UNESCO Helps Resolve Irish Controversy

Source: The Economist

"UNESCO listed Skellig Michael as a “World Heritage Site” in 1996. Last year it published a report on the island that tried to settle the Irish argument. Its intervention was largely prompted by Michael Gibbons, an independent historian who had asserted that archaeological mistakes were being made there, and were being covered up by a conspiracy of silence.....

"In a Solomonic judgment, UNESCO found that the structures on the South Peak—apparently an offshoot of the monastery, to which monks went for retreat or penance—had indeed been rendered “dramatically different”. UNESCO said Ireland’s Office of Public Works should have opened a broader debate before proceeding with any restoration; but it did agree that some conservation was necessary. The Irish government has followed some of UNESCO’s recommendations, including naming a panel of independent Irish scholars to oversee the site."

The limits of soft cultural power

On the Emei mountain, for example, visitors now see not only a famous Buddha statue, but a series of man-made caves with copies of other Chinese Buddhas—and nearby there is a brand-new statue of Shiva, an unrelated Hindu deity. “You have to peer at the plaque closely to see whether the object in front of you is Han dynasty or 21st century,” in the wistful words of one recent visitor.

Guarding precious and vulnerable places is one of the better things the UN’s cultural agency does—but it may topple over if it stretches too far

Sid Passman sent me a copy of an article from the Economist warning that UNESCO's World Heritage program risks losing its effectiveness, which depends only on the powers of persuasion and publicity, if it continues to increase the number of World Heritage sites, and if it fails to take the strongest available means to encourage countries to protect their sites. The report also cites a report by the IUCN critical of the use of scientific data by the World Heritage Center for the protection of natural World Heritage sites.

Read:

• The article in The Economist
• The IUCN Press Release on its report
• The IUCN report itself

Top Seven World Heritage Sites in the United States

What does the Statue of Liberty have in common with the Olympic or Grand Canyon national parks? Well, they were all declared the USA's cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Among twenty American sites appreciated by UNESCO there are several places of such outstanding beauty or significance that they deserve a separate mention.

Check out the list, then come back here and set the author right in our comment section. How can Yellowstone and Yosemite be left out of the top seven???!!!

UNESCO & CHEA Join to Fight Diploma Mills

Source: "Accreditation Group and Unesco Team Up to Take On Diploma Mills," The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 24, 2009.

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization put out a joint statement today with suggestions for combating diploma mills around the world.

Read:

• The entire article in the Chronicle of Higher Education
• The joint statemenet

G. Rossini - STABAT MATER

Monastery Maulbronn - Impressions of a UNESCO World Heriage A life-recording of the concert, which took place at the convent church in Maulbronn, june 12./13. in 1999.

Editorial: Intangible Cultural Heritage from the U.S. should be added to the list

UNESCO maintains a Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind. At this time there are no entries in the list from the United States. I suggest that the U.S. seek to add elements of America's contribution to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind to the list.

The first things that occurred to me for the list were jazz and American popular song.

It occurs to me that a better choice is the Internet. Certainly the Internet was invented in America. Fundamentally, it is the set of standards for interconnecting physical communication networks, and as such is intangible. The Internet is not only an important heritage of mankind, but it is in fact used directly by a billion people around the world, and indirectly affects us all. It may in fact be imperiled by its own success.

A useful point to be made by such a submission is that World Heritage items need not be old nor quaint.

John Daly

(The opinion expressed in this posting is the author's alone, and should not be considered to represent that of Americans for UNESCO.)

10 Things to Know About Each of Two Cities

Two new information sheets from UNESCO about American Creative Cities:

• 10 things to know about Santa Fe, UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art, UNESCO City of Design
• 10 things to know about Iowa City, UNESCO City of Literature

UNESCO celebrates the power of literacy, September 8

A visit by Mrs Laura Bush, an awards ceremony and the launch of a touring classroom in a truck form part of UNESCO’s International Literacy Day celebrations in Paris.

