UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization”). - It is one of the bodies created by the UN (United Nations Organization) in fulfilment of the obligation imposed by the Charter (art. 13, letter h) upon the Assembly to promote international cooperation in the cultural and educational field.
It essentially represents the continuation of a vigorous initiative of the League of Nations, which had established in 1922, among its permanent organizations, the Permanent Commission for Intellectual Cooperation; this, in turn, had as its preparatory and executive body the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, based in Paris (Statute, 13 Dec. 1924), and relied, in the individual States, upon National Commissions, which coordinated, in their relations with the Commission, the activities of national institutes and served as links with the governments, by which they were generally constituted. The League organization, already in its very name, emphasized its purpose, namely intellectual cooperation, whereas U. rather emphasizes the concept of organization. Yet in substance, despite certain nuances, the foundation of the two institutions is the same: the spiritual linking of peoples through science, culture, and education, not only for the purposes of the communicability of culture, but also for spiritual preparation for peace among peoples, since it is the spirit of peace that helps prepare peace. The regulations of U. insist upon this principle, namely that its purpose is work for peace, whereas the League Institute, though not neglecting this, emphasized spiritual communicability.
U. was established (Final Act of London, 16 Nov. 1945) in the very year in which hostilities ceased, preceded by a provisional organization intended to set it in motion (cf. the London Arrangement of the same date), as one of the specialized institutions envisaged by the Charter of the United Nations (art. 57). Its purposes, as defined in art. 1, no. 1, should be borne in mind: to contribute to the maintenance of peace and security by strengthening, through education, science, and culture, collaboration among nations in order 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 the specific purposes of U. are defined in the threefold aim of promoting knowledge and mutual understanding among nations, giving vigorous impetus to popular education and the dissemination of culture, and assisting the advancement and dissemination of knowledge (art. 1, no. 2). Broad illustrations are given for each of these purposes, while it is expressly stated (art. 1, no. 3) that there is no intention whatever of impairing the development of the various cultures, but rather of respecting them. This is because the communicability of culture is founded
precisely upon the diversity and the differing contribution of cultures, which must become mutually communicable.
The organization of U. does not differ from that of the other UN organizations, to which it is linked by an agreement determining their relations (Agreement of 14 Dec. 1946). States that are members of the UN belong to U. as of right and automatically cease to belong to U. when they cease to be members of the UN (art. 2, nos. 1 and 3). Since, however, it intends to link together all nations, membership in the UN is not a necessary condition for membership in U.; thus non-member States may also join II. The States participating in U. numbered 43 in 1945; by 1951 they had become about fifty.
The organs of U. are three (art. 3): 1) the General Conference (art. 4), in which representatives of all member States take part and which, in its annual assemblies, determines, so to speak, the general policy of the organization; 2) the Executive Committee (art. 5), composed of 18 members appointed by the Assembly; it meets more frequently and is the vital active organ of the organization; 3) the Secretary (art. 6), who possesses broad powers and heads the Secretariat, which is seated in Paris, in tribute to France’s merits in the field of culture and to the traditions of intellectual cooperation.
Resuming the tradition of the former intellectual cooperation, U. relies in every State upon the collaboration of the National Commissions for Cooperation (art. 7), which are the connecting body with the governments from which they derive and with national cultural institutions, and are organized and operate in accordance with national regulations (they have nevertheless not yet been established in all member States). An innovation institutionally introduced (art. 8) by U. is the obligation imposed upon individual member States to submit each year a report on the activity carried out in cooperation with U.; this is submitted, together with the report of the Secretary-General, to the General Conference, and both are then condensed into the report which U. submits to the UN.
U. provides extensive information concerning its wide-ranging activity in its bimonthly Official Bulletin, while the exchange of information is handled by its monthly journal, the Courier (U. publications are in French and English, many also in Spanish), which is not, however, an official publication. It is not very easy to state everything that U. does, for, at its inception, it resumed and expanded the initiatives already pursued by Intellectual Cooperation.
At the first General Conference (Paris, 1946), it concerned itself with basic education, that is, the cultural advancement of the most backward societies, attempting experimental solutions and personal exchanges through scholarships. When proposals for initiatives or cooperation from other UN organizations subsequently arose, U. addressed them with the means at its disposal; but in 1949 it had to recognize that an order of priority had to be assigned to initiatives according to their importance or urgency; and in 1950 it observed that it was advisable to rely upon the National Commissions, calling upon their activity in accordance with directives laid down in resolutions. Finally, in 1951, the tendency prevailed toward revising programmes in accordance with financial possibilities. It may therefore be stated that U. has not yet passed beyond the experimental stage of its activity and operation, that is, the balance between what it can do and the indefinite possibility of doing, arising from the breadth of its task.