United States contributions to the Children's Fund will be submitted to the Eighty-second Congress at the earliest practicable date. In the meantime UNICEF has sufficient funds to enable it to carry out commitments it has already undertaken. 7. Cultural Activities The Charter of the United Nations named international educational and cultural cooperation among the means of creating conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations. The United Nations has itself taken on certain projects in this field, although it relies in the main on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to develop and carry out educational, scientific, and what might be broadly termed cultural programs. UNESCO is the specialized agency which was established to help accomplish the broad purposes of the United Nations by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science, and culture. It works closely with the United Nations and with other specialized agencies under formal agreements and by continuous consultation on matters of mutual concern. One of the important U.N. programs, which is both a means and an end, is the achievement of a real understanding by the peoples of the world of the purposes and principles of the United Nations and of its activities. Such understanding is essential if the United Nations is to survive and if it is to do the job the peoples of the world want and expect it to do. A constructive step was taken during 1950 by the completion of a report entitled "Teaching about the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies." The report, prepared by the United Nations and UNESCO at the express request of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, gives helpful information on what is being taught about the United Nations, how it is being taught, what have been the main obstacles and difficulties encountered so far, and how they may be overcome. Even though the present report does not give all the answers to these questions, it is valuable in its suggestions for meeting the problem of education for international understanding and for creating the public support for the work of the United Nations and the specialized agencies which is essential to their success. The United Nations has also addressed itself to the basic problem of the encouragement of scientific research which, financed and car ried out on an international scale, might benefit all countries. This concept recognizes the difficulty smaller countries have in financing expensive research projects, although they may number among their nationals the best qualified persons in some particular fields. In 1950 the Economic and Social Council examined a number of projects recommended by a committee of scientists, established jointly by the United Nations and UNESCo for this purpose, and determined that they should move ahead on the preparation of detailed plans for the first such project, an international computation center, and appraise the relative value of additional projects in such fields of research as the brain, the heart, and meteorology. Attention was given as well to the problem of obtaining maps adequate for the needs of technical assistance and for the most efficient development of such activities as transport and agriculture in certain areas of the world. Certain earlier work on developing standardized maps of the world had lagged; different needs had arisen in fields such as aviation; and new methods of mapping had been developed. A committee established by the United Nations has worked out universal needs and aims in this field, and a program to carry on plans for uniform mapping of the world under a small U.N. unit is now under way. The character of UNESCO's program as the U.N. specialized agency for this general field was initially determined by three factors: first, the content, procedures, and scope of international cultural cooperation as it had grown up before World War II; second, the theory that human behavior can be altered by educational processes; and finally, the conviction that educational, scientific, and cultural reconstruction of war-devastated areas was essential and should be carried out internationally in order to tap greater resources and to promote wider loyalty to the international community. There were also implicit in the early planning for UNESCO two ideas which have become more and more explicit in defining the organization's program, namely, that the educational, scientific, and cultural resources of underdeveloped areas should be developed with international assistance and that intellectual and moral forces should be marshaled to support the United Nations. In these early years one of the most important accomplishments of UNESCO has been the development of the process of joint thinking and action through which the program of the organization evolves. In this development UNESCO has been hampered not only by the fatigue, cynicism, and escapism of many intellectual leaders but also by a sense of the great disparity between the agency's resources and the world problems which it is called upon to help solve if its existence is to be justified. UNESCO has tried to overcome its own limitations by tapping the good will, professional skill, and other resources that exist to some degree in every country. This was done on the widest scale in the program of educational, scientific, and cultural reconstruction of war-devastated areas. Much of the experience thus gained has been turned to account in setting up the organization's technical-assistance service. In the latter activity, UNESCO operates with funds made available out of the United Nations Special Account and specializes in fundamental education and scientific development, these being the aspects of its program which contribute directly to economic development. UNESCO has been allotted 14 percent of the United Nations Technical Assistance Fund and now has contracts with 13 governments. Several missions have already been organized. In a general sense much of UNESCO's work takes the form of technical assistance. Educational advisory missions have been sent to a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Bolivia, India, the Philippines, and Thailand. The Science Cooperation Offices, located