The United States and Israel officially quit the UNESCO at midnight a year ago. Donald Trump U.S. administration decided to exit UNESCO October last year, and Israel Minister Benjamin Netanyahu administration also did. They proclaim that UNESCO is biased against Israel. One of the main reasons of exit is that UNESCO named ancient Jewish sites as Palestinian heritage sites and granted full membership to Palestine in 2011. Israel UN envoy, Danny Danon, issued a proclamation about the cause of exit and their complaint.

▲ Logo of UNESCO

What is UNESCO? UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In 1945, the United Kingdom and France establish UNESCO foundation preparing committee. Then, UNESCO, which is composed of 20 countries, was founded in November 1946. It is the first Specialized Agency of the United Nations. Until 2015, there has been 195 full member countries and nine associate member countries. The headquarters of UNESCO is located in Paris, France. Korea entered UNESCO in 1950.

▲ 37th general session of UNESCO

UNESCO does many activities, and the roles are distinguished in three big parts. The first one is education. They try a crusade against illiteracy. Many developing countries' illiteracy rate is so high. They also endeavor elementary compulsory education and refugee education. The second one is science. There are nations of UNESCO research biology, oceanography, and environmental problem. UNESCO does not only research but also change information and study social science. The third one is cultural parts. UNESCO designates world heritage. Countries apply world heritage, and UNESCO explore the heritage, then they decided to designate. They also support to repair valuable heritage sites and preserve them. Besides, they try to develop radio, television, and movie and popularize.

▲ convention of UNESCO

UNESCO do many things worldwide. However, sometimes, problems occur because some nations have a complicated history. Korea-Japan, Israel-Palestine, China-Vietnam and many nations' history get tangled. This being so, UNESCO should be careful if they handle these nations' heritage. These countries' culture is not single. Two or three cultures are mixed. Nations need to consider each other and coordinate.

Jan. 13th, 2019

by Baek Jong Won