This year’s theme, Literacy for Empowerment, highlights the staggering 776 million – or one in five - adults worldwide who still lack basic reading and writing skills. Two thirds of them are women.

Read more!

• UNESCO Literacy Day 2009
• Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO
• UN Secretary-General message for International Literacy Day

Who Will Be The Next Director General of UNESCO?

The UNESCO Executive Board begins its meeting next week at which it will choose a new Director General for the Organization. The new Director General should continue the reforms made by his immediate predecessors, while implementing the instructions of UNESCO's governing bodies, and providing leadership in meeting the new challenges facing UNESCO in the coming decade.

There are eight active candidates who have been nominated for the position. While much of the campaign is conducted behind a screen of diplomatic secrecy, there has been a great deal of press coverage of the campaign.

The leading candidate, Farouk Hosny, is the Minister of Culture of Egypt. He has been campaigning actively with the support of his government for two years. In the last few months, however, people have challenged his candidacy, notably in the magazine Foreign Policy and the French daily L'Monde (in translation also in The Huffington Post) and the Anti-Defamation League. Thus his election is now in some doubt, and there may be several ballots before a candidate receives a majority.

The United States is said to have opposed Hosny during the Bush administration. With the change in administration, the UNESCO election appears to have received little U.S. Governmental attention for some months. More recently, however, the Obama administration seems to have encouraged the entry of several candidates into the race. A French journal today reports that the U.S. Congress might not support funding UNESCO if it were to be headed by Hosny. Were the U.S. to withhold or delay contributions, given that it provides 22 percent of UNESCO's regular budget, the impact would be severe.

Read more on the election and the candidates!

Discuss the election on UNESCO's Friends group on Linkedin!

Vote for your candidate in an online straw pole!

Interview with the authors of International Guidelines for Sexuality Education

In June, UNESCO published a draft version of a new publication titled International Guidelines for Sexuality Education: An evidence informed approach to effective sex, relationships and HIV/STI education. The draft appears to have been quite well received internationally, although it appears to have raised some negative responses in conservative circles in the United States.

While the principle authors of the study, Nanette Ecker and Doug Kirby are Americans, the report is surely targetted to those making policy with respect to sexuality education in developing nations. In order to properly understand the report, one must consider the needs in those countries.

Sexual activity begins early quite often in developing countries, and often it is coerced. One recent study reports:

Using nationally representative surveys from 12-19 year old girls in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda collected in 2004, we examine the prevalence of sexual coercion at sexual debut among unmarried girls and its correlates. In Malawi, 38 percent of girls said that they were “not willing at all” at their first sexual experience followed by Ghana at 30 percent, Uganda at 23 percent and Burkina Faso at 15 percent. In-depth interviews collected in 2003 with the same demographic shows that there are four primary types of sexual coercion: forced sex; pressure through money or gifts; flattery, pestering, and threatening to have sex with other girls; and passive acceptance.

According to UNAIDS, there are some 2.7 million new cases of HIV infection per year. About half occur in women, and there are an estimated 50 million women in Asia at risk of contracting HIV infection from the intimate partners. 370,000 of the new infections occur in children under the age of 15. In the United States we think of HIV as a disease that people can live with for a considerable period of time, albeit taking medication under physician care with the possiblity of side effects; in 2007, however, 2 million people died of AIDS.

The Office of Victims of Crime estimates that of the 600,000-800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year, 70 percent are female and 50 percent are children. Indeed, it is estimated that a million children are involved in the international sex trade. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade. According to the UNESCO Trafficing Project, in Thailand, repeated surveys indicate that from one-third to one-half of all prostitutes started prostitution as children.

According to the 2009 World Report on Children, every year, more than half a million women die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth complications, including about 70,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 19. Women in the world's least developed countries are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than women in developed countries; a child born in a developing country is almost 14 times more likely to die during the first month of life than a child born in a developed one.

