UNESCO

UNESCO is an acronym for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The organization intends to build peace through international cooperation in education, sciences, and culture. UNESCO's programmes contribute to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015. The specialized agency of the United Nations addresses global issues via negotiation of conventions, recommendations, declarations, the production of publications and information campaigns, and technical cooperation and capacity building in different fields of competence.

The precursor to UNESCO is the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation ICIC, which was established in Geneva under the League of Nations in 1922. The cooperation at the time was comprised of scholars, like Albert Einstein—the German-born theoretical physicist, Marie Curie—the Polish-French physicist and chemist, and others. A Japanese scholar named Inazo Nitobe, who was at that time one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League, became a founding director of ICIC.

The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) was established in 1926 in Paris after receiving financial aid from the French government to go ahead on plans and policies made by ICIC. IIIC was an institution with activities in different fields like universities, libraries, intellectual property, arts, information and media. When World War II began, the IIIC's activities were suspended. At the end of the war in November 1945, a United Nations Conference for the creation of an educational and cultural organization was carried out in London and attended by representatives from forty-four countries. The conference was initiated by France and the United Kingdom, and the different delegates decided to develop an organization that would herald a culture of peace. By the end of the conference, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was established and the Constitution of UNESCO, which was signed on the 16th of November 1945, came into effect on the 4th of November 1946.