UNESCO facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Flag of UNESCO
Abbreviation	UNESCO
Formation	16 November 1945; 79 years ago (1945-11-16)
Type	United Nations specialised agency
Legal status	Active
Headquarters	Paris, France
Head	Audrey Azoulay (Director-General)
Parent organization	United Nations Economic and Social Council

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a special agency of the United Nations (UN). Its main goal is to help build world peace and safety. It does this by encouraging countries to work together in education, arts, sciences, and culture.

UNESCO has 194 member countries and 12 associate members. It also works with many other groups, including non-governmental organizations and private companies. UNESCO's main office is in Paris, France. It also has 53 local offices and 199 national groups around the world.

UNESCO was started in 1945 after World War II. It took over from an older group called the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. UNESCO's main mission is to promote peace, sustainable development (making sure we can meet our needs without harming future generations), and human rights. It achieves this by helping nations talk and work together.

UNESCO focuses on five main areas:

• Education
• Natural sciences
• Social and human sciences
• Culture
• Communication and information

UNESCO supports many projects. These projects help people learn to read and write, offer technical training, and advance science. They also protect independent media and press freedom. UNESCO helps save regional and cultural history and promotes cultural diversity.

Over the years, UNESCO's work has grown. It helps translate and share world literature. It also helps find and protect World Heritage Sites, which are important places for culture and nature. UNESCO works to close the digital gap around the world. It also helps create societies where everyone can access knowledge through information and communication. UNESCO has started many big projects, like "Education For All."

The General Conference leads UNESCO. This group includes all member states and associate members. They meet every two years to decide on UNESCO's plans and budget. They also choose members for the executive board, which manages UNESCO's daily work. Every four years, they pick a Director-General, who is UNESCO's main leader. UNESCO is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group. This group of UN agencies works to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

How UNESCO Started

Early Ideas

The idea for UNESCO began with the League of Nations in 1921. They wanted to create a group to help nations share their cultural, educational, and scientific achievements. This led to the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) in 1922. Famous people like Albert Einstein and Marie Curie were members.

Later, in 1924, the International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) was set up in Paris. It helped carry out the ICIC's work. However, World War II mostly stopped these efforts. Another private group, the International Bureau of Education (IBE), also worked on international education since 1925. It joined UNESCO in 1969.

UNESCO's Beginning

After the Atlantic Charter and the Declaration of the United Nations were signed, education ministers from Allied countries met in London. These meetings lasted from 1942 to 1945. In 1943, China, the UK, the US, and the USSR agreed that an international organization was needed.

In November 1945, 44 governments met in London. They created the Constitution of UNESCO, and 37 countries signed it. A special group was formed to prepare for UNESCO's official start. UNESCO's Constitution officially began on November 4, 1946, when 20 countries had approved it.

The first big meeting of UNESCO members happened from November to December 1946. Julian Huxley was chosen as the first Director-General. In 1954, a change was made: members of the executive board would represent their governments, not just act as individuals. This helped countries work together more closely. Over time, events like the Cold War and the end of colonialism shaped how UNESCO worked.

UNESCO's Growth and Impact

One of UNESCO's big achievements was its work against racism. It published important statements on race, starting in 1950. In 1956, South Africa left UNESCO because it felt UNESCO's publications interfered with its "racial problems." South Africa rejoined in 1994, led by Nelson Mandela.

In education, UNESCO started a project in Haiti in 1947 to help people learn basic skills. It also sent experts to other countries, like Afghanistan in 1949. In 1948, UNESCO suggested that all member countries should make free primary education required for everyone.

In 1990, a conference in Thailand launched a worldwide effort to provide basic education for all children, young people, and adults. Ten years later, in 2000, governments promised to achieve basic education for everyone by 2015. In 1998, UNESCO adopted the World Declaration on Higher Education. This set global standards for higher education.

UNESCO's early work in culture included the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia in 1960. This project moved the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to save it from being flooded by the Nile River. Over 20 years, 22 monuments were moved. This was the first of many campaigns to save important cultural sites.

This work led to the 1972 agreement to protect World Heritage Sites. The World Heritage Committee was set up in 1976, and the first sites were added to the World Heritage List in 1978. UNESCO has also created important rules to protect cultural traditions (2003) and promote cultural diversity (2005).

In science, UNESCO helped create the European Council for Nuclear Research in 1951, which later became CERN in 1954. UNESCO also had a big project on dry regions from 1948 to 1966. In 1968, UNESCO held the first meeting to discuss how the environment and development could work together. This led to UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme.

