Why UNESCO is important.

Happy Birthday, UNESCO

Today, November 16, UNESCO marks its 67th birthday. In 1945, UNESCO was created in the firm belief of nations, forged by two World Wars in less than a generation, that political & economic agreements aren't enough to build lasting peace. Peace must be established on the basis of humanity’s moral & intellectual solidarity. Hence our motto: "Building peace in the minds of men & women"   http://ow.ly/fmjqr

The U.S. and UNESCO

This message from the Director General of UNESCO was posted in August 2011, just before the United States began to withhold its funding from the Organization.

About the future of Americans for UNESCO (AU)

This post is intended to bring you up-to-date on the history of US-UNESCO relations since the departure of the USA from UNESCO in December 1983. So, relax and bear with me because this is a long story.

The Past

During the two decades that the United States was out of UNESCO, the organization survived the financial crisis that the withdrawals had caused, and reformed many of the bureaucratic processes that had been noted in the decision to withdraw. The State Department continued a small effort to monitor the organization. The number of U.S. citizens on the UNESCO staff was reduced. U.S. educators, scientists, and cultural leaders continued involvement in the Organization, but at a lower level than in the Organization's early years.

As is explained in a background paper on AU, the organization is an outgrowth of Americans for the Universality of UNESCO (AUU) - a not for profit powerhouse organization headed up by the late and former Deputy Director General of UNESCO (John E. Fobes). AAU was the only domestic source of information about UNESCO during the 19 years of U.S. absence from the Organization at a time when the US National Commission for UNESCO existed only on paper, having been forced into deep hibernation, and there were only a smattering of individuals at the State Department and the US Mission in Paris in charge of UNESCO affairs.

To assess the centrality of AUU's involvement in UNESCO's activities and to gain an appreciation of what it sought to accomplish, one need only go to the library of the State Department to read the bound production of AUU's numerous and voluminous newsletters. Not only did they serve to keep the executive and legislative branches of the US Government and the American public informed about UNESCO's activities, but, more importantly, they kept the spirit of UNESCO alive in the United States/


The Present Crisis

Last year the UNESCO General Conference, on the recommendation of the UNESCO Executive Board, voted to admit Palestine as a member state of the Organization. The admission was strongly opposed by the U.S. Delegation to the General Conference (as the recommendation had been in the Executive Board). Two decades before that vote, the U.S. Congress had enacted legislation requiring that the U.S. Government withhold funding from the United Nations or any of its affiliated organizations that admitted Palestine to membership, legislation that does not provide the executive branch with waiver authority. Thus the United States is withholding its contributions -- some 22 percent of the UNESCO regular budget. UNESCO as a result is dealing with a financial crisis. UNESCO programs of importance to the United States are being threatened.

The upper graph shows the frequency that UNESCO was used as a search term on Google in 2011. It suggests a tripling of searches at the time of the meeting of the General Conference. The lower graph shows the frequency of news stories indexed by Google during the same year that dealt with UNESCO. It too showed a very large spike at the time of the General Conference. While Google generally shows a long term decrease in relative interest in UNESCO, the experience in October 2011 was quite different.

There are groups in the United States that oppose the United Nations family of organizations, and UNESCO has been a favorite target of these groups. There are also many people in the United States that support UNESCO, but they are generally not vocal in that support. Nor are they organized collectively to create wider public support for UNESCO. Supporters and opponents of U.S. involvement in UNESCO have published articles expressing their views during the past year.

Governmental Effort with Respect to UNESCO

In the years since the United States rejoined UNESCO in September 2003, the Department of State appointed competent civil and foreign service staff at the Office of UNESCO Policy, the US National Commission for UNESCO, and the US Permanent Mission to UNESCO. All told, there are now 15 full time professionals.These staffs include three education officers (two Washington-based,one Paris-based) ; three science officers (two Washington-based, one Paris based); and three culture/communications officers (two Washington-based, one Paris- based). The UNESCO Policy Office has a director and a deputy director. The US National Commission has a full time Executive Director. The US Mission to UNESCO has, in addition to the aforementioned officers, a highly active Ambassador, a Deputy Chief of Mission, as well  as a secretarial staff and an experienced  local hire available for general duty.

