The United Nations recognizes the role of culture for development

On 20 December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on culture and development, which emphasizes the important contribution of culture for sustainable development and for the achievement of national and international development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

For more information:

Resolution text adopted by the UN General Assembly

Outcome document of the MDG Summit, September 2010

Summit High-Level Round-Table on Culture for Development

The Power of Culture for Development (Brochure, PDF)

The Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F)

NPR Interview: Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding

Click here to listen to or read a transcript of Host Melissa Block as she talks with Frank Proschan, program specialist for the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section of UNESCO, about items being added to this year's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

UNESCO Promotes "Work to Ride"

UNESCO has highlighted this video of a Philadelphia program that gives city kids the opportunity to play polo. It is part of its effort to show how sports can bring cultures together. Click here to check out the Work to Ride website.

World Heritage Sites in Google Street View

Click here to read more, with links to the views described.

4 Directors General in one photo

Quotation

The House of UNESCO is a place. But it is also an idea that lies at the heart of our quest for a better world. 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

On the sixty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in Paris, 14 December 2010

Introduction to the Economic Crisis and Education website

Introduction of the Economic Crisis and Education website by Mr Qian Tang, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education. Click here to go to the website.

UNESCO's Priorities for the XXI Century

The Government wants comments on future U.S. World Heritage Nominations

The National Park Service is seeking public comment on possible future U.S. nominations to the UNESCO World Heritage List, as well as on potential additions to the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List (the official list of potential nominations to the World Heritage List). 

Jefferson's Poplar Forest

on the U.S. Tentative List

The Federal Register Notice seeking public comment is available on-line here:

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-31316.htm

Comments are due by January 12, 2011.

This past July, the World Heritage Committee inscribed the first new U.S. site to the World Heritage List in 15 years - the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii."

For more information on World Heritage in the United States, see:

http://www.nps.gov/oia/topics/worldheritage/worldheritage.htm

Undersea life at Papahanaumokuakea MNM

Nazareth to be proposed as World Heritage Site

Omar Massalah, Muslim secretary of the Mediterranean Peace Forum and author of the proposal that UNESCO declare Nazareth patrimony of humanity, explained that this “would be the best way to protect the city, to avoid transformation and modernization putting an end to Nazareth’s soul.”

Massalah said, “The preparation of the dossier for UNESCO of Nazareth’s candidature is a technical aspect being carried out in collaboration with the municipality of the city and the national Israeli commission concerned.”

He expressed his intention to speak with the Arab countries “to support the petition, as it is not an initiative with a political connotation, but a cultural issue.”…Read more....

Promoting Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education

This video is a part of the UNESCO Bangkok Advocacy Kit for Promoting Multilingual Education: Including the Excluded.

Borobudur Temple Compounds: A UNESCO World Heritage Site

Asma Jahangir, 2010 UNESCO/Bilbao Laureate

December 10 = Human Rights Day

The theme for Human Rights Day 2010 – 10 December – is "Human Rights' Defenders who act to end Discrimination". Human rights' defenders acting against discrimination, often at great personal risk to both themselves and their families, are being recognized and acclaimed. At this occasion, the UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights will be awarded to Asma Jahangir (Pakistan) in recognition of her exceptional and courageous contribution to building a universal culture of human rights. The Award Ceremony will take place in Bilbao (Spain). More on the UNESCO celebration.......

When Eleanor Roosevelt presented the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the UN General Assembly, she proclaimed: "We stand today at the threshold of a great event, both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind." On December 10, 1948, the world moved to recognize and protect the equal and inalienable rights of all people, inspiring individuals around the globe to claim the rights that are our common heritage.
Hillary Rodham Clinton

American Candidates for the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List

Nicholas DeRenzo, noting that no aspects of American cultural heritage have yet been added to the UNESCO list of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage elements, suggests the following candidates:

• Baseball
• Pacific Northwest totem poles
• The Halloween tradition—trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving
• Jazz and/or blues music
• The Thanksgiving feast—turkey and all the fixings
• Break dancing
• Amish barn raising
• Outlandish Christmas light displays
• Cowboy poetry
• Cajun cuisine

Comment: In the area of sport, Baseball does seem the obvious candidate. In music and dance there would seem to be many alternatives in addition to those Mr. DiRenzo has put forward, such as Dixieland, the American popular song, Rock and Roll, and Hip-Hop. So too there are numerous Native American traditions that could be proposed such as the Pow Wow or Navajo weaving. There are other cuisines that might be considered such as Tex-Mex, or specific dishes (Maryland crab cakes, New England clam chowder, Buffalo wings) not to mention the fast-food franchise hamburger, fries and milk shake. The community non-profit organization or the charitable foundation also are typically American.

John Daly

The comment represents my personal opinions and not that of Americans for UNESCO.

Marine World Heritage Sites

Hairdressers against HIV/AIDS