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recommendation and a preliminary draft of the recommendation. 10 Based on the comments it received from the Member States, the Secretariat drew up a revised draft of the recommendation. 11 This Secretariat draft served as the basis for the deliberations of the Committee of Experts. The Committee in plenary session examined, revised and voted on the provisions of the Secretariat draft, proceeding paragraph by paragraph. The Committee then voted the text of the draft recommendation as a whole. Although there had been considerable disagreement on a few individual provisions and some close votes on others, the Committee of Experts adopted the final version of the draft recommendation by a unanimous vote that included the United States. 12 This draft recommendation was taken up by the UNESCO General Conference at its eighteenth session, which met from October 17 to November 23, 1974. It had been generally assumed that the unanimity of the Committee of Experts ensured that the recommendation would be adopted by the General Conference without any objections or changes. This expectation was not fully realized because Peru introduced an amendment to the draft recommendation adding the following provisions: "Education should emphasize the true interests of peoples and their incompatibility with the interests of monopolistic groups holding economic and political power, which practise exploitation and foment war." The amendment encountered strong opposition from the U.S. and some other delegations who urged Peru to withdraw it. That effort failed and the amendment was included in the recommendation. 13 The instrument as a whole was then put to a vote and adopted by the General Conference by a vote of 76 to 5 (U.S., Australia, France, Canada, Federal Republic of Germany).

The negative vote of the U.S., as its delegation was careful to explain, was designed solely to record the opposition of the U.S. to the Peruvian amendment; it was not intended to detract from U.S. support for the 1974 UNESCO Recommendation as a whole. In its report to the Secretary of State, the Chairman of the U.S. delegation to the 1974 General Conference emphasized that "the Delegation had been prepared to vote for the Recommendation but felt compelled, as a matter of principle, to register its strong disapproval of the Peruvian amendment which, in its view, was totally out of place as part of the Recommendation.

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Given the long-standing commitment of the U.S. to international education, it might have made more sense for the U.S. to vote for the Recommendation and, at the same time, to formally record its rejection of the Peruvian amendment. The pedagogic objection to the Peruvian amendment derives from the fact that the provision is included in the section of the Recommendation dealing with "ethical and civic aspects" of education. It belongs, if at all, in the section devoted to the "study of the major problems of mankind," which lists important contemporary issues that education should address. In these days of oil embargoes and economic boycotts, the U.S. has little reason to object to the study and free discussion of all the issues that are raised by the Peruvian amendment.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENT OF THE RECOMMENDATION

PREAMBLE

The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, meeting in Paris from 17 October to 23 November 1974, at its eighteenth session,

Mindful of the responsibility incumbent on States to achieve through education the aims set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, the Constitution of Unesco, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War of 12 August 1949, in order to promote international understanding, co-operation and peace and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Reaffirming the responsibility which is incumbent on Unesco to encourage and support in Member States any activity designed to ensure the education of all for the advancement of justice, freedom, human rights and peace,

Noting nevertheless that the activity of Unesco and of its Member States sometimes has an impact only on a small minority of the steadily growing numbers of schoolchildren, students, young people and adults continuing their education, and educators, and that the curricula and methods of international education are not always attuned to the needs and aspirations of the participating young people and adults,

Noting moreover that in a number of cases there is still a wide disparity between proclaimed ideals, declared intentions and the actual situation, Having decided, at its seventeenth session, that this education should be the subject of a recommendation to Member States,

Adopts this nineteenth day of November 1974, the present recommendation.

The Preamble of the UNESCO Recommendation refers to UN and UNESCO instruments in their common stress on education as a way of furthering international understanding, cooperation, and peace by promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms. It reaffirms the special role of UNESCO and recognizes the previous failure of education to meet needs in this area, thereby providing a justification for the Recommendation.

The "disparity between proclaimed ideals, declared intentions, and the actual situation" noted in the Preamble, paragraph 4, will be considered in Chapter II which describes the history of international education. Chapter VI will deal with students' knowledge and awareness in order to make it more likely that in the future curriculum materials and teaching methods will be better "attuned to the needs and aspirations of the participating young people and adults." (Preamble, para.3.)

