UNESCO and Human Rights

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was set up in November 1945 as an autonomous UN organisation or specialised agency under Article 57 of the UN Charter. Human rights are at the heart of UNESCO’s mandate. Article I(1) of UNESCO’s Constitution states that the purpose of the Organisation is “…to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations 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.”
Following this mandate, Member States of UNESCO have adopted numerous legal instruments in the field of human rights, related to education, culture, science of communication. UNESCO has further developed many programmes and activities to advance and promote human rights in these fields. UNESCO also has a procedure to assess complaints about alleged human rights violations in its fields of competence. This chapter outlines the general structure and functioning of UNESCO, gives an overview of various instruments, strategy and activities of UNESCO in relation to human rights and discusses the communication procedure.