Our unofficial estimate of the cost to the Department of State for this staff is somewhere between $ 2.5 and 3.5 million taking into account salaries, travel, office rentals, and leased telephone and internet lines. That is probably on the low side. This figure does not take into account the part-time contributions of personnel from the legal and environmental science bureaus of the State Department ,USAID, the Department of Education, NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation to name only a few. $ 4.0 milliion plus strikes us as a more accurate figure.

In addition, it should be noted that the Washington-based staff travels frequently to Paris, has instant on-line contact with members of the UNESCO Secretariat staff and U.S. Mission, and is thus well informed on UNESCO matters. Moreover, the Secretary of State for International Organizations and her deputies are favorably disposed towards UNESCO and also travel to Paris on occasion. The Secretary of State visited UNESCO in May 2011, the first such visit ever by an occupant of this position.  The Deputy Secretary of State for Management visited UNESCO in December 2011, and the Secretary of Education addressed UNESCO staff earlier in the year.

Americans for UNESCO

AU is not a membership organization but it has a mailing list of more than 2,500 people interested in UNESCO -- many of whom have contributed funds to AU. The AU Board of Directors, with a nominal 21 Directors, is currently recruiting ten new members, signifying an opportunity for a considerable rethinking of AU's purposes and activities. The new President of AU is a distinguished educator and educational administrator with long experience with UNESCO. Each of the Board's current members has decades experience with UNESCO and broad knowledge of the history of U.S.-UNESCO relationships.

One consequence of the stepped-up governmental backstopping of UNESCO is that AU's once perceived core mission -- of advising the State Department on UNESCO -- is no longer much needed. Indeed, AU can bring little, if any, information or expertise to the UNESCO policy debate that cannot be provided by the State Department's professional staff. With, on the one hand, AU having a limited budget, no staff,  and an ageing Board of Directors and, on the other hand, with the US Government supporting full time staff officers in Washington and Paris as well as the recent establishment of a Washington-based UNESCO liaison office in the quarters of AU, new members are being sought for the Board. It will be up to them to redefine the raison d'etre for AU -- what more should it do beyond continuing its useful role of safeguarding the ideal of constructive U.S. engagement with UNESCO.

The Future

Despite this changed situation, we believe that AU can play a useful role in helping intellectual communities and civil society become more involved in UNESCO's activities. It can do so in two ways by :

• building new American institutional ties with UNESCO (e.g. on-going exploration of establishing a UNESCO Chair at George Washington University to advance inter-university research, training, and program development in certain fields of UNESCO competence through the transfer of knowledge across borders) ; and 
• serving as a ready source of information (e.g. hosting a symposium to inform the American public about the status of congressional funding to UNESCO and strategies to restore them - now in progress). 

Indeed, one of the historical oddities about US-UNESCO cooperation is that over the years so much energy has gone into the formulation and planning of UNESCO programs and so little (with few exceptions) into the implementation of them in the United States, even though the U.S. Government has been the major contributor to UNESCO's regular budget.

Upon the return of the USA to UNESCO, AU has been seeking to change the focus of US-UNESCO relations from that of benefactor to beneficiary ( a change welcomed by many program officers of UNESCO) as has the U.S. National Commission under the direction of Eric Woodard (who left his post September 11 to assume his new duties as Director of the Smithsonian's Internship and Fellowship Programs) by encouraging private sector involvement in such UNESCO programs as World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Associated Schools, Creative Cities, and UNESCO Clubs. Under the present circumstances, this is the way to go and the key to success for AU in this regard is to be selective, do things that are important and that are not being done elsewhere, and stick with it until there is no longer a useful role to play.

All of which brings us back to the question about AU's central mission for the immediate future. Recent experience would seem to suggest there is a greater public appreciation among the American people for the many useful and complex tasks that UNESCO performs often under trying and dangerous conditions. AU might work in that context, as described above, to enhance the linkages between UNESCO's programs and supporters in other nations and their counterparts in the USA.

However, there is a real risk that the Congress will insist that the United States will continue to withhold funds from UNESCO; if it does so, UNESCO by its laws will no longer allow the United States to vote in UNESCO's governing bodies. If worse comes to worse, AU might well consider returning to a role more like that of AAU in the past.

Richard Nobbe (Vice President and Treasurer of Americans for UNESCO)
and John Daly (former member of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO)

This article represents the opinions of the authors and does not necessarily represent that of Americans for UNESCO.

“Forgive & love”, urges Kim Phuc on the 40th anniversary of the photo seen around the world

Terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc (center)
as they run down a road near Trang Bang
after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the iconic black-and-white photo taken of her during the Vietnam War, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Kim Phuc urges the world to forgive and show love.

Read more....

From the news of October 29, 1958

I quote from the New York Times:

Pope John XXIII, while an official observer of the Holy See at the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization, said in a 1952 sermon in Paris that Roman Catholics throughout the world should participate in the work of "this promising institution."

Editorial: Repeal or Revise the anti-Palestine Legislation

The law which now requires U.S. funds to be withheld from UNESCO should be repealed or revised because it is outdated, ineffective, unnecessary, counterproductive, unclear, and potentially unenforceable. Its application to UNESCO has diminished U.S. diplomatic effectiveness, will in fact hurt the Israeli interests it was designed to protect, and -- most important -- will hurt a lot of innocent people. Readers are encouraged to contact their representatives in Congress and call for the law's repeal or revision.

The General Conference of UNESCO voted to invite Palestine to become a member state of the Organization on October 31, 2011. The actual membership is to take effect when Palestine submits its accession papers.

As the members of the General Conference had been warned, that action triggered two parts of U.S. law (US Code - Title 22: Foreign Relations and Intercourse / 22 USC 287 - Sec. 287e. Authorization of appropriations; payment of expenses):

• Pub. L. 101-246, title IV, Sec. 414, Feb. 16, 1990, 104 Stat. 70, provided that: "(a) Prohibition. - No funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states. "(b) Transfer or Reprogramming. - Funds subject to the prohibition contained in subsection (a) which would be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof (but for that prohibition) are authorized to remain available until expended and may be reprogrammed or transferred to any other account of the Department of State or the Agency for International Development to carry out the general purposes for which such funds were authorized." 
• Pub. L. 103-236, title IV, Sec. 410, Apr. 30, 1994, 108 Stat. 454, provided that: "The United States shall not make any voluntary or assessed contribution - "(1) to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, or "(2) to the United Nations, if the United Nations grants full membership as a state in the United Nations to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, during any period in which such membership is effective."

The first provision is found in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 and the second in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995. Those are unusual in that they do not provide the President the ability to wave the provisions if he determines doing so would be in the national interest.

The U.S. Government has announced that it is consequently withholding contributions to UNESCO. Both assessed contributions and voluntary contributions are being withheld. The United States remains a member state of UNESCO, and has in fact been newly elected to its Executive Board. If the United States continues to withhold all contributions until the next meeting of the UNESCO General Conference, it will not be allowed to vote in that conference.

Here are some reasons that the law should be revised or repealed.

The legislation is outdated: Since these provisions became law, the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization has changed, the Palestine National Authority has come into being, the Oslo accords and the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement have been signed, and Palestine is reported to be recognized as a state by 127 UN member states. The United States and the other members of the Quartet are maintaining that a two state solution should be negotiated to settle the Israel-Palestine issues. 

The law is ineffective: It was intended to deny Palestinians membership in UN agencies until or unless a peace settlement was reached with Israel. UNESCO's General Conference voted membership for Palestine in full knowledge of the law. Several other UN agencies have constitutions that grant automatic membership on request from any national already a member of any UN agency. It seems likely that other UN agencies would also elect Palestine to membership if they received such a formal request.

