative positions.

By being a UNESCO chair, Servaes hopes to create more opportunities for his students to study communications at the international level by giving them access to more conferences as well as grant money.

“I have always had these kinds of international connections … [but] I hope it will gradually open more doors and bring more support to the university,” said Servaes.

Congratulations to Dr. Servaes!

You can read more about the UNESCO Chairs/UNITWIN Networks in general and in the United States:

Plaza de Mayo Grandmothers receive UNESCO Peace Prize

2011-09-15T19:39:00.001-04:00

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Argentina) receive the 2010 Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize at UNESCO Headquarters on 14 September, in the presence of the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of Côte d'Ivoire Alassane Dramane Ouattara and several other Heads of State or Government.*

Tenth European Geoparks Conference

2011-09-14T14:33:00.000-04:00

The conference will be hosted close to Oslo, by the Gea Norvegica Geopark, the first Scandinavian member of the European Geoparks Network. It will cover communication, management, education and research, tourism and collaboration between Geoparks.

This conference is organized in a Geopark in northern Europe but many participants are expected also from elsewhere (such as Brazil, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Uruguay, USA), ready to exchange ideas on Geoparks with the 43 European members of the Global Geoparks Network (GGN). The discussions on the complex work of Geoparks will address many different subjects, and offer a holistic view of nature and society which is reflected in the Geoparks' activities, and embedded in local culture and tradition.

UNESCO is supporting the Geoparks initiatives in 26 countries, which come from all continents and has, to date, 78 members. The GGN Bureau, in charge of the evaluation of 15 Geopark candidates, will hold its meeting in the framework of this conference and announce new members.

Meeting of High Panel on Science for Development

2011-09-14T14:25:00.000-04:00

Renowned scientists, decision-makers and intellectuals from all over the world make up UNESCO’s High Panel on Science for Development, which will hold its first meeting at the Organization’s Headquarters on 15 and 16 September. Its role is to identify current challenges in the social and natural sciences so as to help UNESCO fine-tune its response.

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, will open the meeting of the High Panel whose members include Indira Samarasekera, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alberta (Canada), José Sarukhán Kermez, National Coordinator of Mexico’s National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO); Ahmadou Lamine N’Diaye, President of the African Academy of Science; Gong Ke, President of the University of Nankai (China); and Partha Dasgupta, Professor of Economics, Cambridge University (UK).

During the first day of the meeting, the experts will discuss trends in the sciences and the role of UNESCO in the present environment. On the following morning, the Permanent Delegations of UNESCO’s Member States will meet the members of the High Panel during two sessions entitled: “Mobilizing international science to address pressing interdisciplinary challenges facing our societies,” and “Models for capacity building in science, technology and innovation.”. This session, moderated par Jose Mariano Gago, former Minister of Science (Portugal), will be open to the public.

The High Panel will meet twice a year. Its members include 28 personalities who have achieved eminence in their field of expertise. The 15 and 16 September meeting at UNESCO will bring together 17 of these experts. In a world of science that is in constant flux, they will provide UNESCO with guidelines for the development of working strategies to promote sustainable development and advance the fight for the eradication of poverty. New partnerships with the private sector, civil society and academe are also to be examined.

UNESCO should protest attacks on journalists in Egypt

2011-09-14T00:30:00.000-04:00

A CNN report titled "Angry crowd turns on journalists reporting embassy attack in Egypt" describes how a reporter, Dina Amer, was mobbed and trampled in Cairo last weekend. It went on to describe how CNN producer Mohamed Fadel Fahmy was also mobbed and trampled as he tried to protect Amer, and how other CNN reporters were unable to effect a rescue for some time. When Fahmy was able finally to carry Amer to a nearby car occupied by other reporters, and PBS reporter Margaret Warner began to drive away, the car was stoned by the mob.

Other Egyptian journalists told CNN they were also attacked Saturday while trying to report near the Israeli embassy.

Ahmed Aleiba, a correspondent with Egyptian state television, said he was pursued by civilians and soldiers.

"I had to run because obviously they were targeting journalists," Aleiba said in a phone call with CNN. "They attacked two other TV crews."

The article goes on to recount other, earlier occasions in which reporters were attacked by Egyptian demonstrators over the past year.

I would strongly recommend that UNESCO express its concern for the safety of journalists covering the events in the Middle East and North Africa, and condemn the acts of mobs in threatening and/or attacking these journalists.

John Daly
The opinion expressed in this post is that of the author and does not necessarily reflect that of Americans for UNESCO.

The Spirit of UNESCO

2011-09-13T12:46:00.000-04:00

Students have a hell of time grasping the spirit of UNESCO, the vital principle animating not only the formal organization but also the huge community of people and organizations that choose to affiliate with UNESCO in order to advance its mission. UNESCO’s founders told us in the UNESCO Constitution that UNESCO was about building structures in the minds of men, about changing the zeitgeist that had led to two world wars and the holocaust. UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova restates that objective, writing that UNESCO must work towards “a new humanism for the 21st century” – that is a vision shared by many peoples, drawing strength from their diversity, forming their common intentions and their mutual will to pursue peace and understanding. The mindset that UNESCO seeks is one that values objective truth, that is informed by the best of human culture, that understands peace not only an end to be desired but as something that must be worked for, that values communication as an end in itself. And thus the problem. How are we to understand such a shared vision; how is the zeitgeist to be changed?

Given the unique spirit of UNESCO, it is not surprising that that it is a unique enterprise, perhaps more a movement than an organization. At one level UNESCO is, of course, a decentralized intergovernmental organization within the United Nations system, the repository of a collection of international declarations, resolutions and conventions. It is historically the descendant of the Bureau for International Education and the Intellectual Bureau of the League of Nations. Uniquely, UNESCO’s constitution calls for member states to create national commissions for UNESCO involving the intellectual communities (educators, scientists, cultural leaders and knowledge workers) both to advise their governments on UNESCO and to link their national communities with the work of UNESCO and with the intellectual communities of other nations. Finally, the UNESCO spirit has imbued schools, clubs, cultural and natural sites of world importance, bioreserves, geoparks, university chairs and many others to affiliate with UNESCO and independently work to carry out its mission.