In communication, UNESCO's founding document always included the idea of "free flow of ideas by word and image." This was important after World War II, when information was controlled. UNESCO started training journalists in the 1950s. In 1980, UNESCO created the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). This program helps develop media in developing countries. In 1991, UNESCO supported the Windhoek Declaration on media independence. This led to May 3 being declared World Press Freedom Day. Since 1997, UNESCO has given out the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on this day.

UNESCO in the 21st Century

In 2011, UNESCO accepted Palestine as a member. Because of US laws, the United States stopped funding UNESCO. This funding made up about 22% of UNESCO's budget. Israel also stopped its payments. Both the US and Israel lost their voting rights in UNESCO in 2013. However, the US rejoined UNESCO in 2023. In 2019, Israel left UNESCO after 69 years.

In 2023, Russia was not chosen for the executive committee for the first time.

What UNESCO Does

UNESCO offices in Brasília

UNESCO works through its five main program areas: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information.

• UNESCO supports research in education and helps countries improve their education systems. This includes:
  • UNESCO Chairs: A worldwide network of 644 UNESCO Chairs, involving over 770 institutions in 126 countries.
  • The Convention against Discrimination in Education, adopted in 1960.
  • Organizing the International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA) every 12 years.
  • Publishing reports like the Education for All Global Monitoring Report.
  • Publishing the important document Four Pillars of Learning.
  • UNESCO ASPNet: A global network of over 12,000 schools in 182 countries.

• UNESCO also makes public statements to teach people. For example, the Seville Statement on Violence (1989) said that humans are not naturally violent.

• UNESCO names places and projects that are important for culture and science. These include:
  • Global Geoparks Network
  • Biosphere reserves, through the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), since 1971.
  • City of Literature: Edinburgh was the first in 2007, followed by Iowa City in 2008.
  • Projects for Endangered languages and linguistic diversity (like the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger).
  • Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
  • Memory of the World International Register, since 1997.
  • Water resources management, through the International Hydrological Programme (IHP), since 1965.
  • World Heritage Sites.
  • World Digital Library.

• UNESCO promotes the "free flow of ideas by images and words" by:
  • Supporting freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom of information legislation.
  • Working to keep journalists safe and fight against those who harm them.
  • Promoting access to information and open solutions for development.
  • Encouraging different viewpoints, gender equality, and cultural diversity in media.
  • Promoting Internet Universality, meaning the internet should be based on human rights, be open, accessible to all, and involve many different groups.
  • Creating knowledge through publications like World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development.

• UNESCO promotes special events, such as:
  • International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World: 2001–2010.
  • World Press Freedom Day, May 3 each year.
  • Criança Esperança in Brazil, which raises money for community projects.
  • International Literacy Day, September 8 each year.
  • International Year for the Culture of Peace, 2000.
  • A health education program in Kenya for young people.
  • World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, May 21 each year.

• UNESCO starts and funds projects, such as:
  • Migration Museums Initiative: Helping set up museums for cultural talks with people who have moved.
  • UNESCO-CEPES: A center in Romania that helps with higher education in Europe.
  • Free Software Directory: UNESCO and the Free Software Foundation help fund this list of free software.
  • FRESH: Focusing Resources on Effective School Health.
  • UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors.
  • The UNESCO Collection of Representative Works: Translating important world literature from 1948 to 2005.
  • GoUNESCO: Projects to make heritage fun.

UNESCO also has a transparency portal. This website lets the public see information about UNESCO's activities, like its budget and important documents.

There are ideas to create two new UNESCO lists. One would be for movable cultural heritage, like famous paintings and artifacts. The other would be for the world's living species, like the komodo dragon or the panda.

Media and Publications

UNESCO and its special groups publish several magazines.

The UNESCO Courier magazine started in 1945. It aims to share UNESCO's ideas and create a place for different cultures to talk. Since 2006, it has been available for free online.

In 1950, UNESCO started the magazine Impact of Science on Society. It discussed how science affects society and stopped publishing in 1992. UNESCO also published Museum International Quarterly starting in 1948.

UNESCO's Partner Organizations

UNESCO works closely with 322 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Some of these have a very close relationship with UNESCO. The 22 NGOs with the highest level of partnership have offices at UNESCO.

UNESCO Institute for Water Education in Delft

UNESCO Institutes and Centers

These are special parts of UNESCO that help with its programs. They offer expert support to local and national offices.

UNESCO Awards

UNESCO gives out 26 awards in different fields. These include education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, communication, information, and peace.

