UNESCO's first 45 years

UNESCO Courier, Nov, 1991 by Michel Conil Lacoste

* Poland and Hungary (followed by Czechoslovakia in 1953) withdraw temporarily from UNESCO. They renew co-operation with UNESCO in 1954. Similar temporary decisions mark the relations between East European countries and other UN institutions in the early 1950s.

Education

* The Arab States Fundamental Education Centre (ASFEC) is founded and established in Egypt.

* The first regional conference on the development of compulsory free primary education is held in Bombay.

* UNESCO provides the UN with the first statistics on women's education, covering 120 countries and territories.

* The World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP) is founded in Copenhagen. The other leading federations of teachers with which UNESCO works closely are: the World Federation of Teachers' Unions, the International Federation of Free Teachers' Unions (IFFTU), and the World Confederation of Teachers (WCT).

Exact and natural sciences

* Louis de Broglie wins the first Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science, created 2 years earlier by an Indian industrialist, Mr. B. Patnaik, and awarded each year by UNESCO.

Social sciences

* The International Social Science Council (ISSC) is established at UNESCO's instigation. It currently groups 14 international social science associations and a federation of national and regional research bodies in the social sciences.

* The first issue of Diogenes appears. This international review of the humanities, founded by Roger Caillois, is published under the auspices of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies with UNESCO aid.

Since 1952 Diogenes has been published quarterly in English, French and Spanish, and, since 1986, in Arabic. Anthologies of Diogenes have been published for many years in Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese and, since 1985. in Chinese.

Culture

* UNESCO convenes a conference in Venice to consider the situation of the artist in the modern world.

Communication

* The first regional meeting of specialists on needs for communication training in Africa is held.

1953

General policy

* Luther Evans (U.S.A.) is elected Director-General for a 6-year term.

* A committee of U.S. delegates to the UNESCO General Conference is requested to appraise the Organization and its work ("the Saloman Report") following criticism of UNESCO in the American press.

Education

* UNESCO sets up an associated schools programme.

In 1991 this network comprises over 2,550 establishments (pre-school, primary, secondary, colleges of education, technical and professional schools) in 101 countries.

1954

General policy

* At Montevideo, the 8th Session of the General Conference decides that members of the Executive Board, while they should necessarily be competent in UNESCO's fields of activities, will henceforth represent governments of the States of which they are nationals. It adopts as the emblem of UNESCO a temple in the image of the Parthenon, in which Phidias saw "proportions rather than dimensions"--a symbol of the balance between nations that inspires UNESCO's activities and of its cultural mission.