(S)ince wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed;….

(I)gnorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war;…

(T)he great and terrible war which has now ended was a war made possible by the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual respect of men, and by the propagation, in their place, through ignorance and prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequality of men and races;……..

For these reasons, the States Parties to this Constitution, believing in full and equal opportunities for education for all, in the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth, and in the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, are agreed and determined to develop and to increase the means of communication between their peoples and to employ these means for the purposes of mutual understanding and a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other’s lives;

In consequence whereof they do hereby create the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the purpose of advancing, through the educational and scientific and cultural relations of the peoples of the world, the objectives of international peace and of the common welfare of mankind for which the United Nations Organization was established and which its Charter proclaims.

From the Preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO

UNESCO can be, and often is seen as a bureaucraticorganization with a couple of thousand international civil servants, mostlylocated in the Organization’s Paris headquarters, with a budget of some $600million per year.

There is another, complementary way of understanding UNESCO,and that is as a place where ideas are generated and elaborated to be widelydisseminated by the networks that affiliate with UNESCO. Perhaps the mostimportant phrase in the Preamble to the UNESCO Constitution, quoted above, isthat “it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must beconstructed.” Those defenses are built idea by idea, as a rampart is builtbrick by brick.

UNESCO, of course, is identified as a place for ideas aboutpeace. It emphasizes intercultural dialog and interreligious dialog. Asdirected in its Constitution, UNESCO focuses on education, natural, social andhuman sciences, culture and communications as vehicles for the promotion of peace and the common welfare ofmankind.

The obvious way in which UNESCO disseminates ideas isthrough publications. There have been more than 10,000 UNESCO publications sinceit was founded and the Organization adds perhaps another 100 per year. Itpublishes journals and newsletters. Among its important recent publicationswere Towards knowledge societies: UNESCO worldreport, The World Social Science Report 2010,UNESCO Science Report and the firstUNESCO international engineering report, “Engineering: Issues and Challenges forDevelopment”. In the last decade UNESCO has also been increasinglyeffective disseminating information via the Internet.

In the following sections I will show some samples of how the spirit of UNESCO is embodied in action.

UNESCO Conventions

Consider the role of UNESCO in promulgating internationalconventions.

InternationalConventions are subject to ratification, acceptance or accession by States.They define rules with which the States undertake to comply.

UNESCO provides a venue in which representatives of itsmember states may negotiate the terms of these international treaties. However,it has no power to enforce the terms of conventions. Rather, nations thatchoose to ratify a UNESCO convention also undertake to establish the laws and regulationsto assure that their obligations under that convention are met. Examples ofUNESCO conventions are:

· Education: Convention on the Recognition ofQualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region. Thisconvention is the basis for the harmonization of higher education in Europe, aprocess which is helping bridge historic differences among the peoples ofEurope.

· Natural Science: Convention on Wetlands ofInternational Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. The so called RAMSARnetwork established under this convention includes 1951 wetlands in 160countries.

· Social and Human Sciences: InternationalConvention against Doping in Sport, which went into effect just before the 2008Beijing Olympic Games.

· Culture: Convention concerning the Protection ofthe World Cultural and Natural Heritage (under which a network of 938 WorldHeritage sites has evolved) and the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting andPreventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of CulturalProperty (which has enabled ratifying states to regulate the illicit traffic inart and archaeological artifacts).

· Communications: Convention relating to theDistribution of Program-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite.

· Other: Convention concerning the InternationalExchange of Publications which encourages and facilitates the exchange ofpublications between both governmental bodies and non profit, non-governmentalinstitutions of an educational, scientific and technical, or cultural nature.

25 conventions have been negotiated in UNESCO’s venue andplaced in its repository. Perhaps surprisingly, in some cases the secretariatsdeveloped in support of the convention are not located within UNESCO.

An important aspect of these conventions is that UNESCO doesnot police them. Rather member states negotiate them in the belief that theyare in the common interest and it is the member states that create their ownlaws and regulations to implement the conventions. Thus, the ideas areelaborated by representatives of the member states in the venue provided byUNESCO, with the assistance of the UNESCO Secretariat, expanding andilluminating a fundamental proposition of international cooperation. The membernations then are responsible for deciding whether or not to ratify eachconvention and for implementing the conventions which they do ratify. Thus itis the governments of the member nations embody the spirit of UNESCO in this case, helping to achieve its mission through their actions.

Education for All

The Birth of the Education for All movement can be traced tothe WorldConference on Education for All held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, and tothe World EducationForum held in Dakar, Senegal in 2000. The declarations from these meetings,in which UNESCO was a sponsor, together with the Millennium Development Goals foreducation set the agenda for a global effort to expand schooling and increasethe numbers of children in school.

In addition to helping the global educational community todefine a set of EFA educational objectives, UNESCO

has provided tools for educators and governmentsto plan their educational programs,
has helped to establish internationally acceptedstandards for educational statistics which allow progress to be measured (andto be compared among nations),
has provided venues and support for Ministers ofEducation and senior educational officials from groups of countries to meet todiscuss successes and problems in their efforts to achieve the EFA and MDGeducational goals, and
has published an annual EFA Monitoring Report.

Again, it has been the global educational community that haselaborated the ideas of education for all and which has implemented programs incountries all over the world to create the institutions to achieve the EFAgoals. The role of UNESCO in the process has been catalytic, helping memberstates to articulate their objectives and to measure progress in theirachievement.

Other Networks

Consider also the many networks of organizations which havechosen to affiliate with UNESCO, thereby joining in the effort to disseminatethe messages promoted by UNESCO. Among those networks are:

• NationalCommissions or comparable organizations in the 193 member states

• 66 Category II Centers and Institutessupported separately by member states

• The Associated Schools Network, morethan 9000 educational institutions in 180 countries

• University Twinning and UNITWIN Networks, 715UNESCO Chairs and 69UNITWIN Networks

• The UNEVOC Network , 282 specialized TVETinstitutions in 167 UNESCO Member States

• ALADIN, the Adult Learning Documentation andInformation Network, 95 documentation centers in 47 countries

• Communityof Practice in Curriculum Development has co-organised and/or participated in atotal of 98 workshops, seminars, conferences and symposiums

• InternationalInstitute for Educational Planning Networking

• GUNI - Global UniversityNetwork for Innovation

• University-IndustryPartnerships (UNISPAR) – S&Tparks in such areas as biotechnology and ICTsi,nternational training workshops and regional networks.

