195-3
The USA's return to UNESCO and world peace
Meguro UNESCO Association, President, Reiko Kato
On 12 September 2002, President George Bush announced that his nation
wished to return to UNESCO at a speech in front of the United Nations General
Assembly . UNESCO is now proceeding with the procedure for welcoming the
USA's return to the organization, while the USA government is rearranging
their expenditure in order to raise the 60 million dollars affiliated money.
The increased budget arising from the USA's return enables UNESCO to conduct
wider activities for the world peace.
Soon after hearing Bush's announcement, Meguro UNESCO Association expressed their
happiness to welcome the USA's return to UNESCO, in order to meet the needs
to work for world peace in close cooperation. Meguro UNESCO Association
has repeatedly requested the early realization of the USA's return to UNESCO.
The USA's return to UNESCO was realized by responding to the request of
Koichiro Matsuura, the former Japanese ambassador to France and the first
Director-General of the UNESCO office chosen from Asian countries. In light
of this background, Meguro UNESCO Association is absolutely glad with the
USA's return to UNESCO.
Bush's announcement concerning the return to UNESCO was held on the day
just a year after the disastrous terrorist incident on 11 September 2001.
The announcement was made amongst public opinion calling for the nation's
revenge for the terrorist incident. As most of the speech stressed the
necessity for retaliatory action, not a few members of the audiences might
have missed hearing the words "As a Symbol of Our Commitment to Human
Dignity,the United States will return to UNESCO " At best, many in
the audience might suspect the true message of the announcement.
It is very important for us, as those committed to the local UNESCO movement,
to understand the significance of the USA's return to UNESCO. This is chiefly
because the USA is an overwhelming military country and enjoying its power
among the world competition.
We, as those committed to the UNESCO movement always keep the statements
of the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) in our minds. Now we can truly understand the statement
written in the latter part of the preface of the constitution; ‘that a
peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of
governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous, lasting
and sincere support of the peoples of the world’. World War II began from
the human beings' silliness, which could not learn from the regrettable
experience of World War I. However, on a day during World War II, some
intellectuals including representatives of the Ministries of Education
from several European countries gathered to London under the blackout,
in order to draw up a blueprint for building world peace. Soon after, this
blueprint became a starting point of the foundation of UNESCO. Due to the
historical background of the foundation of UNESCO, its members were registered
as individuals during the early days of the organization. However, soon
after, the organization came to consist of governmental representatives,
and by this, the organizational movement became influenced by political
intentions of each country. It is said that the USA's withdrawal from UNESCO
might be caused by their irritations towards being given only the same
voting rights as the newly appearing African countries. Despite its movement
possibly being influenced by political intentions of the countries, UNESCO
keeps its position as an important UN organization, which can deal with
the matters of world peace.
The Constitution of UNESCO mentions that it is the conscience of human
beings that realizes the true peace. We should deeply understand that it
is not by the political and economic arrangements of governments, as mentioned
in the preface of the constitution of UNESCO. ‘It is in the minds of men
that the defences of peace must be constructed.’ We should confirm what
this belief implies. Recently, the NGOs conduct their excellent activities
beyond the fields the governmental authorities cover. Some NGOs started
with small grass-roots movements and now have developed their capabilities
to worldwide bases beyond the boundaries of nations. It is clear that local
UNESCO movements have been expected to function since the foundation of
UNESCO. It is important for us to have peace in our minds, convey our wishes
for peace to loving neighbors, and make effort to build up world peace
in cooperation. UNESCO's intentions should be conveyed to our loving neighbors
in America, and those in Iraq.
Those committed to the UNESCO movement always feel anger towards conflicts
and are knocked down by sense of inefficacy because of not being able to
stop such conflicts. And now, we know that war cannot be stopped by another
force. Peace would recede as the sympathy from the advantaged to disadvantaged
would be lost. Our wishes for peace could come true when all people and
all the nations in the world keep mutual understanding towards the diversity
of culture, religions and races, and respect justice and freedom, and face
reality through repeated discussion based on the UNESCO's intentions. It
is the duty of individual human beings to convey UNESCO's intentions to
their neighbors. Such individual attempts would raise a big wave and bring
world peace into reality. The Constitution of UNESCO tells us that this
is not an unachievable dream and expects us to do individual duties for
this achievement.
The preface of UNESCO's constitution tells; ‘the peace must therefore
be founded, if it is not to fail,
upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.’ The starting point
of peace would exist here.