The law is unnecessary: The Congress has the power of the purse and can vote to withhold funding from any UN agency as part of the annual appropriations legislation. Even without this law Congress has the power both to warn UN agencies of the consequences of admitting specific organizations or states to membership and withholding funds from agencies that do so in spite of the warnings. When the Palestinian membership was coming to the General Conference, letters were in fact sent from the House of Representatives to UNESCO informing the Secretariat and permanent representatives of member states to UNESCO that key committees would oppose funding UNESCO if it admitted Palestine. 

The law is counterproductive: As Representative Keith Ellison has pointed out, UNESCO activities "include core U.S. interests like literacy education for the Afghan National Police, supporting a free press in countries like Iraq, Tunisia and Egypt, and promoting Holocaust education in the Middle East." Some of these activities will be stopped specifically because already promised voluntary contributions for their support must now be withheld. (See also "Cutting Off Unesco, U.S. May Endanger Programs in Iraq and Afghanistan")

The meaning of the law is unclear: Does the United States withhold contributions forever from UNESCO now that it has voted to accept Palestine as a member state? Does the United States continue to withhold funding from UNESCO even if a peace treaty is successfully concluded and Palestine is successful in meeting all of the internationally recognized standards of statehood. If existing member states of UN agencies for some reason no longer meet all of those standards but are not ejected from membership, must the United States withhold funding from those agencies.

The law may not be enforceable. The Congress ratified the accession document to UNESCO which I am told has the force of a treaty. In joining UNESCO, the United States agreed to abide by its Constitution (which was largely an American creation) and that Constitution requires member states to pay their assessed contributions; the obligation to pay overdue contributions does not go away even if a member state withdraws from the Organization. The United States is a signatory to other UNESCO Conventions which have been ratified by the Congress, such as the World Heritage Convention which also requires funding from member states. Thus, if the U.S. Government is taken to court it may have to stop withholding assessed contributions in spite of the law cited above. I have been informed that those concerns actually resulted in the United States not withholding contributions from UNESCO when it was proposed to do so during the 1970s.

Final Comments: As the law applies to UNESCO

The United States Government is forced by this law to act like the kid who takes his ball home when he is not elected captain of the football team. Diplomats of other countries see this "poison pill" of a law as a bullying tactic by the United States. They not only see it as anti-democratic but as politicizing UNESCO debates that should not be politicized. As a result, the influence of U.S. diplomats in UNESCO governance and other international forums is weakened.

Perhaps surprisingly, while the law was intended to protect Israel, Israel may suffer from its application. The United States has been the most important defender of Israel's interests in UNESCO as well as in other UN venues. U.S. influence is greater as the respect accorded to our diplomats and their tactics is greater. As the threat of withdrawing funding is disliked so our influence is decreased and thus our influence in protecting Israeli interests from unfair attacks by other member states.

In my mind, the most important reason for restoring funding to UNESCO is that if we do not do so, innocent people will suffer. Kids who would have gotten to school because of UNESCO's influence will remain uneducated. People who could have been saved from the threat of flood or tsunami by UNESCO programs will not be saved because UNESCO didn't have the resources we had promised. Reporters who might have been saved from coercive governments by the influence of UNESCO in favor of freedom of the press and freedom of speech will lose some of that protection; the public will lose information that those reporters could have provided. People who might have found work in UNESCO promoted cultural industries will lose that opportunity. People who might have been saved from the impact of unethical behavior by scientists will not receive the protection that might have been offered by the UNESCO ethics programs. People who might have been better served by their governments because of the influence of UNESCO's Management of Social Transitions (MOST) program will lose that opportunity. 

Indeed, those of us who enjoy the Olympics may enjoy them a little less as UNESCO has less money to support the international convention against doping in sport. Those of us who enjoy visiting museums may enjoy them a little less as UNESCO has less money to support conventions to protect museum-quality artifacts and to support museum quality. Those of us who enjoy visiting sites such as the pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Majal, or the rose red city at the end of time (Petra, Jordan) may enjoy them less as UNESCO has fewer resources to advocate for their preservation and their appropriate presentation to visitors.