• SESAME(Synchrotron-light for ExperimentalScience and Applicationsin the MiddleEast) which is supported by a numbe of MiddleEastern governments and which involves scientists from those countries inscientific networks

• MicrobialResources Centers (MIRCEN) for international scientific co-operation,microbiological research and biotechnological applications

• 5 Biotechnology Education and Training Centres (BETCENs), one in eachregion, which provide research and training opportunities in plant and marine biotechnology

• TheUNESCO’s water family which operates as a global network that workstogether to implement the organization’s strategic goals.

• WorldNetwork of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR), 580sites in 114 countries

• The Great Apes Survival Partnership

• TheGroup on Earth Observations (GEO) with 61 participating organizations

• TheOceans Observatory System

• TheTsunami Warning Networks

• InternationalNetwork of Women Philosophers

• TheManagement of Social Transitions (MOST) program network of national committees

• The Creative Cities Network, 28 cities

• Goodwill Ambassadors, Honorary Ambassador, Special Envoys, Champions and Artists for Peace

• TheWorld Heritage List includes 936 properties

• The Organization of World Heritage Cities, 238cities in which are located sites included on the UNESCO World Heritage List

• UNAL- UNESCO Network of Associated Libraries,over 500 libraries are members of the Network.

• The Power of Peace Network (PPN)

• 348 international NGOs and 20 foundations andsimilar institutions

• 3.800 associations, centers and UNESCO clubsin more than 80 countries

• Private sector partnerships with NHK, L’OREAL,HP, Microsoft, Danone, etc.

Huge numbers of people are involved in these networksvoluntarily. Indeed, there are many more people are included in these networksthan there are international civil servants in the UNESCO bureaucracy. Some ofthe international NGOs affiliated with UNESCO represent millions of people,such as the international umbrella organizations for scientific and engineeringsocieties and associations of teachers.

These networks consist of organizations and peopleaffiliated with UNESCO by their own choice, both helping to define UNESCO’sagenda and advancing it through their voluntary efforts. They are self governedwith little or no supervisory, financial nor management input from UNESCO. Theyare completely decentralized, collaborating with UNESCO only to the degree thatthey are inspired and motivated by UNESCO’s mission and its leadership. Yet theyare an essential means of accomplishing UNESCO’s objectives. They too embody the spirit of UNESCO.

Concluding Remarks

UNESCO’s mission is to promote “full and equal opportunitiesfor education for all”, “the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth”, and “thefree exchange of ideas and knowledge”. It is “to increase the means ofcommunication between….peoples and to employ these means for the purposes ofmutual understanding and a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other’slives.” It would be an error either to assume that this mission is carried outdirectly by the UNESCO bureaucracy or to underestimate the critical role ofthose who chose to affiliate with UNESCO without incentives other thanenthusiasm for its mission.

Of course, not all the people in organizations in UNESCO networksspend all of their time advancing UNESCO’s agenda, although many may well doso. But even a small amount of effort per person when aggregated over very largenumbers of people can add up to a large total. Moreover, many people spend a lot of their time helping to achieve UNESCO's mission.

A problem with this view of UNESCO is that one can not seeideas nor easily track their diffusion. Moreover, it is hard to understand theimpact of UNESCO’s staff and budget on the creation of ideas and theirdiffusion. It is impossible to measure the impact that 100 publications peryear has on the world, and more so the impact of 10,000 publications over morethan half a century. The countries implementing UNESCO conventions don’t reporton the impact of the conventions on their nations, nor do the countriesimplementing Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals report onthe impact that UNESCO has had on their schools and school children. Indeed,the decentralized networks ascribed to UNESCO don’t report on resources,activities nor accomplishments to UNESCO.

To the bureaucratic mentality, the lack of quantitativeindicators and formal monitoring systems is an almost insuperable burden. Tothat mentality, the lack of quantitative indicators of the changes in the mindsof men and of the impact of UNESCO on those changes is tantamount to proof thatno such changes or impact exists. Clearly that is a false view, and noteverything that is important can be measured. The founders of UNESCO were rightin their vision that there was a real need to build the defenses of peace inthe minds of men, to encourage the unrestricted search for objective truth andto promote the free exchange of ideas and knowledge.

Equally, however, there is a continuing need to encouragethe governments of member states and the extended networks attached to UNESCOto devote their serious efforts to helping achieve UNESCO’s mission. Moreover,in the absence of objective measures it is imperative to obtain the judgment ofour wisest observers of society to consider the success of UNESCO insafeguarding is spirit and sharing it with others, to consider where and howbest to motivate UNESCO’s partners and networks, and how best to allocateUNESCO’s scarce resources to achieve its mission.

Changing ideas in the minds of seven billion people is a bigjob, and it is a job that does not lend itself to bureaucratic approaches. Itis through the efforts of large networks of people devoted to UNESCO’s spiritthat progress is being made.

Somany new ideas are at first strange and horrible, though ultimately valuablethat a very heavy responsibility rests upon those who would prevent theirdissemination.

J. B. S. Haldane

Man'smind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thekey to every man is his thought.... He can only be reformed by showing him anew idea which commands his own.

RalphWaldo Emerson

The Frequency of Words Linked to Key UNESCO Concept in Books Since 1900

Source: Google Ngram Viewer

MOST: un "Think tank" pour les nations

2011-09-12T14:23:00.005-04:00

There is a good video on the Management of Social Transitions (MOST) program of UNESCO, UNESCOs flagship social science program. Rather than using a traditional disciplinary approach *Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Sociology, etc.) or an area studies approach (Middle Eastern Studies, Asian Studies, etc.), UNESCO has chosen to look at social transitions drawing upon all the social science disciplines.