It would be criminal were educational policy makers in the countries where these problems are most accute not to consider sexuality education in the schools. Moreover, they must consider sexuality education at ages that appear quite young to most Americans.

UNESCO's 2009 EFA Global Monitoring Report states that 75 million children of primary school age are not in school, including just under one-third of the relevant age group in sub-Saharan Africa.

Girls are still neglected in education. Gender enrolment gaps remain large across much of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Disadvantages based on language, race, ethnicity and rural-urban differences also remain deeply entrenched. In Senegal, children in urban areas are twice as likely as those in rural areas to be in school.

In order to help policy makers, the authors of this report have summarized results from 87 international research studies (29 from developing countries) as well as input from experts in specialized NGOs and other UN agencies. Of course it is left to the policy makers to utilize the information to

derive age and culturally appropriate standards for their own schools.

Read an interview with authors Kirby and Ecker.

Dr Doug Kirby is a Senior Research Scientist at Education, Training and Research Associates and Nanette Ecker is the former director of International Education and Training at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).

Download the International Guidelines.

A Note on the History of the Concept of Culture in UNESCO

Julie Reeves points out in her book, Culture and international relations: narratives, natives, and tourists, that the concept of culture change from the humanist to the anthropological during the 20th century, and this shift had profound implications in international relations.

The Humanist Definition

Wikipedia provides the following that characterizes the humanist concept of culture:

When the concept first emerged in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it connoted a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the nineteenth century, it came to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals.

To further emphasize the point, consider these two quotations from Mathew Arnold in the 18th century:

• Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection.
• Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.

In the creation of UNESCO, which came in the immediate aftermath of the first use of the atomic bomb, it was explicitly argued that it was important to have a forum in which science could be informed by the humanities, that is that Science and Culture should both be included in the charter of UNESCO.

The Constitution of UNESCO further adds to the evidence that this was the concept of "culture" used by is founders. Consider this declaration from the preamble:

That the wide diffusion of culture, and the education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern;

Or this from Article I: Purposes and functions:

To realize this purpose the Organization will:......Give fresh impulse to popular education and to the spread of culture;

• By collaborating with Members, at their request, in the development of educational activities;
• By instituting collaboration among the nations to advance the ideal of equality of educational opportunity without regard to race, sex or any distinctions, economic or social;
• By suggesting educational methods best suited to prepare the children of the world for the responsibilities of freedom.

The suggestion that culture be defused must be understood in terms of a diffusion of the best that has been said and thought in the world to the advantage of all peoples.

Thus in the early years of UNESCO the emphasis of the culture program included work on international copyright instruments, museums, the protection of tangible items of cultural heritage, and importantly the preservation of Abu Simbel.

The Anthropological Definition

In 1998, Don Adams in his report on UNESCO's World Conference on Cultural Policies for Development noted:

A continuing emphasis on broadening the scope of cultural policy to include "the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize a society or social group.... not only the arts and letters, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of the human being, value systems, traditions and beliefs"

Reflected in that broadening of the concept of "culture" was new emphasis on such topics as respect for cultural diversity, protection of the expression of that cultural diversity, protection of intangible cultural heritage from cultures once the subject of prejudice, and protection of endangered languages.

There were of course real world changes taking place during the past six decades in parallel with the changes in the meaning of "cultural". Globalization and the development of the global information infrastructure greatly increased the interaction of peoples with their differing cultures. Decolonization occurred and post colonial states grew in influence in the international scene, including in UNESCO's governing bodies. UNESCO ceased to be a club of a small number of countries, including colonial powers infused with the belief in the superiority of their own high cultures, and became a more egalitarian organization of states, the majority of which seeking to protect their national cultures. Indeed, the UNESCO founding nations saw and expansion of democracy and became more egalitarian.