Recommendation

I will refrain from recommending to the Congress and the State Department how to deal with these laws. Those bodies are well able to deal with the specific issues of legislative reform.

For the readers of this blog, I recommend that you contact your Representative and your Senators and ask that they work to restore U.S. funding to UNESCO and that they reform the law to deal with the problems raised in the paragraphs above.

Here is the message I sent to my Representative in the House and to my Senators:

Recently the General Conference of UNESCO voted to offer membership in the Organization to Palestine. In response to the possibility of Palestine joining the Organization, the purpose of which is to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men, the United States is withholding all contributions to UNESCO, apparently permanently. This is due to clauses in the Foreign Assistance Authorization Acts for Fiscal 1990 and 1991, 1994-1995. 

That action has cost the United States soft power in the United Nations system. It has created a financial crisis in UNESCO. It is threatening programs in Iraq and Afghanistan funded by U.S. voluntary contributions and implemented by UNESCO, programs important to our interests in those countries. In two years, that action will cost the United States its votes in the next General Conference. In the long run it will have a negative impact on programs promoting education, science, the preservation of cultural heritage, and freedom of the press. 

Perhaps even worse, if Palestine follows through on announced plans and obtains membership in other UN organizations, the old clause in the Authorization will require the United States to withhold funding from such agencies as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Telecommunications Union, the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. 

Ideally the clause should be repealed and decisions on the funding of these agencies made in the normal appropriations process. At a minimum, the clause should be amended to allow the President to waive the requirement to withhold funding when he determines that action is to the overall foreign policy advantage of the United States.

John Daly

The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.

What happens after the UNESCO admission of Palestine

In the short term, unless there is some new development, the U.S. retains its membership and vote at UNESCO; we will continue to participate in UNESCO meeting and programs. As our Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion has stated, we remain committed to working with UNESCO. However in the longer term, the funding issue prescribed by U.S. law - and the questions it opens regarding our long term membership at UNESCO - remain. You can see more about the official U.S. position by watching the State Department Press Briefing from 11/1/11. You can read a transcript of this briefing here.

Statement by the Director-General of UNESCO on Withholding of Funds by the United States

 Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General© UNESCO / Eric Bouttier 

In this time of economic crisis and social transformation, I believe that UNESCO’s vital work to promote global stability and democratic values is in America’s core interests.

The United States is a critical partner in UNESCO’s work. The withholding of U.S. dues and other financial contributions – required by U.S. law - will weaken UNESCO’s effectiveness and undermine its ability to build free and open societies.

U.S. funding helps UNESCO to develop and sustain free and competitive media in Iraq, Tunisia and Egypt. In Afghanistan, U.S. support is helping UNESCO to teach thousands of police officers to read and write.  UNESCO literacy programmes in other areas of conflict give people the critical thinking skills and confidence they need to fight violent extremism. To sustain the democratic spirit of the Arab Spring, UNESCO is training journalists to cover elections objectively.

Across the world, we stand up for each journalist who is attacked or killed, because we are the UN agency with the mandate to protect freedom of expression. In Washington, earlier this year, I awarded the UNESCO Press Freedom Prize to an imprisoned Iranian journalist, Ahmad Zeidabadi.

UNESCO is the only UN Agency with a mandate to promote Holocaust Education worldwide. Using funding provided by the United States and Israel, UNESCO is developing curricula to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten. Last February I led a historic visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp with more than 150 political and religious leaders, mostly from Arab and Muslim countries.  I still recall the words of Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, who said: “We must teach our young people in mosques, churches and synagogues what happened here.”

With U.S. support we put science at the service of people.  UNESCO is leading a global effort to expand an ocean-based tsunami warning system.  In January, this system saved tens of thousands of lives when a tsunami hit Japan.  In the Middle East, UNESCO’s Sesame Programme enables world-class research and builds scientific and cultural bridges between neighbouring countries, including Israel and Egypt.

The U.S. Government recognizes the value of all this work.  To quote the State Department: “U.S. engagement with UNESCO serves a wide range of our national interests on education, science, culture and communications issues…we will work with Congress to ensure that U.S. interests and influence are preserved.”