This video reviews the history and progress of the MOST program since its creation in 1994, The voice over is in French with English subtitiles.

SESAME is seeking a new technical director

2011-09-09T19:19:00.000-04:00

Position and Grade: Technical Director (D-1)
Duty Station: Allan, Jordan
Issue Date: 6 September 2011
Application Deadline: 31 October 2011
Type/Duration of Appointment: Fixed term, 3 years with the possibility of renewal
(subject to a probationary period of 1 year)

He/She is appointed by the Council on the recommendation of the General Director. He/She will be in
charge of the construction of a new 3rd generation synchrotron light source, SESAME. He/She will be responsible for the installation and commissioning with beam of the injector part (a Microtron and a Booster) and for the construction, installation and commissioning with beam of a new 2.5 GeV Storage Ring. He/She will lead the technical sector of SESAME, which brings together physicists, engineers and technicians both at the expert level or freshly hired on the specific disciplines of the accelerators. He/She will work in a close collaboration with the Scientific Director for the construction of the beamlines and for the interface between the Machine and the beamlines. He/She will also be responsible for the Front-Ends.

Read more.....

UNESCO’s Goodwill Ambassadors to meet in France

2011-09-09T14:37:00.001-04:00

UNESCO’s work and how internationally-renowned personalities can help the Organization meet its objectives will be the subject of the 11th annual meeting of UNESCO’s Goodwill Ambassadors, on 12 September, at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the French capital.

In a press statement Thursday, UNESCO said the meeting, to be opened by its Director-General, Irina Bokova, would focus on the Organization’s post-conflict and post-disaster activities, the 2011 Education for All Monitoring Report, and a session on the promotion of youth initiatives and civic commitments for peace and dialogue.

Some 25 Goodwill Ambassadors expected to attend the event are Ara Abramian (Russian Federation), Valdas Adamkus (Lithuania), Mehriban Aliyeva (Azerbaijan), Ivonne A-Baki (Ecuador), Pierre Bergé (France), Chantal Biya (Cameroon), Miguel Angel Estrella (Argentina), Vigdis Finnbogadóttir (Iceland), Bahia Hariri (Lebanon), Jean-Michel Jarre (France), Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière (France), Princess Firyal of Jordan, Vitaly Ignatenko (Russian Federation), Omar Zülfü Livaneli (Turkey), Jean Malaurie (France), Kitín Muñoz (Spain), Ute-Henriette Ohoven (Germany), Christina Owen-Jones (Italy), Kim Phuc Phan Thi (Canada – Viet-Nam), Susana Rinaldi (Argentina), Yazid Sabeg (France), Madanjeet Singh (India), Zurab Tsereteli (Russian Federation), Marianna Vardinoyannis (Greece), Forest Whitaker (United States of America).

Forest Whitaker Speaking in support of Obama Candidacy

Inter-Agency meeting on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity

2011-09-09T14:14:00.004-04:00

A United Nations Inter-Agency meeting on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 13 and 14 September 2011 (See provisional program). On Tuesday 13, the meeting will be open to all participants, as well as to the Permanent Delegations and Observers to UNESCO. The session on Wednesday 14 September will be devoted to the preparation of a UN concrete plan of action and will only be open to UN agencies. More.....

An Account of UNESCO Chief's Visit to Israel

2011-09-04T13:36:00.000-04:00

UNESCO Chief Bokova meets with
Israel's President Shimon Peres during her visit.

I quote from a relatively long article in the Jerusalem Post covering the first official visit of UNESCO Director General Bokova to Israel. The visit took place on May 29 and 30, 2011.

Highlighting her organization’s “excellent cooperation” with Israel in a variety of fields including education, culture, science and communications, the director-general of UNESCO said Sunday in Jerusalem that she had been “disappointed” by the process whereby UNESCO’s Executive Board last October passed five resolutions hostile to Israel.

Irina Bokova, 58, who is making her first visit to Israel, noted, however, that reports that Israel had threatened to suspend all cooperation with UNESCO over the affair were inaccurate and had proved as such. “I was reassured immediately that Israel was by no means considering suspending or limiting relations with UNESCO,” she said. Officials in Jerusalem clarified Sunday that Israel had suspended cooperation with UNESCO only with regard to the five specific issues in the resolutions........

Bokova was invited on this visit to deliver the keynote speech at Sunday’s International Women Leaders conference at the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center, an institution with which she said UNESCO has had a long-running relationship.

She also inaugurated the “UNESCO for Tolerance and Peace Square” in Haifa, in the company of the city’s mayor Yona Yahav. At the ceremony dedicating the square, she praised the mixed Jewish- Arab city as an exemplar of coexistence and dialogue between all population sectors.

Haifa’s message of “tolerance and peace,” she said, should be disseminated across the Middle East and worldwide.

Bokova began her trip on Sunday with a meeting with President Shimon Peres, and will on Monday visit and lay a wreath at Yad Vashem and meet with the ministers of education, science and culture and with senior officials at the Foreign Ministry.

UNESCO's Memory of the World: The Documents that Define Human History

2011-09-03T20:43:00.001-04:00

IFLA 2011 Congress News and Media

2011-09-03T18:15:00.000-04:00

Opening Session on the IFLA General Conference

A great deal of news and media was created during the World Library and Information Congress : 77th IFLA General Conference and Assembly in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The next best thing to having been there is to visit the 2011 IFLA Express website to catch up on what took place.

Read an interview with Jānis Kārkliņš, Assistant Director-General of Communication and Information of UNESCO from the IFLA Congress.

Amherst UNESCO University Chair Joins Orbicom

2011-09-03T17:27:00.002-04:00

Dr. Jan Servaes of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was recently designated as our nation's newest UNESCO University Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change.

Locations of Chairs in the Orbicom network

Jan Servaes serves as the Director of the Center for Communication and Sustainable Social Change at UMass Amherst and has written extensively on issues related to communication for development and social change.

