UNESCO’S ROLE FOR BETTER FUTURE

2.4 POLITICAL SCIENCE 2

SUBMITTED BY:
PRAGYA SANCHETY
UID: UG-2019-80
2ND SEMESTER
1ST YEAR

ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-20

SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. MADHUKAR SHARMA
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE)
MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NAGPUR
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2

Aim and objective......................................................................................................................2

Research methodology...............................................................................................................2

Research questions.....................................................................................................................2

History........................................................................................................................................2

The fields of action.....................................................................................................................3

Five main functions....................................................................................................................4

UNESCO-wide programme planning and delivery...................................................................4

UNESCO’s actions on Climate Change Education...................................................................5

Governing bodies.......................................................................................................................5

Controversies..............................................................................................................................6
Introduction
The UNESCO ( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a
specialized organization located in Paris, France. This aims to foster international association
in science, education and culture, with a view to ensuring universal conformity with justice,
the rule of law and human rights, along with the fundamental freedom enshrined in the
United Nations Charter.1

Aim and objective

The main object behind this research is to examine and evaluate the role of UNESCO in its
various area of operation and also the working of this organisation and how does it achieves
its goals.

Research methodology
The nature of the research used in this project is doctrinal research i.e. research used by the
information of various credible sources which makes the data more reliable and admissible to
an extent. The project uses all the secondary sources available. Secondary sources such as
articles, books, journals and websites It uses internet sources and various books available to
understand and analyse the concept.

Research questions
 What does UNESCO do?
 What are five main functions of UNESCO?
 Which countries have recently withdraw from UNESCO?
 How the UNESCO contributes to the development of human resources?
 What are the programmes in the UN decade of education for sustainable
development?

1
UNESCO, UNESCO operational strategy on youth-2014-2021,2014.
History
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is preceded by League of
Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. It was formed on November
1946. It is headed by Audrey Azoulay. It has 193 member states and 11 associate members.
The objective of UNESCO is “to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of
poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences,
culture, communication and information.”2 The organisation’s greatest successes include its
work against racism. Objectives of the organisation is achieved through five programs:
education, natural sciences, human sciences, culture and communication.

The fields of action

Education(http://www.unesco.org/en/education) Since its creation in 1945, UNESCO has
worked to improve education worldwide through technical advice, standard setting,
innovative projects, capacity-building and networking. Education for All (EFA) by 2015
guides UNESCO’s action in the field of education and indeed, in an intersectoral manner,
throughout all its fields of competence. 3

Natural sciences (http://www.unesco.org/science ) Since its inception, UNESCO has

developed several international programmes to better assess and manage the Earth’s
resources. The Organization also helps reinforce the capacities of developing countries in the
sciences, engineering and technology.

Social and human sciences (http://www.unesco.org/shs ) The social and human sciences
have a vital role to play in helping to understand and interpret the social, cultural and
economic environment. They provide research, identify and analyze trends, propose paths of
action. UNESCO’s mission is to advance knowledge, standards and intellectual cooperation
in order to facilitate social transformations conducive to the universal values of justice,
freedom and human dignity.4

Culture(http://www.unesco.org/culture) Preserving and respecting the specificity of each

culture, while ensuring that it preserves and respects the specificities of another culture is the
challenge which must be met by the international community and, on its behalf, by UNESCO
and its partners.

2
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php.
3
UNESCO(2008):what is it? What does it do?
4
UNESCO(2001): Tell me about UNESCO
 Communication and information (http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ ) The main objective for
UNESCO is to build a knowledge society based on the sharing of knowledge and
incorporating all the socio-cultural and ethical dimensions of sustainable development. The
promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of press is at the heart of these efforts.

Five main functions

In fulfilling its mission, UNESCO carries out (for the international community) its five
established functions:

- Laboratory of ideas, including foresight: anticipating the great upheavals which will affect
societies and assess the future of education, sciences, culture and communication. -
Standard-setter: setting, applying, monitoring and reviewing international norms and
standards5.

This function is illustrated by UNESCO’s constant production and adoption of declarations,

conventions, monitoring mechanisms etc. - Clearing house: collecting, exchanging and
disseminating information in its designated fields of competence. - Capacity-builder in
Member States in UNESCO’s fields of competence: providing advice and assistance to
Member States on national policy and development programmes. - Catalyst for international
cooperation. These core functions and the ways in which they are pursued can and do evolve
to respond to changing circumstances.6

UNESCO-wide programme planning and delivery

The UNESCO Youth Programme, as presented above, will be delivered through activities
implemented in and across all Major Programmes. The coordination of this UNESCO wide
Youth Programme will be undertaken by the Youth Programme Team, in the Social and
Human Sciences’ (SHS) structure, which will be specifically and adequately mandated for
this purpose, in parallel to the management of the SHS-related youth programmatic
activities.7

This Team will also ensure global advocacy and UNESCO-wide representation vis-à-vis the
United Nations system (including the Interagency Network on Youth Development) and
international and regional actors on youth.

5
UNESCO functions identified 190 EX/Decisions, page 29.
6
Archibald MacLeish and Henri Bonnet, UNESCO, bulletin of the American association of university.
7
UNESCO operational strategy on youth, published by UNESCO, 2014.
 Designated Youth Focal Points in all programmes will collaborate with the Team to
consolidate and share information on their respective programme’s work on youth and to
support outreach with youth organizations.8 Opportunities to creatively associate Young
Professionals to the work of the UNESCO Youth Programme will be envisaged.

UNESCO’s actions on Climate Change Education

It supports countries to integrate climate change education into their school systems through
capacity building and a whole-school approach.

• Training of hundreds of teachers on CCE in the Dominican Republic; plan to train

thousands more.

