The Trump administration says it is leaving the United Nations’ culture and education agency, Unesco, because of its support for “woke, divisive cultural and social causes” – a decision the organisation’s chief has described as “regrettable” but “anticipated”, the BBC reports.
The Paris-based UN agency was established just after the end of the Second World War, in November 1945, to promote peace and security through global co-operation in education, arts, sciences, and culture. It has 194 member states around the world and is best known for listing world heritage sites.
The BBC reports that the US state department said Unesco’s “globalist, ideological agenda for international development” was “at odds with our America First foreign policy”.
It also described the inclusion of the Palestinians in Unesco in 2011, as “highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization”.
However, Unesco’s Director General, Audrey Azoulay, is reported as saying that these claims “contradict the reality of Unesco’s efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism”.
She added: “This decision contradicts the fundamental principles of multilateralism, and may affect first and foremost our many partners in the United States of America − communities seeking site inscription on the World Heritage List, Creative City status, and University Chairs.”
Image: Unesco, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons