UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, «Organizzazione educativa scientifica e culturale delle Nazioni Unite»). — It is one of the bodies created by the United Nations (United Nations Organization) in fulfillment of the obligation laid down in the Charter (art. 13(b)) for the Assembly to promote international cooperation in the cultural and educational field.
In essence, it represents the continuation of a lively initiative of the League of Nations, which had established in 1922, among its permanent organizations, the Permanent Commission of Intellectual Cooperation. This Commission, in turn, had as its preparatory and executive body the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, based in Paris (Statute of 13 Dec. 1924), which relied, in individual States, on National Commissions. These coordinated, in relation to the Commission, the activities of national institutes and served as a link with governments, which generally constituted them. The League’s organization, already in its very name, emphasized its purpose, namely intellectual cooperation, whereas the United Nations emphasizes the concept of organization. But in substance, despite some nuances, the foundation of the two institutions is the same: the spiritual connection of peoples through science, culture, and education, not only for the sake of cultural communicability but also for the spiritual preparation of peace among peoples, since it is the sentiment of peace that serves to prepare peace. On this principle, which makes the purpose of UNESCO the work for peace, its statutes insist, whereas the Institute of the League, while not forgetting this, emphasized spiritual communicability.
UNESCO was established (Final Act of London, 16 Nov. 1945) in the very year hostilities ceased, preceded by a provisional organization that was to set it in motion (cf. Arrangement of London of the same date), as one of the specialized institutions envisaged by the Charter of the United Nations (art. 57). It is well to bear in mind its purposes as defined in art. 1, n. 1: to contribute to the maintenance of peace and security by promoting, through education, science, and culture, collaboration among nations to ensure universal respect for justice, law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of race, sex, language, or religion, which the Charter of the United Nations recognizes for all peoples. This purpose applies to all UN organizations, but those specific to UNESCO are spelled out in the triple purpose of fostering knowledge and mutual understanding among nations, giving a strong impetus to popular education and the spread of culture, and assisting the advancement and dissemination of knowledge (art. 1, n. 2). For each of these purposes, ample examples are given, while it is emphasized (art. 1, n. 3) that in no way is it intended to diminish the development of the various cultures; rather, it is intended to respect them. This is because cultural communicability is precisely founded on the diversity and distinct contributions of cultures, which must become intercommunicable.
The organization of UNESCO does not differ from that of the other UN organizations, to which it is linked by an agreement that determines their relations (Agreement of 14 Dec. 1946). Member States of the United Nations automatically belong to UNESCO and automatically leave UNESCO when they cease to be members of the United Nations (art. 2, nn. 1 and 3). However, to include all nations, membership in the United Nations is not a necessary condition for membership in UNESCO, so that States not members of the United Nations may also join II. The States participating in UNESCO numbered 43 in 1945 and had risen to about fifty by 1951.
The organs of UNESCO are three (art. 3): 1) the General Conference (art. 4), to which representatives of all member States belong and which, in its annual assemblies, determines, so to speak, the general policy of the organization; 2) the Executive Board (art. 5), made up of 18 members appointed by the Assembly; it meets more frequently and is the vital organ of the organization from the active point of view; 3) the Secretariat (art. 6), which has broad powers and is headed by the Director-General, seated in Paris, in homage to France’s merits for culture and the traditions of intellectual cooperation.
Taking up the tradition of the old intellectual cooperation, UNESCO relies in each State on the collaboration of National Commissions of Cooperation (art. 7), which are liaison bodies with governments, from which they emanate, and with national cultural institutions. They are organized and function in accordance with national statutes (though they are not yet established in all member States). A new institutional feature (art. 8) introduced by UNESCO is the obligation placed on individual member States to submit each year a report on the activities carried out in cooperation with UNESCO. This report, together with the report of the Director-General, is submitted to the General Conference, and both are then condensed in the report that UNESCO submits to the United Nations.
UNESCO provides ample information on its vast activities in its bimonthly Official Bulletin, while its monthly magazine *Courier* (UNESCO’s publications are in French and English, many also in Spanish) attends to the exchange of information, though it is not an official publication. It is not easy to summarize all that UNESCO does, which, from its inception, has taken up and expanded the initiatives already pursued by Intellectual Cooperation.
At its first General Conference (Paris, 1946), it addressed basic education, i.e., the cultural advancement of the more backward societies, attempting experimental solutions and personal exchanges through scholarships. When proposals for initiatives or cooperation came from other UN organizations, UNESCO addressed them with the means at its disposal, but in 1949 it had to acknowledge that it was necessary to give priority to initiatives according to their importance and urgency; and in 1950 it noted that it was advisable to focus on National Commissions, appealing to their activity according to guidelines set out in resolutions. In 1951, the trend finally prevailed toward a revision of programs in line with financial possibilities. It can therefore be said that UNESCO has not yet overcome the experimental phase of its activity and functioning, i.e., the balance between what it can do and the indefinite possibilities arising from the vastness of its task.