UNESCO is a specialized agency of the UN which is responsible for promoting international cooperation in the areas of education, science, culture and communication and thus contributing to peacekeeping and security efforts. UNESCO celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2005. It now has 191 member states. Germany has been a member since 1951.
Two “Ministerial Round Tables” gathered recommendations on the subject areas of “Education” and “Oceans” which may serve to guide the new Director-General in the long-term restructuring of the corresponding research programmes.
The 36th General Conference of UNESCO is expected to take place in October 2011 in Paris.
Education – represents the foundation of development and peace for UNESCO. Within the UN system UNESCO is thus tasked with coordinating the “Education for All” (EFA) action programme, which was initiated at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000 with a commitment to achieve six important educational goals globally by 2015, including basic education for all and reducing illiteracy rates.
As a follow-up action to the World Conference for Sustainable Development 2002 in Johannesburg, the United Nations have announced the “Decade of Education for Sustainable Development” (2005-2014) and entrusted UNESCO with its management. The aim of the Decade is to embed the idea of ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development in education worldwide. In Germany, the German Commission for UNESCO coordinates the implementation of the Decade on behalf of the BMBF. For this purpose it has appointed a National Committee that awards recognition to good practical examples of education for sustainable development as official German contributions to the Decade. The second half of the UN Decade was launched at the World Conference “Education for Sustainable Development”, which took place from 31 March to 2 April 2009 in Bonn. The conference was organised by UNESCO and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with the German Commission for UNESCO as a cooperation partner. 700 participants from around the world were invited.
Eight UNESCO Chairs in Germany form part of a worldwide network of cooperation in higher education. Two UNESCO education institutes reside in Germany: the UNESCO International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO – UNEVOC) has been operating in Bonn with support from the Federal Government since the year 2000, while the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIP) has resided in Hamburg since 1951. The Institute contributes to implementing the UNESCO “Education for All” programme and the UN Literacy Decade (2003–2012), and works to safeguard the learning requirements of youths and adults. In order to accord it equal rank with comparable UNESCO education institutes, in 2005 it was decided to transform the UIP into a fully fledged international UNESCO institute with a new name: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL).
The 190 German UNESCO Associated Schools are members of UNESCO’s international school network comprising approximately 8,000 schools in 180 UNESCO member states. Prominent subjects on the curriculum are human rights, intercultural learning, sustainable development and reducing inequalities between rich and poor. Learning to live together in a pluralistic world of cultural diversity is the overarching educational aim of the UNESCO Associated Schools.
Science – UNESCO supports environmental research and conservation through numerous long-term scientific programmes to, among other things, coordinate marine research through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), research geological processes (International Geological Correlation Programme, IGCP), research the hydrological cycle, for water resources management (International Hydrological Programme, IHP), and through international collaboration in environmental research (“Man and the Biosphere”, MAB). The “International Basic Science Programme” (IBSP), which promotes areas such as chemistry, physics, mathematics and certain engineering sciences that are not covered by other UN organisations, has existed since 2004. Germany is a committed contributor to UNESCO’s science programme. The responsible federal ministries have set up national committees on four programmes in cooperation with the German Commission for UNESCO.
As part of the intergovernmental Management of Social Transformations (MOST) programme UNESCO also funds interregionally networked and comparable social science research on topics including urban development, living together in cultural diversity, and migration.
In its science programmes UNESCO funds the initiation and development of scientific research and training institutes and international networks for scientific and technological basic research, particularly in the developing countries. Due to the high speed of scientific and technological progress in the life sciences there is today a great need for international agreement on values and norms in this field. The International Bioethics Committee (IBC) and the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC) convene under the auspices of UNESCO for this purpose. In the area of ethics in science and technology UNESCO has set up two commissions. The Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights drawn up by the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) was adopted in November 1997 by the 29th UNESCO General Conference and its impact evaluated in the following years. The “Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights” was finally adopted unanimously in 2005. The World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) deals with the ethical aspects of developments in science and technology. Initially, the Commission mainly considered matters relating to fresh water, space and energy, whereas since its conference in Berlin in late 2001 it has focused predominantly on issues relating to the ethics of information technology. The United Nations declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy with the aim of highlighting the importance of astronomy for science and culture. UNESCO is tasked with managing the International Year. Under the heading “The Universe. Yours to Discover” the UN Year aims to arouse the interest particularly of young people in astronomy and the natural sciences.
Culture – UNESCO is the only organisation in the United Nations system with cultural competence. Protecting and preserving cultural heritage, maintaining and promoting cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue are its main remits. The World Heritage Programme is the best-known of all UNESCO programmes. The UNESCO World Heritage List currently includes more than 890 World Heritage Sites in 148 countries, including 33 in Germany – most recently, the Dresden Elbe Valley was delisted and the Wadden Sea added in 2009.
The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which was adopted in 2003, came into force in 2006 and provides an internationally binding legal framework for continuing UNESCO’s long-standing activities to inventarise, collect and revitalise cultural traditions, craftsmanship and endangered languages.
Communication – Access to information and knowledge for all, use of information technology as a development factor and promoting freedom of the press – these are the aims of the UNESCO Communication Programme, which is increasingly focusing on the consequences of the rapid development of information and communication technologies.
The “Memory of the World” programme aims to protect documentary heritage and make it accessible. The Memory of the World Register contains more than 190 entries, including eleven from Germany (e.g. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or, since 2009, the Song of the Nibelungs).
With its Communication programme UNESCO supports the development of modern knowledge societies that offer freedom of expression, equal access to information and knowledge, education for all and cultural diversity.
In its “Information for All” programme UNESCO works to promote the international exchange of information (databases, libraries, archives). More recently, the programmes of the organisation have increasingly been aimed at the issues arising from new media technologies.
UNESCO’s structure includes the General Conference (sessions take place every two years), the Executive Board with its 58 members, and the Director-General. There are scientific committees and intergovernmental or international councils that provide expert advice for the programmes.
The German Commission for UNESCO is an intermediary organization for international cultural policy. Its role is to advise the Federal Government and other responsible bodies, participate in the implementation of the UNESCO programme in Germany, keep the public informed, and establish contact between UNESCO and specialist organizations, institutions and experts.
UNESCO’s regular budget is funded by direct contributions from the member states. It amounts to a total of 653 million USD for 2010 and 2011 together, a nominal increase of 3.5% compared to the previous budget.
Of this total budget, 118.5 million go to the education programme, 85.1 million to the science programme (of which, natural sciences: 51.9 million, social sciences and humanities: 29.7 million), 53.7 million to the cultural programme and 33.2 million USD to the communication and information programme. In addition, significant extrabudgetary funds are available which derive from voluntary contributions by individual member states.
UNESCO
7, Place de Fontenoy
F-75352 Paris 07 SP
Phone: 00 33 1 - 45 68 10 00
Fax: 00 33 1 - 45 67 19 00
Internet: http://www.unesco.org/
German Commission for UNESCO (Deutsche UNESCO Kommission; DUK)
Colmantstraße 15
53115 Bonn
Internet: http://www.unesco.de/?&L=1
E-mail: sekretariat@unesco.de
Dieser externe Link öffnet ein neues Fenster:
Germany homepage (URL: http://www.unesco.de/)