UNESCO

Introduction

UNESCO is the abbreviation of “United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization”, which was inaugurated on 16th November 1945 by the endorsement of 37 countries but was formally sanctioned by the 20 member states (including United States of America, United kingdom, Canada, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, France, Turkey, Egypt, Dominican republic, Australia, Denmark, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway and Greece) on 4th November 1946 as the agency of the United Nations (an international organization of countries set up in the same year, in succession to the League of Nations, to promote international peace, security, and cooperation.

UNESCO: Organizational Structure

UNESCO headquarters are located in New York and the members originally include the countries that fought against the Axis Powers in the Second World War but now its members are more than 150 in number and include most sovereign states of the world, the chief exceptions being Switzerland and North and South Korea(Gold 56-59). Other bodies carry out the functions of the UN with regard to international economic, social, judicial, cultural, educational, health, and other matters) in order to promote the exchange of information, ideas, and culture. UNESCO was the result of the movements made by those countries since 1942 at the time of second world war, who were facing upto the political doctrines evolved and implemented by Adolf Hitler and his followers, especially those relating to racial superiority, as the German Nazi movement, generally right-wing and especially racist or authoritarianism (unesdoc.unesco.org).

1984 was the year when the United States of America withdrew from this organization, followed a year later by the United Kingdom and Singapore, in protest at its allegedly over-politicized nature by considering it as the movement or political party for advocating the third world countries, and seeking the overthrow of capitalism of the West, resulting into the loss of 30% of the financial contributions but then United Kingdom reunited in 1997 and United States of America in 2003. Its headquarters are located in Paris and for the year 2002-2003 Japan is the major country that is providing immense financial backing, whereas the total budget estimated this year for UNESCO is 400 million dollars.

UNESCO mission statement is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations (portal.unesco.org )

History of UNESCO

As early as 1942, in wartime, the governments of the European countries, which were confronting Nazi Germany and its allies, met in the United Kingdom for the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (CAME). The Second World War was far from over, yet those countries were looking for ways and means to reconstruct their systems of education once peace was restored. Very quickly, the project gained momentum and soon took on a universal ...