UNESCO is encouraged that the United States will maintain its membership in the Organization and hopes that a resolution to the funding issue will ultimately be identified. Until that happens, it will be impossible for us to maintain our current level of activity. 

The announced withholding of U.S. dues owed for 2011 will immediately affect our ability to deliver programmes in critical areas: achieving universal education, supporting new democracies and fighting extremism.  So I call on the U.S. administration, Congress and the American people to find a way forward and continue support for UNESCO in these turbulent times.

Irina Bokova

2 November, 2011

Video: Vote in UNESCO General Conference on Palestine Membership

Unesco Approves Full Membership for Palestinians

According to the New York Times:

Unesco defied a legally mandated cutoff of American funding and approved a Palestinian bid for full membership by a vote on Monday of 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions.

Legislation dating back more than 15 years stipulates a complete cutoff of American financing to any United Nations agency that accepts the Palestinians as a full member. Unesco — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — depends on the United States for 22 percent of its budget, about $70 million a year. More.....

According to the UNESCO press release:

The vote was carried by 107 votes in favor of admission and 14 votes against, with 52 abstentions.

UNESCO to resume cooperation with Libya

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has welcomed the U.N. General Assembly’s recognition of Libya’s National Transitional Council as the country’s legitimate government and announced that UNESCO is looking forward to placing its expertise at the disposal of the new authorities.

"I welcome the return of Libya to the international community,” the Director-General said. “We stand ready to help the Libyan people in advancing human dignity and rights as part of a new era. May the raising of the new flag of Libya alongside those of UNESCO’s other Member States, herald the dawn of an age of reconciliation and recovery for the country.

"Our Organization is looking forward to assisting Libya in the fields of education, culture, science and media development to sustain their aspirations and efforts promoting human rights, freedom of expression, justice and women’s empowerment," concluded Irina Bokova.  

Read more.....

An Account of UNESCO Chief's Visit to Israel

UNESCO Chief Bokova meets with
Israel's President Shimon Peres during her visit.

I quote from a relatively long article in the Jerusalem Post covering the first official visit of UNESCO Director General Bokova to Israel. The visit took place on May 29 and 30, 2011.

Highlighting her organization’s “excellent cooperation” with Israel in a variety of fields including education, culture, science and communications, the director-general of UNESCO said Sunday in Jerusalem that she had been “disappointed” by the process whereby UNESCO’s Executive Board last October passed five resolutions hostile to Israel. 

Irina Bokova, 58, who is making her first visit to Israel, noted, however, that reports that Israel had threatened to suspend all cooperation with UNESCO over the affair were inaccurate and had proved as such. “I was reassured immediately that Israel was by no means considering suspending or limiting relations with UNESCO,” she said. Officials in Jerusalem clarified Sunday that Israel had suspended cooperation with UNESCO only with regard to the five specific issues in the resolutions........


Bokova was invited on this visit to deliver the keynote speech at Sunday’s International Women Leaders conference at the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center, an institution with which she said UNESCO has had a long-running relationship. 

She also inaugurated the “UNESCO for Tolerance and Peace Square” in Haifa, in the company of the city’s mayor Yona Yahav. At the ceremony dedicating the square, she praised the mixed Jewish- Arab city as an exemplar of coexistence and dialogue between all population sectors. 

Haifa’s message of “tolerance and peace,” she said, should be disseminated across the Middle East and worldwide. 

Bokova began her trip on Sunday with a meeting with President Shimon Peres, and will on Monday visit and lay a wreath at Yad Vashem and meet with the ministers of education, science and culture and with senior officials at the Foreign Ministry.

Read more...... 

Crooks Use UNESCO in Scam in the United States

Approaches were made to the Oglala Sioux, the Colusa and perhaps other tribes by a person purporting to represent an organization affiliated with UNESCO. Tribal councils were apparently offered large sums of money to support tribal development. UNESCO's total budget is much less than the amount that was mentioned to the Oglala Sioux. While UNESCO does support native populations in areas such as preservation of endangered languages, it would not make large grants for general development.