in Cairo, New Delhi, Manila, and Montevideo, serve their respective regions as channels of interchange of scientific information. They also act as centers of cooperation in building up the scientific resources and facilities of each area. For example, the Montevideo office arranged for and sponsored a traveling exhibit on the fundamentals of science which was visited by thousands of people in Latin American countries. In southeast Asia the Manila and New Delhi offices have collaborated with the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East in a survey of local resources for scientific research. UNESCO's role in helping to equip the peoples of the world for modern living goes beyond the fields of education and science. Very early in its history the organization discovered a wide gap between the possibilities of mass communication and the actual facilities in existence. One of UNESCO's first tasks, therefore, was to start a survey of the world's press, radio, and film resources. In May 1950 the first comprehensive report was published under the title "World Communications." It is not final or complete, but it is an essential guide for anyone who plans an international information program or hopes to develop closer contacts among people of different countries by the use of press, radio, and films. This volume and the studies on which it is based are also related to the program for improvement of the means and techniques of communication. One method employed in this program is technical training by means of fellowships and study grants. Another is the use of advisory missions; for example, UNESCO has recently sent a team of three experts to Turkey to work on radio and film problems. The activities mentioned so far are examples of mutual assistance to raise educational, scientific, and cultural levels, with UNESCO serving as an activating and facilitating agency. UNESCO serves much the same purpose-that of stimulating and fostering activities which go far beyond its own resources-in developing joint international action for the solution of common problems. Such projects range from international seminars in the teaching of history and geography and the use of public libraries for adult education to the development of programs to help bring the people of Germany and Japan into constructive participation in international affairs. This class of projects includes several which directly reach and involve large numbers of people in different countries. During the past 2 years school and community groups in many countries have studied and discussed the problem of "Food and People," using materials prepared under the auspices of UNESCO. Another activity, which started as an American idea and is now carried on in other countries, is International Theatre Month. In March 1950, under the sponsorship of the American National Theatre and Academy and the United States National Commission for UNESCO, almost 500 programs were produced on the themes of world peace through international understanding and universal respect for human rights. All kinds of theatrical groups took part, both professional and amateur. The International Theatre Institute has adopted the plan, and International Theatre Month 1951 will be observed in many countries. From the beginning UNESCO has engaged in activities to assist or support the work of the United Nations. In addition to its program for education about the United Nations and specialized agencies, already mentioned, UNESCO stresses teaching about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has begun to stimulate education about collective action against aggression under the United Nations. This last development was decided upon by the Executive Board of UNESCO in August 1950, following the action of the United Nations to repel aggression in Korea. UNESCO has also undertaken to cooperate in the reconstruction of Korea through the United Nations. The United States National Commission for UNESCO, established by an act of Congress to advise this Government on UNESCO matters. has cooperated fully in carrying out UNESCO's program. D. HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUN- With the outbreak of aggression in 1950, the basic contrast between the objectives of the U.S.S.R. and its adherents and the objectives of the free nations became even clearer than previously. The former continued to press in the United Nations for acceptance of the view that the individual exists for the advancement of the interests of the community as represented by the state alone and that the state alone should determine what is good for its citizens. They insisted that the establishment of international machinery with respect to the observ. ance of human rights and fundamental freedoms would constitute an attempt at intervention in the domestic affairs of states and would encroach on state sovereignty. The free nations, however, pressed for the establishment of international machinery to safeguard the basic rights and freedoms of everyone everywhere. They insisted that the establishment of international machinery is indispensable to protect the individual against the totalitarian attack led today by the U.S.S.R. The Commission on Human Rights continued to be the focal point for the development of general principles and machinery in the field of human rights in the United Nations. The Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly expressed their views in 1950 on the work proceeding in the Commission on Human Rights, and the Commission will accordingly review its recommendations in 1951 in the light of the discussion in the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. The main lines of effort in the field of human rights described in this section are problems concerning the completion of the International Covenant on Human Rights, freedom of information, status of women, genocide, and the prevention of discrimination and the protection of minorities. 1. Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities The Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities devoted most of its 1950 session to the preparation of a definition of minorities and the interim measures which should be taken for the protection of minorities. |