US rejoins UNESCO

Every second year in autumn, UNESCO's General Conference brings together the representatives of its member states, now numbering 190. The major event this year was the return of the United States, after an absence of two decades. For the practically minded, this means a welcome addition to the organisation's financial resources. But the US is also the leading power in many fields of direct concern to UNESCO, foremost among them scientific and technological achievement and research.

In a widely acclaimed speech, Mrs Laura Bush, the United States first lady, recalled that her country shares UNESCO's goal of extending the benefits of science and technology to all nations and will continue to work closely with member states on joint research to foster scientific and sensible environmental policy and to monitor environmental changes around the world.

For Malta, too, this year represented a new experience in that it participated as an accession state of the European Union, as well as a member country of UNESCO. In addition to expressing its national position in the statement made by the education minister, Dr Louis Galea, Malta associated itself with the declaration made by the EU which noted:

"We, the countries of the European Union, believe more than ever that each organisation and agency of the United Nations has a role to play in peace-building and in bringing about global and equitable development, governed by tolerance and democracy and in agreement with the principles of the Millennium Declaration. UNESCO's main role is to deepen its thinking and action as regards conflict prevention."

Cultural diversity

The EU statement highlighted UNESCO's positive contribution in countries and regions that have recently suffered from crises and conflicts. The organisation has helped in the reconstitution of Afghanistan's museums and educational system. It has started to contribute to Iraq's historical heritage. It has given its assistance to Africa in the fields of education, health and poverty eradication. In Europe, it has taken part in the reconstruction of the Balkans. On the other hand, ongoing violence has not allowed UNESCO to attain its aims in the Middle East.

This year's General Conference is important also because of the normative advances it has been debating. Foremost among them is a convention on cultural diversity that would give legal force to the principles of the Charter adopted in 2001. As globalisation advances, there is a danger that countries become more uniform and differences in cultures get ironed out, involving a loss for humanity. The protection of diversity across the globe means the defence of the separate identities of nations and communities.

Addressing the General Conference, Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi waxed very eloquent on this subject. He said: "The European Union is an extraordinary example of diversities which have been harmonised and which identify themselves in a higher synthesis. It has done away for ever with the rationale of force from the principles governing its life. It has moved away from a system of alliances to a fully fledged community of destinies. It has superseded the rationale of the balance of power and of conflicts, and has pinned its faith in the paramount role of principles, values and rules. It has recognised the basis of the common European identity in the multiplicity of its roots and traditions."

The General Conference also has before it proposals for a convention on immaterial heritage, a declaration on human genetic data, a declaration on the wilful destruction of heritage and a recommendation on access to cyberspace. Many of these ideas take shape in international conventions before being translated into national laws.

Dr Galea emphasised that Malta's role in the European Union will be to foster cross-cultural relations in the Mediterranean neighbourhood. Speaking of the Maltese language and "its ancient derivation from Arabic, although it has subsequently imported many European elements", he stressed the significance of its adoption as one of the EU's official languages. "A semitic language, basically akin to both Arabic and Hebrew, is now legally recognised as a European language, because of the singular mix of cultures that Malta is."

Dr Galea recalled that Malta had already become the chosen seat of various international educational institutions, such as, the International Institute on Aging, the International Maritime Law Institute, and the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, and by now thousands of graduates from all over the world had benefited from their courses. He expressed Malta's readiness to put its facilities and experience at the disposal of UNESCO.

Dr Galea further spoke of Malta's pioneering efforts in the area of electronic and information technologies, which included a comprehensive IT literacy strategy in schools and out of schools, and extensive co-operation with other countries. Malta University was deeply engaged in major projects utilising cyberspace in collaboration with UNESCO, including a project to establish a network between historic dockyards in the Mediterranean, and the Avicenna project to set up a network of distant learning centres producing courses of a distinctly cross-cultural nature.

Education as freedom

Recalling that UNESCO had been "born of a yearning for peace that survived years of war," Mrs Bush reminded her audience that "literacy and liberty are natural allies, and they are the core missions of UNESCO. We must educate every person in reading and writing and their basic human rights."

She emphasised the organisation's aims "to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law, and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion." UNESCO's work is important because "education is the birthright of every human being - all the world's sons and all the world's daughters".

The European Union echoed the same view when it declared that education is an important contributor to human development and to equality among men and women. "UNESCO is one of the main actors in the realisation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concretely and visibly, through the diffusion of human knowledge. The development of communication and access to information for all are essential and indissociable to freedom of expression."

Mrs Bush expressed the hope that UNESCO would achieve results in four key areas of education. First, there was its commitment to literacy and to providing basic primary education for every person in every remote corner of the world by the year 2015. Illiteracy especially stifles the aspirations of women: two-thirds of the 900 million illiterate adults in the world are female. Learning empowers women to ask questions, to understand their rights, and to make their own decisions.

Secondly, education should be based on truth and tolerance. Thirdly, UNESCO can make a difference in the world through post-conflict education by helping to rebuild education systems in countries that have been affected by war and civil strife. Fourthly, UNESCO should emphasise education programmes that can make a life-or-death diffeence, for example, on the prevention and treatment of AIDS.

It is a tall order, and has to be added to UNESCO's work on the natural and cultural heritage, the ethics of science and bioethics, strengthening scientific and technological capabilities, social changes and international migration, and a thousand other issues falling within its mandate. Even the US's additional contribution, which is 22 per cent of the organisation's budget, will only help it scratch the surface of these problems.