Outline of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
March 2013
1. Establishment, Location:
| November 16, 1945 | UNESCO Constitution adopted in London |
| November 4, 1946 | UNESCO Constitution comes into effect. Headquarters located in Paris |
(Japan joins UNESCO on July 2, 1951)
2. Purpose:
The purpose of the Organization is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations of the world through education, science and culture, in order 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, by the Charter of the United Nations. (UNESCO Constitution , Article 1, Paragraph 1.)
3. Number of Member States:
195 Member States and 8 Associate Members
4. Amount of Regular Budget (for two years):
| 2012-2013: | USD 653,000,000 |
| 2010-2011: | USD 653,000,000 |
5. Scale of Assessments of Major Countries (2013 Budget): Top Five Countries
US (22%), Japan (10.834%), Germany (7.142%), France (5.594%), UK (5.179%),
6. Japan's Share of Contributions:
| 2013: | Approximately 3,080 million yen |
| 2012: | Approximately 4,000 million yen |
| 2011: | Approximately 3,670 million yen |
7. Secretariat:
(1) Director-General
Irina Bokova (former Ambassador of Bulgaria to France and UNESCO)
Ms. Bokova is the ninth Director-General. She was appointed to a four-year term in November 2009.
Koichiro Matsuura (former Ambassador of Japan to France)
Mr. Matsuura is the eighth Director-General. He was appointed to a six-year term in November 1999 and reelected to a four-year term (from November 2005 to November 2009).
(2) Secretariat Staff (Note: staff from all sources of funding at all levels, as of January 1, 2013)
- Number of staff: 2,264
- Japanese staff: 57
(Note: regarding the desirable number of staff members (professionals or above) by nationality (the total is 1,088), Japan achieves normal representation with 36 staff members, which ranks theird after France, U.S.A., as of January 2013.)
8. Outline of Projects:
International intellectual cooperation (international conferences of experts, liaison of international academic projects, information exchange, publications, etc.) in fields including education, science, culture and communication, as well as support projects in developing countries.
9. Japan's Contributions:
(1) UNESCO was the first UN organization that Japan joined after World War II. Japan's entry in 1951 marked its post-war return to the international community.
Today, Japan shoulders the second largest share of the UNESCO Regular Budget, after the US. In addition to its financial contribution, Japan has contributed to the administrative operation of UNESCO as a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO, which oversees administrative operation (there were individual representatives on the Executive Board until 1991 when the system was changed under a Japanese proposal for institutional reform).
(2) In addition to this, Japan is cooperating with the programmes that UNESCO carries out in various ways. Japan established the UNESCO Japanese Trust Fund for the Preservation of the World Cultural Heritage, the UNESCO Japanese Trust Fund for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage etc., Japan also advances various cooperations, which include the financing of projects in the fields of communication, natural sciences relating to oceanography and environmental problems and education. Japan also participates in the dispatch and exchange of experts and researchers from abroad in these fields.
Furthermore, to support UNESCO projects for the promotion of education and the capacity-building of human resources in developing countries, Japan established Funds- in-Trust within UNESCO such as the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the Capacity-building of Human Resources (since 2000) and the Funds-in-Trust for the Education for All Programmes (since 2002).
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