The center thus joins Orbicom, The International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communication,

a network of 250 associate members and 30 UNESCO chairs in Communications from around the world. Orbicom currently comprises chairs from Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Guatemala, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, South Africa (2), Russia, Spain (3), United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States (2) and Uruguay. Each of these Chairs includes communications leaders from the private and public sectors. This international collaboration of academics, high level corporate decision makers, policy consultants, and media specialists makes the Orbicom Network unique and constitutes a truly multidisciplinary approach to the promotion of communications development.

A Young American Goes to UNESCO

2011-09-03T15:25:00.001-04:00

Yann Gavillot

Yann Gavillot, a Geologist finishing up his PhD work at Oregon State University, was recently awarded a position at UNESCO through the Young Professionals Program.

Through its Young Professionals Program, UNESCO recruits staff from nations under-represented within the UNESCO secretariat.

Congratulations to Yann! The Young Professionals Program is very competitive. This year UNESCO received more than 500 applications from member states for only 10 open positions. Since national commissions screen applications before forwarding them to UNESCO, even more people may have applied. Success in winning a career job through such a competition is a real testimony to Mr. Gavillot's professional quality.

It is not yet certain whether UNESCO will open up the Young Professionals Program for 2012.

Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship Deadline Extended to 9/26/11

2011-09-03T05:51:00.002-04:00

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO administers the Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship. This program helps American students fund traveling research projects aligned with the sectors of UNESCO.

The deadline for the next round of applications is now set for Monday 9/26/11. If you know of any students who might be good candidates for this fellowship, please send them here!

The UNESCO Courier: How Youth Drives Change

2011-09-03T05:47:00.001-04:00

The International Year of Youth (August 2010 – August 2011) turned out to be more revolutionary than expected. At the beginning of 2011, young people rose up in Tunisia and then in Egypt, and the movement spread to other countries in the region, also rousing countries in Europe such as Spain. Elsewhere in the world, youth are mobilizing for a range of causes, as varied as the means they use. Much more involved than we tend to think, young people have decided to take things in hand. And in this issue of the Courier, it is they who are speaking out, expressing their concerns and explaining their actions.

To read this issue please click here (PDF-56 pages)

Young people in the world: So different and so alike, Monique Coleman

Mobile revolution, Gigi Ibrahim

Spring of outrage, Alfredo Trujillo Fernandez

Miracle Weapons, Serge Amisi

When poetry is louder than a bomb,Nate Marshall

Moonlight stars, Carol Natukunda

A young sughar, Nosheen Abbas

Rebels with a cause, Jens Lubbadeh

Prescriptions for a sick planet, Zhao Ying

Green architecture, Carlos Bartesaghi Koc

OUR GUEST

Revolution: one of the great feats of civilization, Khaled Youssef
MILESTONES
UNESCO welcomes, Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-moon, Forest Whitaker, Shashi Tharoor...

UNESCO Chief on the U.S. UNESCO Relationship

2011-09-02T20:18:00.000-04:00

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova on the evolution of the United States' relationship with UNESCO.

U.S. Candidacy for the UNESCO Executive Board

2011-09-02T19:29:00.002-04:00

The United States is committed to supporting UNESCO in its mission, its priorities and its global objectives. It is the largest overall contributor to UNESCO, providing 22 percent of the organization's budget, but also makes significant extrabudgetary contributions for a variety of programs, including the World Heritage Committee, Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission, Creative Cities, and the International Institute for Educational Planning.

The United States believes it can it can play an important role in furthering UNESCO's goals and objectives through membership on its Executive Board. As a member of the Executive Board, the United States pledges to bolster quality learning for all, strengthen the role of science at UNESCO, empower youth as positive agents of change, encourage the development of independent and pluralistic media, and harness the power of cultural heritage and creative industries.

Learn more about the United States' platform for election to the Executive Board 2011-2015

UNESCO IN SPACE

2011-09-02T18:24:00.000-04:00

A mini-satellite bearing the UNESCO logo is currently orbiting the earth. It was launched from the International Space Station (1SS) on August 3rd by Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Volkov in support of the UNESCO space education program.

The satellite, known variously as ARISSat-1, Radioskaf-B and KEDR or "Cedar", weighs 30 kg, measures 550 x 550 x 400 mm and was developed by amateurs, including secondary-school students in Russia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Find out more here.

UNESCO Seminar Begins Semester at GWU!

2011-09-02T07:36:00.001-04:00

A graduate seminar on UNESCO has been offered at George Washington University since 2007. It has been coordinated by members of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO until now, but this semester it is coordinated by Laura Engel, an assistant professor in the International Education Program. Members of the Board will continue to be strongly involved in the program as guest lecturers and as resource persons for the students.

The first class of the seminar was held this Wednesday, in Monroe Hall shown above.

The class was honored by a video welcome greeting by Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO. In her remarks, she emphasized the importance of the class focus this semester on the educational and cultural programs of UNESCO. She expressed the hope that the course would help disseminate information about and understanding of UNESCO in the United States.

While the seminar is offered by the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, it is open to students from other schools in the university and to students from other universities in the Washington DC network of universities. If past experience is any guide, the seminar will be enriched by students from different disciplines and schools, as well as by foreign students working for an American graduate degree.

World Water Week

2011-08-31T08:37:00.002-04:00

2012 World Water Week

26 - 31 August, 2012

Click here to switch to the videos of the closing ceremony, including a summary of the meeting.

The United States should nominate the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project for the Memory of the World Register

2011-08-30T11:45:00.000-04:00

UNESCO established its Memory of the World Program in 1992. In doing so it recognized that much of the world's documentary heritage was in peril. The program seeks to facilitate the preservation of digital heritage, to make it accessible to all, and to increase awareness of significant documentary heritage. In this latter respect, UNESCO's Memory of the World Register was created to list documentary heritage of world significance and outstanding universal value.