Education Awards

• UNESCO/King Sejong Literacy Prize
• UNESCO/Confucius Prize for Literacy
• UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development
• UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education
• UNESCO/Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Teachers
• UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for using technology in education

Natural Sciences Awards

• L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science
• UNESCO/Kalinga Prize for Popularizing Science
• UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences
• Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology
• UNESCO/Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation
• UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences
• UNESCO-Al Fozan International Prize for Young Scientists in STEM
• Michel Batisse Award for Biosphere Reserve Management

Social and Human Sciences Awards

• UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science
• UNESCO/Juan Bosch Prize for Social Science Research in Latin America and the Caribbean
• UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for Promoting Tolerance and Non-Violence
• UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture
• UNESCO/International José Martí Prize
• UNESCO-UNAM / Jaime Torres Bodet Prize in social sciences, humanities and arts

Culture Awards

• Melina Mercouri International Prize for Protecting Cultural Landscapes (UNESCO-Greece)

Communication and Information Awards

• UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize
• UNESCO/Emir Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah Prize for Quality Education for People with Intellectual Disabilities
• UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize

Peace Awards

• Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

International Days UNESCO Observes

UNESCO celebrates many international days throughout the year:

UNESCO Member Countries

     UNESCO member states      UNESCO member state dependent territory with separate NOC      UNESCO associates      UNESCO observers

As of July 2023, UNESCO has 194 member countries and 12 associate members. Most members are independent countries. The United States rejoined in 2023.

How UNESCO is Run

Director-General

Since 1946, there have been 11 Directors-General of UNESCO. Nine have been men and two have been women. They have come from different parts of the world.

Directors-General of UNESCO

Order	Image	Name	Country	Term
1st		Julian Huxley	United Kingdom	1946–1948
2nd		Jaime Torres Bodet	Mexico	1948–1952
–		John Wilkinson Taylor	United States	acting 1952–1953
3rd		Luther Evans	United States	1953–1958
4th		Vittorino Veronese	Italy	1958–1961
5th		René Maheu	France	acting 1961; 1961–1974
6th		Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow	Senegal	1974–1987
7th		Federico Mayor Zaragoza	Spain	1987–1999
8th		Koïchiro Matsuura	Japan	1999–2009
9th		Irina Bokova	Bulgaria	2009–2017
10th		Audrey Azoulay	France	2017–Incumbent

General Conference Meetings

This is a list of the UNESCO General Conference meetings since 1946:

Session	Location	Year	Chaired by	from
1st	Paris	1946	Léon Blum	France
2nd	Mexico City	1947	Manuel Gual Vidal	Mexico
3rd	Beirut	1948	Hamid Bey Frangie	Lebanon
1st extraordinary	Paris	1948
4th	Paris	1949	Edward Ronald Walker	Australia
5th	Florence	1950	Stefano Jacini	Italy
6th	Paris	1951	Howland H. Sargeant	United States
7th	Paris	1952	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	India
2nd extraordinary	Paris	1953
8th	Montevideo	1954	Justino Zavala Muniz	Uruguay
9th	New Delhi	1956	Abul Kalam Azad	India
10th	Paris	1958	Jean Berthoin	France
11th	Paris	1960	Akale-Work Abte-Wold	Ethiopia
12th	Paris	1962	Paulo de Berrêdo Carneiro	Brazil
13th	Paris	1964	Norair Sisakian	Soviet Union
14th	Paris	1966	Bedrettin Tuncel	Turkey
15th	Paris	1968	William Eteki Mboumoua	Cameroon
16th	Paris	1970	Atilio Dell'Oro Maini	Argentina
17th	Paris	1972	Toru Haguiwara	Japan
3rd extraordinary	Paris	1973
18th	Paris	1974	Magda Jóború	Hungary
19th	Nairobi	1976	Taaita Toweett	Kenya
20th	Paris	1978	Napoléon LeBlanc	Canada
21st	Belgrade	1980	Ivo Margan	Yugoslavia
4th extraordinary	Paris	1982
22nd	Paris	1983	Saïd Tell	Jordan
23rd	Sofia	1985	Nikolai Todorov	Bulgaria
24th	Paris	1987	Guillermo Putzeys Alvarez	Guatemala
25th	Paris	1989	Anwar Ibrahim	Malaysia
26th	Paris	1991	Bethwell Allan Ogot	Kenya
27th	Paris	1993	Ahmed Saleh Sayyad	Yemen
28th	Paris	1995	Torben Krogh	Denmark
29th	Paris	1997	Eduardo Portella	Brazil
30th	Paris	1999	Jaroslava Moserová	Czech Republic
31st	Paris	2001	Ahmad Jalali	Iran
32nd	Paris	2003	Michael Omolewa	Nigeria
33rd	Paris	2005	Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan	Oman
34th	Paris	2007	Georgios Anastassopoulos	Greece
35th	Paris	2009	Davidson Hepburn	Bahamas
36th	Paris	2011	Katalin Bogyay	Hungary
37th	Paris	2013	Hao Ping	China
38th	Paris	2015	Stanley Mutumba Simataa	Namibia
39th	Paris	2017	Zohour Alaoui	Morocco
40th	Paris	2019	Ahmet Altay Cengizer	Turkey
41st	Paris	2021	Santiago Irazabal Mourão	Brazil
42nd	Paris	2023	Simona Miculescu	Romania

Executive Board Members

Elections are held every two years. 58 representatives are chosen to serve for four years.

