In the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO became the center of a controversy where the United States and the United Kingdom argued that it was a forum for communist countries and the Third World against the West.
November 16, 1945 – UNESCO is Officially Established
UNESCO – United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – is one of the major specialized agencies of the United Nations, operating with the aim of “promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, and culture to ensure respect for justice, the rule of law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of race, sex, language, or religion.”
UNESCO was founded on November 16, 1945, with the signing of its founding convention. This convention officially came into effect on November 1, 1946, with the recognition of 20 countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO became the center of a controversy where the United States and the United Kingdom argued that it was a forum for communist countries and the Third World against the West. The United States and the United Kingdom withdrew from the organization in 1984 and 1985, respectively. They rejoined UNESCO in 1997 and 2003. By the late 1990s, UNESCO implemented several organizational reforms, such as reducing personnel and the number of units. The number of offices decreased from 79 in 1999 to 52 in the current year.
UNESCO is organized with a General Conference, an Executive Board, and a Secretariat. The General Conference consists of representatives from UNESCO member states (each member state is allowed to appoint 5 delegates). The Executive Board consists of members elected by the General Conference from among the delegates nominated by member states; each member of the Executive Board represents their government. The UNESCO Secretariat comprises the Director-General and a number of staff deemed necessary. The Director-General is proposed by the Executive Board and elected by the General Conference (for a term of 6 years) under conditions accepted by the General Conference. The Director-General is the highest official of UNESCO. Currently, UNESCO has 195 member states. United Nations member states have the right to join UNESCO; other countries may be accepted if proposed by the Executive Board and approved by a two-thirds majority of the General Conference members present.
Member states often establish a representative organization for UNESCO in their country, depending on specific conditions. Currently, the National Commission for UNESCO is common, comprising representatives from the government and from the sectors of Education, Science, Culture, and Information. Despite having representatives in each country, UNESCO’s operating principle is to not interfere in the internal affairs of nations. The National Commission for UNESCO advises its country’s delegation at the General Conference and the government on matters related to UNESCO. This commission typically includes representatives from departments, ministries, and other agencies and organizations interested in issues of education, science, culture, and information, as well as independent figures representing relevant sectors. It may also include a standing executive committee, coordinating agencies, states, and other necessary ancillary bodies.
In 1998, UNESCO formally supported free software – software that can be used, copied, studied, modified, and redistributed without restriction, further allowing for copying and redistribution in both modified and unmodified forms without restrictions, or only with minimal restrictions to ensure that subsequent recipients can also do the same, while also preventing hardware manufacturers from blocking users’ modifications to their hardware. This concept is often confused with the definition of “freeware” – software for which you do not have to pay any fees to use, but the copyright and authorship remain fully with the owner; and it does not mean that reverse engineering, modification, or redistribution can be applied.
Although regarded as one of the agencies with a certain role in the activities of the United Nations, UNESCO has been the center of controversy in the past, especially in relation to the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the former Soviet Union. In the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO supported a “New World Information and Communication Order“, and its MacBride report called for the democratization of media and more equal access to information, which was condemned in countries that sought to curtail press freedom.
UNESCO has been perceived by some countries as a platform for communist countries and dictators of the Third World to attack the West. This was clearly demonstrated in the Soviet Union’s denunciations in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1984, the United States cut its contributions and then withdrew from UNESCO in protest, followed by the United Kingdom in 1985. Singapore also withdrew, citing increased membership fees. After a government change in 1997, the United Kingdom rejoined. The United States rejoined in 2003, followed by Singapore on October 8, 2007.
Subsequently, UNESCO sparked ongoing controversy by organizing a conference titled “The Media World after WikiLeaks and News of the World” in July 2012. Although all six posters focused on WikiLeaks, no one from WikiLeaks was invited as a speaker. After receiving a complaint from WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, UNESCO invited him to attend but did not offer any position on the panel. Proposals were also made only a week before the conference was held in Paris, France.
Other speakers like David Leigh and Heather Brooke have publicly spoken against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange in the past. Earlier, WikiLeaks released a press statement on February 15, 2012, criticizing UNESCO, stating: “UNESCO has turned itself into a joke regarding international human rights. Using ‘freedom of speech’ to censor WikiLeaks from a conference about WikiLeaks is an Orwellian absurdity beyond all words. This is a gross abuse of the UNESCO Charter. It’s time to attack UNESCO.” Accompanying the statement was an email exchange between WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson and the conference organizers at UNESCO.
Most recently, in October 2015, UNESCO became the cause of a controversy when it included documents related to the Nanjing Massacre in the Memory of the World Register. This document was one of 47 new proposals added to the documentary heritage program. The decision was made after UNESCO held a three-day meeting from October 4 to 6 in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi, following a two-year review process of 88 proposals from 61 countries. UNESCO’s inclusion of Chinese documents about the Nanjing Massacre in the Memory of the World Register immediately faced opposition from the Japanese government. Kyodo News reported on October 10, citing the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s statement that the “proposed case (the Chinese documents) was made on the basis of unilateral arguments” and was “very regrettable” as it had been registered. The Japanese Foreign Ministry also expressed doubts about the authenticity of the documents.
The Nanjing Massacre as referred to by China or the Nanjing Incident as referred to by Japan, refers to the actions of the Japanese military carried out in and around Nanjing after the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. The Chinese side claims that the death toll reached 300,000. Many Japanese historians have repeatedly debated the authenticity of this massacre, arguing that the casualties were all soldiers and that violent acts did not occur. This event continues to be a contentious topic in China-Japan relations. The Memory of the World Register is a list of documentary heritage under UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, established in 1992 to preserve the documentary heritage of humanity for future generations.