Adding the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project to the Register would accomplish several things. First and foremost, it would increase the world's awareness of the rich heritage we possess in the archive relating to this remarkable woman. Americans know of Mrs. Roosevelt as the first lady during the Great Depression and World War II who served as the eyes and ears for her disabled husband, and as the foremost civil rights advocate of her time. The archive includes a rich source of information on that important time, a time in which the United States played a major role in world history. However, Mrs. Roosevelt was much more, perhaps the most famous woman in the world in her later life, she worked tirelessly to relieve poverty and promote human rights globally.

It is especially appropriate that UNESCO recognize the importance of Eleanor Roosevelt's contributions because she was a great supporter of the United Nations and of UNESCO. She served on the first delegation of the United States to the United Nations and chaired the commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Recognition of the importance of this archive by UNESCO should help maintain the support that has been so critical to the gathering, maintenance and curation of this collection of written and recorded materials.

The inclusion of this project may also serve as a demonstration project within the Memory of the World Register of how such an archive can be protected while its content is being made more available to the public and while efforts are made to bring attention to the content and teach from its riches.

The project includes papers documenting Eleanor Roosevelt’s life and political career, comprising millions of pages of records stored in libraries and archives in all fifty states, and throughout the world, The Eleanor Roosevelt Project selects the material that most genuinely reflects her work and makes it available to everyone through the digital and print publication of five volumes that reproduce her most historically significant writings, and provides readers with all the background information they need to understand and interpret it for themselves.

The project efforts bore fruit in three highly-used, Web-based projects: an electronic “mini-edition” of ER’s correspondence with John F. Kennedy during the election of 1960; a Web curriculum entitled “Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt” that the National Park Service uses to interpret the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site at Val-Kill; and the online publication of all 8,112 My Day columns that ER wrote in her 26 years as a nationally syndicated columnist. These sites (www.gwu.edu/~erpapers) receive roughly 1.2 million hits a year.

Since launching Eleanor Roosevelt on the Web, the project focus expanded to take greater account of the significant audio-visual record that ER left behind and for which the Internet furnishes an ideal means of communication. Few people know that in the aftermath of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, ER addressed the nation before her husband did—an event that the project highlights in a film produced for students, teachers, and the general public.

Preview: Eleanor Roosevelt's Use of Media

CSPAN has produced two long videos on Eleanor Roosevelt and the archives containing her papers at George Washington University. Click on the title below to transfer to CSPAN where you can play the corresponding streaming video.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Media
November 13, 2010

C‑SPAN visited the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University to learn about the longest serving First Lady. Mrs. Roosevelt used newspaper columns, radio, speaking tours, books, and television to communicate her ideas.

American Artifacts: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Politics
Sunday, December 26, 2010

C‑SPAN visited George Washington University’s Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project to learn more about the politics, controversies, and media savvy of the former First Lady from Project Director Allida Black. Mrs. Roosevelt, First Lady from 1933-1945, published 8,000 columns, 580 articles, 27 books, 100,000 letters, 1000 speeches, and appeared on 300 radio and television shows.

John Daly
The ideas presented in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.

An indicator of interest in UNESCO

2011-08-29T17:37:00.000-04:00

Source: Google Trends

The upper graph shown above shows the relative frequency with which the word "UNESCO" has been used as a search term in Google. The graph indicates a yearly cycle, with a drop in interest in UNESCO in the summer and in December. It also shows a drop in interest over the six and a half year period shown.

The lower graph indicates that the volume of references to UNESCO in Google indexed news has increased over time.

The points on the graph identified by letter above show that there was an increase in Google searches when new sites were added to the World Heritage list, when UNESCO deleted Dresden from that list due to construction which was seen to detract from its historical and scenic value, and when Irina Bokova was elected Director General of the Organization. There is an especially important meeting of the Executive Board of UNESCO followed by a General Conference of member nations every other year, in the fall. It appears that these event were marked by an increase in interest in UNESCO not only in 2009 when DG Bokova was elected, but also in 2007 and 2005.

Call for Papers - 1st World Humanities Forum

2011-08-25T18:33:00.000-04:00

On the theme of “Universalism in a multicultural world”, the 1st World Humanities Forum will take place in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 24 to 26 November 2011, to facilitate collective reflection by human scientists, thinkers, and visionaries with regard to key challenges and questions facing the world in the 21st century.

The World Humanities Forum aims to:

Reflect on key challenges and questions facing humans today from the perspectives of human sciences;
Examine the status of human sciences in the context of such challenges and questions; and,
Promote the importance of the role of human sciences and the reflection on humanism in addressing challenges and questions.

Download the Call for papers [PDF, 43 KB].

Abstracts must be submitted by August 31st, 2011.

THE INGLEHART-WELZEL

CULTURAL MAP OF THE WORLD

Source

Water in Cities

2011-08-24T04:30:00.000-04:00

UNESCO's Priorities for the XXI Century

2011-08-23T16:34:00.000-04:00

Much Belated Congratulations to the UC Irvine and University of Arizona

2011-08-17T17:31:00.000-04:00

In 2007, UNESCO) named the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (CHRS) at UC Irvine and the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for Sustainability of Semi-arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA) at the University of Arizona joint winners of the 2007 Great Man-Made River International Water Prize.

The prize recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions in advancing the assessment, development, management and use of water resources in arid and semi-arid areas, such as ground and surface water availability and usage in areas subject to drought and desertification.

The two centers were recognized “for their action in strengthening the capacity to manage the water resources of arid and semi-arid areas around the globe through a network of international and regional cooperation.”

Multiple openings, UNESCO (France, The Netherlands, Italy)

2011-08-17T15:35:00.000-04:00

The University of Washington Department of Earth and Space Sciences has posted several jobs in UNESCO or UNESCO Centers on its blog:

Director and Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme – Paris, France
Deputy Secretary – Division of Water Science, Paris, France
Vice-Rector, Academic and Student Affairs – UNESCO-IHE Institute of Water Educaton, Delft, The Netherlands
SDU Coordinator – Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics Science Dissemination Unit, Trieste, Italy

Online Archive of UNESCO News by Google News

2011-08-17T07:18:00.000-04:00

Google Frequency Plot of News References to UNESCO

Google News Archives provides a historical record of news dealing with UNESCO from its files. Note that the frequency of news stories was high in its early years, decreased during the late 1950s and 1960s (the period of decolonization in which many new nations joined the Organization. There was an increase in news related to UNESCO in the late 1970s, when the New International Information Order debate was hot in the United Nations, and in the mid 1980s, about the time that the United States and the United Kingdom withdrew from the organization. The archive contains fairly large numbers of news stories in recent years.