In the 1990's UNESCO became involved in efforts focusing on culture and development. That work resulted in a new and important conceptualization of development. It recognized that culture is not simply a factor to be taken into account in planning for economic and social development, but the context in which all development takes place, and indeed the determinant of the values of a people which determine the directions that that people seeks from development.

Implications for the Future

As the concept of culture has expanded, UNESCO has added new aspects to its cultural program but has continued to recognize the importance of its key programs linked to the humanistic definition. It continues to expand its network of World Heritage sites, has just implemented a World Digital Library, and its standard setting instruments for the protection of tangible cultural heritage in times of war are especially important.

A new UNESCO Director General is to be elected soon, and that person will face the challenge of leading UNESCO's cultural program and integrating it with UNESCO's other programs. We can expect the concept of culture to continue it evolution, and we can expect UNESCO to continue to be constrained by both human and financial resources. One hopes that the selection process will assure that the new Director General fully understands the way that the concept of culture has expanded since the foundation of UNESCO, the way in which the UNESCO program had accommodated and indeed contributed to that evolution, and have the flexibility to lead in the continuing evolution of concept and program.

John Daly

(The ideas in this posting are those of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

We Mourn the Passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy

We join millions of people around the world in mourning the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. While Senator Kennedy is being remembered for his many achievements on behalf of the poor, the downtrodden and the disenfranchised in the United States, he is also being recalled as a longtime champion and leader in advocating for the poor and for those without a voice in other countries.

Senator Kennedy led the effort to secure for refugees and immigrants the right to a life with dignity while also fighting for greater resources for those around the world who suffer in poverty and with sickness. He was a strong supporter of the United Nations and its mission. And while Senator Kennedy was beloved in this country, he will also be sorely missed by people far outside our borders, especially those who will no longer have his voice to rely on for their behalf.

Ivonne Baki Receives Award

It has been announced that Ivonne Baki, candidate for UNESCO Director General, is one of 12 people selected to receive the Americas Award for Public Service in 2009. The award recognizes government officials for contributions to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The award is made by CIFAL Atlanta, a joint initiative between UNITAR and the City of Atlanta.

Scientists Hope To Scan, Preserve World Heritage Sites

According to David Gura on NPR's News, scientists are beginning a revolutionary project to record three-dimensional models of world heritage sites project . The project is led by Cyart, an American firm with the collaboration of British scientists, and will begin with Mr. Rushmore.

Controversy About the Candidacy of Farouk Hosny for UNESCO Director General

Source: :"Very, Very Lost in Translation," by Raymond Stock, Foreign Policy, August 24, 2009.

The UNESCO Executive Board is to meet in September to consider the eight active candidates who have been nominated for the post of Director General of UNESCO. It is expected that their selection will be endorsed by the General Conference in October, and the new Director General is to take office in November. One candidate, Farouk Hosny, has proven to be especially controversial. He has been campaigning for the position for two years, and was considered the early leader, but the race has more recently been seen as open.

This new article in the influential journal, Foreign Policy, is very negative with respect to Farouk Hosny. I quote extensively:

To say that Farouk Hosni doesn't much like Israel is putting it lightly. According to the Anti-Defamation League, he has called it "inhuman," and "an aggressive, racist, and arrogant culture, based on robbing other people's rights and the denial of such rights." He has accused Jews of "infiltrating" world media. And in May 2008, Hosni outdid even himself, telling the Egyptian parliament that he would "burn right in front of you" any Israeli books found in the country's libraries......

Should Hosni's bid to be head of UNESCO succeed, as is likely, it could obscure the truly virulent prejudice that passes for cultural understanding among the Egyptian intelligentsia. Despite his apology for offering to burn books, Hosni told the Egyptian station Dream TV in July that he will oppose normalization with Israel until "two states exist" and the "Palestinian people get their right." And whatever the United Nations decides in the end, his gut feelings about Israel and the Jews are not likely to change.