• National action plan for ESD developed in Kenya and being rolled out to 26 counties
through capacity-building 9

• Initiative launched in Viet Nam to help the country shape a more resilient and sustainable
learning society

• To date, 285 UNESCO Associated Schools in 25 countries have developed context specific
school action plans in line with a whole-school approach with focus on climate change, and
13,853 teachers have been trained so far. These numbers will scale up in 2020 to reach 182
countries and 11,700 schools.

• Collaboration with more than 90 Key Partners of its Global Action Programme on ESD, to
promote ESD and CCE.

Governing bodies
Director-General -There has been no elected UNESCO Director-General from Southeast
Asia, South Asia, Central and North Asia, Middle East, North Africa, East Africa, Central
Africa, South Africa, Australia-Oceania, and South America since inception.10

The Directors-General of UNESCO came from West Europe (5), Central America (1), North
America (2), West Africa (1), East Asia (1), and East Europe (1). Out of the 11 Directors-
General since inception, women have held the position only twice. Qatar, the Philippines,
and Iran are proposing for a Director-General bid by 2021 or 2025. There have never been a
Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian UNESCO Director-General since inception.
The ASEAN bloc and some Pacific and Latin American nations support the possible bid of
8
http://bit.ly/XozqNf.
9
R.S. Khanna, UNESCO, the Indian journal of political science, vol.13, no.2, pp.34.
10
R.C. Wallace, UNESCO, sage publication ltd. , vol.1, no;1( Jan 1946),pp. 69
the Philippines, which is culturally Asian, Oceanic, and Latin. Qatar and Iran, on the other
hand, have fragmented support in the Middle East. 11 Egypt, Israel, and Madagascar are also
vying for the position but have yet to express a direct or indirect proposal. Both Qatar and
Egypt lost in the 2017 bid against France.

Controversies
New World Information and Communication Order

UNESCO has been the centre of controversy in the past, particularly in its relationships with
the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and the former Soviet Union. During the
1970s and 1980s, UNESCO's support for a "New World Information and Communication
Order" and its MacBride report calling for democratization of the media and more egalitarian
access to information was condemned in these countries as attempts to curb freedom of the
press.

UNESCO was perceived as a platform for communists and Third World dictators to attack
the West, in contrast to accusations made by the USSR in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In
1984, the United States withheld its contributions and withdrew from the organization in
protest, followed by the United Kingdom in 1985. Singapore withdrew also at the end of
1985, citing rising membership fees. Following a change of government in 1997, the UK
rejoined. The United States rejoined in 2003, followed by Singapore on 8 October 2007.

Israel

Israel has maintained its membership since 1949. In 2010, Israel designated the Cave of the
Patriarchs, Hebron and Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem as National Heritage Sites and announced
restoration work, prompting criticism from the Obama administration and protests from
Palestinians.

 In October 2010, UNESCO's Executive Board voted to declare the sites as
"al-Haram al-Ibrahimi/Tomb of the Patriarchs" and "Bilal bin Rabah
Mosque/Rachel's Tomb" and stated that they were "an integral part of
the occupied Palestinian Territories" and any unilateral Israeli action
was a violation of international law.

11
Bryn J. Hovde, UNESCO, social research, vol. 14, no.1(March 1947), pp.8
. UNESCO described the sites as significant to "people of the Muslim,
Christian and Jewish traditions", and accused Israel of highlighting
only the Jewish character of the sites. 12 Israel in turn accused
UNESCO of "detaching the Nation of Israel from its heritage", and
accused it of being politically motivated. The Rabbi of the Western
Wall said that Rachel's tomb had not previously been declared a holy
Muslim site.13
 Israel partially suspended ties with UNESCO. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny
Ayalon declared that the resolution was a "part of Palestinian escalation". Zevulun Orlev,
chairman of the Knesset Education and Culture Committee, referred to the resolutions as an
attempt to undermine the mission of UNESCO as a scientific and cultural organization that
promotes cooperation throughout the world.14

US withdrawals

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

On 19 September 1989, former U.S. Congressman Jim Leach stated before a Congressional

subcommittee:

The reasons for the withdrawal of the United States from UNESCO in 1984 are well-known;
my view is that we overreacted to the calls of some who wanted to radicalize UNESCO, and
the calls of others who wanted the United States to lead in emasculating the UN system.15 The
fact is UNESCO is one of the least dangerous international institutions ever created.

While some member countries within UNESCO attempted to push journalistic views
antithetical to the values of the west, and engage in Israel bashing, UNESCO itself never

12
Withdrawal from UNESCO, journal of college science teaching, vol.14, no. 4.pp. 379.
13
H. Ten Have, unesco’s ethic education programme, journal of medical ethics, vol. 34, no. 1(Jan 2008).
14
Franklin Parker, UNESCO IN PERSPECTIVE, international review of education, vol.10, no.3(1964), pp.328.
15
Nicholas Farnham, TAKING WITHDRAWAL FROM UNESCO SERIOUSLY, comparative education
review, vol.30, no.1.
adopted such radical postures. The U.S. opted for empty-chair diplomacy, after winning, not
losing, the battles we engaged in… It was nuts to get out, and would be nuttier not to rejoin.

Conclusion

The UNESCO ( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a

specialized organization located in Paris, France.

The organisation’s greatest successes include its work against racism. Objectives of the
organisation is achieved through five programs: education, natural sciences, human sciences,
culture and communication.

The fields of action are education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture,
communication and information. Main functions are Laboratory of ideas, including foresight:
anticipating the great upheavals which will affect societies and assess the future of education,
sciences, culture and communication. - Standard-setter: setting, applying, monitoring and
reviewing international norms and standards.

This function is illustrated by UNESCO’s constant production and adoption of declarations,

conventions, monitoring mechanisms etc. - Clearing house: collecting, exchanging and
disseminating information in its designated fields of competence.