If you go to this site, you can actually view stories from the archives, learning about UNESCO's history for yourself.

Interview with Hans d'Orville, UNESCO ADG for Strategic Planning

2011-08-16T15:49:00.000-04:00

Hans d'Orville recorded this message with the UNESCO Institute for Water Education discussing that organization and its fit in the larger program of UNESCO.

Editorial: UNESCO should support capacity building needed to better assure the ethical conduct of research

2011-08-14T13:42:00.000-04:00

UNESCO has a program on the ethics of science and technology. Let me suggest that that program undertake a major effort to improve the ethical conduct of research, especially through support for capacity building in developing nations. Some of the issues that merit high priority are:

Misconduct in science, including such concerns as plagarism and fraudulent practices
Assurance that the peoples exposed to risks inherent in risks are also representative of the potential beneficiaries of the research if it is successful
Ethical treatment of researchers, laboratory workers and other people assisting in the research
Ethical conduct with respect to human subjects involved in the research (this has several distinct elements which are treated differently, such as patients in biomedical research, subjects in psychological or social science research, subjects involved in online research. Cultural norms are different in different societies as to who should provide the consent, how to inform the consent giver, and the ethical responsibility to specific populations such as prisoners, military personnel and mental patients.
Ethical conduct of the treatment of laboratory animals. Again, there are often different regulations for the treatment of non-human primates, caged mammals, livestock, fish, etc.
Ethical conduct of the treatment of wild animals that are research subjects, such as those involved in catch and release programs.
Ethical conduct with respect to the containment of materials involved in research. This is an especially complex area, including the containment of human, animal and plant pathogens, containment of exogenous species, containment of radiological materials, containment of recombinant and synthetic organisms. The issues are different with respect to the shipment, especially international shipment of materials, laboratory use of materials, and field release of materials.
Appropriate treatment of environmental issues, such as assurance that endangered species will not be further endangered and there will be no other environmental problems caused as a result of the research
Ethical issues related to the funding of research including preparation of proposals, there (peer) review, and the allocation of funds
Ethical issues in the reporting of research, including the publication of results
Ethical issue in the treatment of intellectual property arising from research
Ethical issues in the conduct of research in different institutional settings, such as government laboratories, universities, corporations, foundations, and non-governmental organizations.
Ethical conduct of research in multinational teams and by researchers working in countries other than their own

Those who have never worked in a research laboratory may not recognize how dangerous such a place may be. In the half dozen years in which I worked in an industrial laboratory, a couple of people were hospitalized due to a laboratory accident (one for many months), there was a release of toxic gases that killed livestock near one of the lab facilities, another of my colleagues was suffering from radiation sickness as a result of a previous laboratory accident, and when its nozzle broke a torpedo shaped tank of gas flew through wall after wall separating the different labs. As a research manager I had responsibility for epidemiological research programs in which research subjects died. I worked with very distinguished people who early in their careers were involved in the Nazi research lab in Peenemunde and in the Tuskegee Syphilis study. I take the ethical conduct of research very seriously, especially since the credibility of the scientific community is crucial to the utility of its work.

What can UNESCO do in this field? I would suggest that it can do many things, and often do them better than bilateral agencies of development banks:

It can bring together experts from different cultures to discuss and debate such as those described above in order to clarify common ethical positions and those issues on which reasonable people can differ.
It can provide an observatory, allowing science policy workers to easily access information on the systems that have been put in place around the world to assure the ethical conduct of research.
It can convene meetings of science policy workers from countries seeking to collaborate in multinational research projects to discuss how their various concerns can all be met in such projects/
It can identify expert consultants who can advise developing country science policy workers and institutions as to how they might build the capacity of their own organizational mechanisms to assure the ethical conduct of research.
It can establish criteria and indicators that nations can utilize to measure their success in assuring the ethical conduct of research, and it can advise science policy workers as to how to do so in such a way that they can effectively compare their success with that of other nations.
It can promote the development of training programs, especially international training programs such as those provided by UNESCO Category II Centers, on the ethical conduct of research.

As new fields of science come to the fore, so do new ethical issues. Thus the development of recombinant DNA led to issues with respect to the containment of recombinant organisms. The patenting of genes discovered in research also raised novel ethical issues. Thus, even the most developed national scientific institutions periodically must face new ethical issues. Perhaps more important, the detection of ethical problems regularly result in efforts to strengthen institutions assuring ethical behavior in order to prevent their recurrence. In the case of less developed nations, as new areas of research are first undertaken there arise new needs for institutional development to assure ethical action.

Other UN agencies and programs have interests in the ethical conduct of research. Thus, the World Health Organization has interests in helping its member nations assure the ethical conduct of biomedical research, the Food and Agriculture Organization with the ethical conduct of agricultural research, and the United Nations Environmental Program with that of environmental research. However, UNESCO given its wide responsibility for science and the long history of its program in the ethics of science and technology appears especially suited to work with science policy agencies in its member nations in order to build the ethical aspects of their national research institutions.

John Daly

The ideas expressed in this posting are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.

Editorial: The Importance of UNESCO's Social Science Program is not Recognized

2011-08-12T17:25:00.000-04:00

The August 5th issue of Science magazine has an editorial by Kenneth Prewitt, the President of the Consortium of Social Science Associations. It begins:

Last month, a U.S. congressional committee wisely decided not to cut funding of social science research by the National Science Foundation (NSF), despite an attack that cleverly framed the discipline as “good, just not good enough for NSF.” This claim was rebutted across the political spectrum, by physical and biological as well as social scientists, and in the business sector.