UNESCO Offices Around the World

The Garden of Peace at UNESCO headquarters

UNESCO's main office is in Place de Fontenoy in Paris, France. Many architects helped build it. It has a "Garden of Peace" given by Japan. This garden was designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1958. In 1994–1995, a special room for quiet thought was built by Tadao Ando.

UNESCO has offices all over the world. These offices are grouped by their purpose and location.

Field Offices by Region

Africa

• Abidjan – Office for Côte d'Ivoire
• Abuja – Office for Nigeria
• Accra – Office for Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo
• Addis Ababa – Office working with the African Union
• Bamako – Office for Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger
• Brazzaville – Office for the Republic of the Congo
• Bujumbura – Office for Burundi
• Dakar – Main education office for Africa and office for Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal
• Dar es Salaam – Office for Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Tanzania
• Harare – Office for Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe
• Juba – Office for South Sudan
• Kinshasa – Office for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Libreville – Office for the Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe
• Maputo – Office for Mozambique
• Nairobi – Main science office for Africa and office for Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda
• Windhoek – Office for Namibia
• Yaoundé – Office for Cameroon, Central African Republic and Chad

Arab States

• Amman – Office for Jordan
• Beirut – Main education office for Arab States and office for Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine
• Cairo – Main science office for Arab States and office for Egypt and Sudan
• Doha – Office for Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen
• Iraq – Office for Iraq (currently in Amman, Jordan)
• Khartoum – Office for Sudan
• Manama – Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage
• Rabat – Office for Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia
• Ramallah – Office for the Palestinian Territories

Asia and Pacific

• Almaty – Office for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
• Apia – Office for Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Tokelau
• Bangkok – Main education office for Asia and the Pacific and office for Thailand, Burma, Laos, Singapore and Vietnam
• Beijing – Office for North Korea, Japan, Mongolia, the People's Republic of China and South Korea
• Dhaka – Office for Bangladesh
• Hanoi – Office for Vietnam
• Islamabad – Office for Pakistan
• Jakarta – Main science office for Asia and the Pacific and office for the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and East Timor
• Manila – Office for the Philippines
• Kabul – Office for Afghanistan
• Kathmandu – Office for Nepal
• New Delhi – Office for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka
• Phnom Penh – Office for Cambodia
• Tashkent – Office for Uzbekistan
• Tehran – Office for Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan

Europe and North America

• Brussels – Office working with the European Union
• Geneva – Office working with the United Nations in Geneva
• New York City – Office working with the United Nations in New York
• Venice – Main science and culture office in Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

Carondelet Palace, Presidential Palace in Quito, Ecuador. The Historic Center of Quito was one of the first places to be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978.

• Brasília – Office for Brazil
• Guatemala City – Office for Guatemala
• Havana – Main culture office for Latin America and the Caribbean and office for Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Aruba
• Kingston – Office for Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago as well as British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten
• Lima – Office for Peru
• Mexico City – Office for Mexico
• Montevideo – Main science office for Latin America and the Caribbean and office for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
• Port-au-Prince – Office for Haiti
• Quito – Office for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela
• San José – Office for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama
• Santiago de Chile – Main education office for Latin America and the Caribbean and office for Chile

Partner Organizations

UNESCO works with other important groups, such as:

• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
• Blue Shield International (BSI)
• International Council of Museums (ICOM)
• International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
• International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL)

UNESCO's Tools and Services

• UNESDOC Database – This is a huge online library. It has over 146,000 UNESCO documents published since 1945.

Information Tools

UNESCO creates and shares free software for managing information and analyzing data.

• CDS/ISIS – A system for storing and finding information. It can be used on one computer or in a network.
• OpenIDAMS – A software for working with numbers and data. UNESCO is making it available as open-source.
• IDIS – A tool that helps CDS/ISIS and IDAMS share data directly.

See also

In Spanish: Unesco para niños

• Academic mobility network
• League of Nations archives
• UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists
• UNESCO Reclining Figure 1957–58, a sculpture by Henry Moore
• UniRef
• National Commissions for UNESCO