This follows a widely read open letter by Bernard-Henri Levy, Ellie Wiesel and Claude Lanzman titled "UNESCO: The Shame of a Disaster Foretold." It also focuses on anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish statements by Hosny.

You might also find this exchange of interest:

• "Why I Worry About Farouk Hosny as Candidate for UNESCO Director General"
• "Enough is Enough: A Rebuttal"
• "Response to Comments by Omar Massalha"

Americans for UNESCO has neither endorsed nor opposed any of the eight candidates for UNESCO Director General. This posting should not be so construed, but rather seeks to share two influential publications on the race.

For more information on the election and the candidates, try:

Election of the UNESCO Director General

Green World Heritage: The Condé Nast Traveler Challenge

Part of the Petra World Heritage Site

IMAGINE you are the Minister of Tourism responsible for one of the World Heritage sites. What green technologies — real and futuristic — do you need to protect and preserve your site for future generations? What kinds of conservation projects can you dream up to keep one or all of these destinations intact forever?

This Conde Nash international challenge seeks the best green solutions to preserve World Heritage sites. We hope to discover new technologies and approaches, from green energy to sustainable materials that protect, sustain, and enhance the unique characteristics of these cherished locations.

Click here for more information.

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition:

23 August: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition

The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples.

Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO:
On the occasion of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
23 August, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition:To inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the remembrance of all the people
Commemoration of 23 August throughout the World in:The United States, Great Britain, Haïti, ...
Rabat Symposium:
Perspectives on the Slave Trade in the Arab-Muslim World
Unfinished Business:
A Comparative Survey of Historical and Contemporary Slavery
Activities Concerning the Slave Route throughout the World:
Under the Leadership of the Scientific Committee
International Norms Condemning Slavery:
An Appropriate Legal Framework

International Literacy Day, 8 September

On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO reminds the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally.

Despite many and varied efforts, literacy remains an elusive target: some 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills which means that one in five adults is still not literate; 75 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

In Memorium: Torsten Husen

Professor Torsten Husén passed away in Stockholm, Sweden, on 2 July 2009.

Born in 1916, Torsten made an indelible mark on the field of education both in his native Sweden and internationally. He is especially known for:

• his work on the longitudinal study of a cohort of pupils born in Malmö in 1928,
• the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), of which he was Chairman from 1962 to 1978, and
• the monumental International Encyclopedia of Education which he co-edited with T. Neville Postlethwaite and which appeared in 10 volumes in its first edition and 12 volumes in its second edition.

A devoted and eminent scholar of cross-national comparison in education, Husén launched the First International Mathematics Study.

A memorial event will be held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on September 1.

I recommend this website devoted to Professor Husen.

Visit of Director General to the United States

UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura visited the United States in June, During that visit he met with senior American officials to discuss new avenues for collaboration in the fields of education, culture and science.

I quote from UNESCO's report of the visit:

In his meeting with US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, the Director-General welcomed the emphasis the new administration was giving to education, both domestically, by making it a major pillar of the federal stimulus package, and internationally, with President Obama’s campaign pledge to significantly boost financing for basic education. Explaining that achieving basic Education for All (EFA) was UNESCO’s first priority, Mr Matsuura expressed his hope that UNESCO would continue to work closely with the US in the field of literacy, while mentioning teacher training and HIV&AIDS prevention as potential areas for new cooperation.

The Director-General also signalled the importance of US engagement in higher education. He stated that burgeoning student demand for higher education had created the need for innovative and flexible responses, noting that the American experience – such as community colleges – could provide models for other countries, in particular in the developing world.......

Turning to culture, the Director-General welcomed the inclusion of two new US candidates on the tentative list of world heritage sites. “This is a sign that the new administration is seriously interested in heritage preservation”, he stated. Mr Matsuura urged the US to pay equal attention to the safeguarding of living heritage, encouraging the Government to ratify the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. “The preservation of tangible and intangible heritage must go hand in hand”, the Director-General underscored.

Read more: