Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Korea to UNESCO

Summary

• Official Name: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
• Established on November 16 1945
• Specialized agency of the United Nations
• Some countries withdrew from the Organization for political reasons (e.g. the Organization’s tendency toward developing countries between 70’s and 80’s), but they all rejoined UNESCO. United States of America from 1985 to 2003, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1986 to 1997 and Singapore from 1986 to 2007.

Objectives and Functions

Objectives

• Promoting international cooperation through education, science and culture
• Improving general respect for justice, rules of law, human rights as well as basic freedoms
• Contributing to the peace and security

Functions

• laboratory of ideas :Foresight to discover main issues as well as related strategies and policies
• standard-setter :identifying main ethical, normative, intellectual issues and establishing regulations
• clearing house :collecting and distributing information, knowledge, and precedent; constructing and testing innovative projects.
• capacity-builder in Member States :reinforcing intellectual and institutional capability of the member countries
• catalyst for international cooperation :playing a role of catalyst for cooperation and development

Member States

• 194 Member States and 10 Associate Members
• Requirements and procedures
  • Group I: Western Europe, North America
  • Group II: Eastern Europe
  • Group III: Latin America
  • Group IV: Asia Pacific 
  • Group V (a): Africa
  • Group V (b): Arab