Read more from Indianz.com

UNESCO suspends cooperation with Libya

Source: The Associated Press via the Washington Post.

UNESCO's chief says the organization is stopping all cooperation with Libya's government and suspending a partnership with a charity group headed by Moammar Gadhafi's son.

The Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says director-general Irina Bokova took the measures after recent U.N. actions critical of Libya's human rights record.

Rita Colwell Named Science Envoy

Dr. Rita Colwell, a member of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO, has been named a U.S. Science Envoy. The Science Envoy program, announced by President Obama in Cairo in June 2009, is a centerpiece program to implement U.S. global engagement in science and technology. Dr. Colwell is one of six distinguished scientists to have been appointed to this prestigious as well as important position.

Dr. Colwell is a Distinguished Professor at both the University of Maryland at College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has focused her research on global infectious diseases, water and health, and is currently developing an international network to address emerging infectious diseases and safe drinking water for both the developed and developing world. Dr. Colwell served as the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation from 1998-2004. She is recipient of the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize awarded on September 9, 2010 by the King of Sweden.

Donate to UNESCO to help it help Pakistan Recover from the Floods

I quote extensively from the New York Times article today on the flood in Pakistan:

The destruction could set Pakistan back many years, if not decades, further weaken its feeble civilian administration and add to the burdens on its military.......

The flooding, which began with the arrival of the annual monsoons late last month, has by now affected about one-fifth of the country — nearly 62,000 square miles — or an area larger than England, according to the United Nations.

At the worst points, the inundation extends for scores of miles beyond the banks of the overflowing Indus River and its tributaries, said Cmdr. Iqbal Zahid, a Pakistani Navy battalion commander in charge of rescue operations in Sindh Province.

“You have to highlight that the infrastructure all the way from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Sindh is ruined,” Commander Zahid said, referring to Pakistan’s northernmost and southernmost provinces. “It will take years to rebuild.”

Nearly 20 million people have been significantly affected, about the population of New York State, the United Nations said. The number in urgent need is now about eight million and expected to rise. More than half of them are without shelter.

UNESCO has a very limited budget, but with more money it could respond to:

• help Pakistan's school system help Pakistan's kids deal with the trauma caused by the floods;
• help Pakistan to plan to rebuild the schools it has lost;
• help Pakistan protect its World Heritage sites and cultural heritage from the damage of the floods;
• help Pakistan improve its hydrology and prepare to prevent such damaging floods in the future;
• help Pakistan improve its disaster warning systems.

UNESCO has established a website to allow you to make donations to assist it in these efforts.

Say No To Racism

The teams from the Netherlands and Brazil at the World Cup supporting FIFA's campaign, Say No to Racism!

The Amistad brings a link between the United States and Cuba

Source: Margarita Alarcon, The Huffington Post, March 19, 2010.

"Under the heading "A symbol of the slave trade joins US and Cuba," the news is out this morning: the schooner Amistad is on its way. The organizers have said that it will first dock in the province of Matanzas, a city known as the Athens of Cuba because of its Doric and Ionic columns and the site of the new UNESCO-affiliated slavery museum. On the morning of March 22, when the Amistad is set to arrive in the bay of Matanzas, it will be fulfilling a two century old return home; indeed, it was there, on those docks, that the original schooner was built and from where it first set sail."''

Read more!

Online Auction to Benefit UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Famous watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre is offering an iconic and unique timepiece for auction, the proceeds to benefit India’s Sundarbans UNESCO World Heritage site. The watch is one of the two vintage 1958 Geophysic Chronometers Model E168 tested by professional climber Stephane Schaffter and his team during their recent Geophysic Expedition to the Himalayas.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has a long-term partnership with the UNESCO World Heritage Center and the International Herald Tribune to help defend and protect outstanding marine sites that require immediate intervention to be saved.

The auction begins on March 18th, 2010 at 12:00 CET.

Read more about this initiative.

Go to the auction website.