UNESCO past and present

Constitution and mandate

The Constitution of UNESCO was signed in London on 16 November 1945 by 37 countries and came into force with
its 20th ratification on 4 November 1946. The purpose of the Organization was defined as: 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.
Building peace in the minds of men: UNESCO

Origins of UNESCO
The main predecessors of UNESCO were the International Committee of Intellectual Co-operation, Geneva 1922-
1946, its executing agency: the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation (IIIC), Paris 1925-1946, and the
International Bureau of Education (IBE), Geneva 1925-1968. The latter has since 1969 been part of the UNESCO
Secretariat with its own statutes.
A Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (CAME) started its meeting in London on 16 November 1942 and
continued until 5 December 1945. 18 governments were represented. Upon the proposal of CAME and in accordance
with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), held in San
Francisco in April-June 1945, a United Nations Conference for the establishment of an educational and cultural
organization (ECO/CONF) was convened in London 1-16 November 1945. 44 governments were represented. On 16
November 1945 the Constitution of UNESCO was signed and a Preparatory Commission (Prep.Com.) established.
The first session of the General Conference of UNESCO took place in Paris from 19 November to 10 December
1946. More about the history of UNESCO

UNESCO today
Today, after more than 60 years of existence, UNESCO functions as a laboratory of ideas and a standard-setter to
forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues. The Organization also serves as a clearinghouse for the
dissemination and sharing of information and knowledge while helping Member States to build their human and
institutional capacities in diverse fields. For all of UNESCO's major areas of focus (Culture, Education, Natural
Science, Social and Human Science, and Communication and Information), it is possible to trace the ideas on which
UNESCO was based to the Organization's present activities. More about UNESCO

Official languages of UNESCO:

For the secretariat: English and French since 1946.
For the General Conference: English and French since 1946, Spanish since 1950, Russian since 1954, Arabic since
1974 and Chinese since 1980.
For the Executive Board: English and French since 1946, Russian and Spanish since 1954, Arabic since 1974 and
Chinese since 1977.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is an agency within the
United Nations that is responsible for promoting peace, social justice, human rights and international
security through international cooperation on educational, science and cultural programs. It is based in
Paris, France and has over 50 field offices located around the world.

Today, UNESCO has five major themes to its programs which include 1) education, 2) natural sciences, 3)
social and human sciences, 4) culture, and 5) communication and information.

UNESCO is also actively working to achieve the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals but it is
focused on achieving the goals of significantly reducing extreme poverty in developing countries by
2015, developing a program for universal primary education in all countries by 2015, eliminating gender
inequalities in primary and secondary education, promoting sustainable development and reducing the
loss of environmental resources.

HISTORY OF UNESCO

The development of UNESCO began in 1942, during World War II, when the governments of several
European countries met in the United Kingdom for the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education
(CAME). During that conference, leaders from the participating countries worked to develop ways to
reconstruct education around the world once WWII was over. As a result, the proposal of CAME was
established that focused on holding a future conference in London for the establishment of an
education and cultural organization from November 1-16, 1945.

When that conference began in 1945 (shortly after the United Nations officially came into existence),
there were 44 participating countries whose delegates decided to create an organization that would
promote a culture of peace, establish an "intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind," and prevent
another world war.

When the conference ended on November 16, 1945, 37 of the participating countries founded UNESCO
with the Constitution of UNESCO.

After ratification, the Constitution of UNESCO came into effect on November 4, 1946. The first official
General Conference of UNESCO was then held in Paris from November 19-December 10, 1946 with
representatives from 30 countries.
Since then, UNESCO has grown in significance across the globe and its number of participating member
states has grown to 195 (there are 193 members of the United Nations but the Cook Islands and
Palestine are also members of UNESCO).

UNESCO'S STRUCTURE TODAY

UNESCO is currently divided into three different governing, policy-making and administrative branches.
The first of these are the Governing Bodies that consist of the General Conference and Executive Board.
The General Conference is the actual meeting of the Governing Bodies and is comprised of
representatives from the different member states. The General Conference meets every two years to
establish policies, set goals and outline the work of UNESCO. The Executive Board, which meets twice a
year, is responsible for ensuring that decisions made by the General Conference are implemented.

The Director General is another branch of UNESCO and is the executive head of the organization. Since
UNESCO's founding in 1946, there have been eight Director Generals. The first was the United
Kingdom's Julian Huxley who served from 1946-1948. The current Director General is Kochiro Matsuura
from Japan. He has been serving since 1999. The final branch of UNESCO is the Secretariat.

It is composed of civil servants who are based in UNESCO's Paris headquarters and also in field offices
around the world. The Secretariat is responsible implementing UNESCO's policies, maintaining outside
relationships, and strengthening UNESCO's presence and actions worldwide.

THEMES OF UNESCO

Upon its founding, UNESCO's goal was to promote education, social justice and global peace and
cooperation. To reach these goals, UNESCO has five distinct themes or fields of action. The first of these
is education and it has set various priorities for education that include, basic education for all with an
emphasis on literacy, HIV/AIDS prevention and teacher training in sub-Saharan Africa, promoting quality
education worldwide, as well as secondary education, technological education and higher education.

Natural sciences and the management of Earth's resources is another UNESCO field of action.

It includes protecting water and water quality, the ocean, and promoting science and engineering
technologies to achieve sustainable development in developed and developing countries, resource
management and disaster preparedness.
Social and human sciences is another UNESCO theme and promotes basic human rights and focuses on
global issues like fighting discrimination and racism.

Culture is another closely related UNESCO theme that promotes cultural acceptance but also the
maintenance of cultural diversity, as well as the protection of cultural heritage.

Finally, communication and information is the last UNESCO theme. It includes the "free flow of ideas by
word and image" to build a worldwide community of shared knowledge and empower people through
access to information and knowledge about different subject areas.

In addition to the five themes, UNESCO also has special themes or fields of action that require a
multidisciplinary approach as they do not fit into one distinct theme. Some of these fields include
Climate Change, Gender Equality, Languages and Multilingualism and Education for Sustainable
Development.

One of UNESCO's most famous special themes is its World Heritage Center which identifies cultural,
natural and mixed sites to be protected all over the world in an effort to promote the maintenance of
cultural, historic and/or natural heritage in those places for others to see. These include the Pyramids of
Giza, Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Peru's Machu Picchu.