UNESCO has both a natural science program and a social and human science program. Americans would, I suppose, tend to assume that the latter program included psychology and cognitive science as "human science" in addition to the social sciences such as anthropology, economics, political science and sociology. In fact, the program has a broadly conceived effort in the social sciences studying social transitions, but also emphasizes programs focusing on the ethics of science and technology, human rights and sport. (UNESCO once had a broader interest in history as a discipline, but currently is focusing on African history and that of the Slave Trade; these efforts are managed within the Culture Sector of the Organization.)

Of course, I strongly support UNESCO's programs in the natural sciences. I continue to be surprised and concerned that UNESCO which is the flagship organization of the UN system for education and communications does not have a strong program in psychology nor in cognitive science. But, this post is focused on the social sciences per se.

UNESCO as a whole is strongly focused on promotion of peace (and a culture of peace), on sustainable development especially of the least developed countries, Africa and small island states, on gender equality, with concerns for HIV/AIDS, for policy making and for foresight and anticipation. All of these areas depend on a strong basis of knowledge and understanding from the social sciences for effective action. More importantly, UNESCO is the logical place in the UN system for the lead in the promotion of social science capacity building, especially in developing nations, and for the linkage of social science knowledge and understanding in national policy making and institution building. Moreover, UNESCO has an ability as a neutral agent to communicate knowledge from the social sciences and to strengthen social science capacities that complements that of bilateral donors and international financial institutions. Yet the resources devoted by the Organization to social sciences are tiny, especially as compared to the challenges faced by the program and the member nations of UNESCO.

Of course, there has been a long term concern related to the efficiency and effectiveness of UNESCO. In part, the concern is based on the fact that UNESCO has so many responsibilities and so few resources that it is all but impossible to carry out all its programs well. It would be fatuous to propose increasing funding for UNESCO's social science program without increasing staffing for the program, and unrealistic to suggest increasing that staffing by diverting staff positions from other, often successful programs that are also challenged as they try to do a great deal with a few people.

Still, as UNESCO makes progress in strengthening management and improving effectiveness and efficiency, I would strongly suggest it recognize the importance of the social sciences to its mission and strengthen its social science resources and program.

John Daly
The opinions in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Americans for UNESCO.

Photos from the Facebook UNESCO Albumon the occasion of the Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

Rethinking Development: Ethics and Social Inclusion

2011-08-12T12:52:00.000-04:00

A two-day conference, “Rethinking Development: Ethics and Social Inclusion," is to be held in Mexico City, August 17 and 18, 2011. Organized by UNESCO and the Government of Mexico, the conference will bring together 25 experts to look at ways of moving beyond purely economic and technical approaches to development towards more democratic, environmentally sustainable, socially just and culturally pluralistic societies. More specifically, it is also to provide a framework for reflection in academic, activist and policy communities.

The conference is to help set an agenda for UNESCO’s thinking and action in the decisive period for the international community that will run from the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development to the expiry in 2015 of the Millennium Development Goals commitment period. It will also, more broadly, provide a framework for reflection in academic, activist and policy communities.

The conference will be opened by a formal introduction by Pilar Álvarez-Laso, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences.

The conference is open to the public, subject to prior registration. To register, you may contact Ricardo Guerrero, Tel: (52-55) 3601-1650, r.guerrero@unesco.org.

For further information on the content and objectives of the conference, or on UNESCO’s activities in ethics, you may contact Josepha Montana, j.montana@unesco.org.

Cooperation between UNESCO water resource centers in the United States and the Dominican Republic

2011-08-12T11:52:00.001-04:00

UNESCO has designated 66 international and regional institutes and centers as Category II Institutes and Centers, under the auspices of UNESCO. Nominated by member nations, these institutes and centers are recognized by UNESCO for their contributions to the achievement of UNESCO’s strategic program objectives and program priorities and themes. Supported directly by member states, these institutes and centers are not legally part of the Organization, but are associated with it through formal arrangements approved by the UNESCO General Conference.

The International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) was established by the U.S. Army Institute for Water Resources (IWR) in 2007 in collaboration with U.S. institutions and organizations sharing an interest in the advancement of the science and practice of integrated water resources management (IWRM) around the globe. It was formalized as a UNESCO category 2 water center in October 2009 with the signing of an agreement between the U.S. Government and UNESCO. It is the first such center in the United States.

Bob Pietrowsky, Director of IWR (right)
and Frank Rodríguez, Executive Director of INDRHI (left)
sign the memorandum of understanding

Earlier this summer on June 30, Bob Pietrowsky, Director of the IWR, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Frank Rodriguez of the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidraulicos (INDRHI) of the Dominican Republic. The MOU facilitates cooperation between the UNESCO ICIWaRM Category II center hosted by the IWR in Alexandria, VA and the Centro para la Gestion Sostenible de los Recursos Hidricos en los Estados Insulares del Caribe (The Center for the Sustainable Management of Hydorlogical Resources in the Island States of the Caribbean (CEHICA), also a UNESCO Category II Center) hosted by INDRHI.

Engineering: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for Development

2011-08-12T02:19:00.000-04:00

As UNESCO undertakes a new engineering initiative you may wish to review the major report on world engineering introduced in the World Engineers Convention in 2008 and published in 2009.

Read:

Reorganization of the Natural Sciences Sector of UNESCO

2011-08-11T15:58:00.000-04:00

Gretchen Kalonji, the Assistant Director General of UNESCO leading the Natural Science Sector has announced a reorganization.

The Sector staff will be grouped in three main divisions:

Water Sciences
Ecological and Earth Sciences
Science Policy and Capacity Building

"The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) will maintain the degree of autonomy it has enjoyed to date, while making every effort to further enhance its contribution to the work of the sector. It will continue to be served by its own Assistant Director-General, as well as by separate Executive and Administrative units."

There will be four cross cutting thematic units:

Natural Disasters
Biodiversity
Science Education and
a "UNESCO Engineering Initiative"

In addition to the four cross-cutting themes listed above, the Natural Sciences Sector will continue to play lead roles in two of the UNESCO-wide intersectoral platforms:

UNESCO contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and
UNESCO’s contribution to the Mauritius Strategy for Small Island Developing States.

Read more about the reorganization and its objectives.