The remaining provisions of the Preamble make clear the responsibilities of Member States to disseminate to educational authorities the contents of the document and require that reports be submitted by Member States to UNESCO on actions they have taken. These matters were discussed in the preceding section where we considered the legal status of the Recommendation.

I. SIGNIFICANCE OF TERMS

1. For the purposes of this recommendation:

(a) The word education implies the entire process of social life by means of which individuals and social groups learn to develop consciously within, and for the benefit of, the national and international communities, the whole of their personal capacities, attitudes, aptitudes and knowledge. This process is not limited to any specific activities.

(b) The terms international understanding, co-operation and peace are to be considered as an indivisible whole based on the principle of friendly relations between peoples and States having different social and political systems and on the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. In the text of this recommendation, the different connotations of these terms are sometimes gathered together in a concise expression, “international education".

(c) Human rights and fundamental freedoms are those defined in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and on Civil and Political Rights.

II. SCOPE

2. This recommendation applies to all stages and forms of education. This definition of education, which strikes American educators as very broad, can be understood in terms of the context of the whole document which stresses that formal schooling is not the only type of education which deserves scrutiny and improvement. The statement of scope in Section II also reflects an inclusive point of view. This is common UNESCO phraseology and tends to be interpreted by different Member States according to the structure and focus of their own educational systems.

Four outcomes of education are specified in the definition: personal capacities, attitudes, aptitudes, and knowledge. Of these the term knowledge is probably the easiest to specify, dealing as it does with a very large set of cognitive objectives. This might include, for example, knowledge of the political geography of the world, of instruments designed to protect human rights, of processes of foreign policy-making, of the existence of international organizations and their activities.

Attitudes are also recognized in this definition as being influenced by education. These affective objectives of education might encompass such things as positive support for internationally established guarantees of rights and freedoms, a preference for negotiation or conciliation rather than violent solutions to international conflicts, and positive feelings about persons from cultural backgrounds which are dissimilar to one's own.

Personal capacities and aptitudes are also included in the definition. Throughout the Recommendation there is a focus upon personal involvement

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and active participation by the individual. Under the category of personal capacities it is appropriate, therefore, to include the individual's motivation to be active in seeking economic and social well being and human rights for the self and others, interest in discussing international issues, and willingness to participate in a variety of organizations and groups which have potential for problem-solving in global society. Also important here is the development of the capacities or skills necessary for effective participation. This includes skills in analyzing political communication and the ability to communicate effectively with others, which includes seeing their points of view as well as cooperating with them in seeking common goals. The definition also stresses the role of education in enabling the individual to reach the highest possible level of personal development.

Part (b) of the definition relates three of the elements of the Recommendation - international understanding, cooperation, and peace to each other as "an indivisible whole" based on two principles: "friendly relations between peoples and States having different social and political systems" and "respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms." This is the first of several places in the document where stress is placed on the close relationship between education for peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms. The recognition that, from the point of view of education, there is an interdependence between international understanding, cooperation, peace and respect for human rights is a major breakthrough represented by this Recommendation. In many places in this document, including part (c) of the definition, the centrality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Human Rights Covenants is noted. The UN Charter was added to the listing in part (c) upon the suggestion of the U.S. delegation at the Committee of Governmental Experts because it makes the definition of human rights less static (see Chapter III). Particular stress is placed upon the recognition by students of the importance of these documents, acceptance and internalization of their principles, an awareness of barriers to their realization in practice, and a knowledge of United Nations institutions which attempt to implement them.

III. GUIDING PRINCIPLES

3. Education should be infused with the aims and purposes set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, the Constitution of Unesco and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly Article 26, paragraph 2, of the last-named, which states: "Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace." The Guiding Principles are the heart of any UNESCO recommendation. The first paragraph of Section III reiterates the important documents pertaining to

human rights, implies (by use of the term "infuse") that all levels of education are to be permeated with these concerns, and quotes from the Universal Declaration regarding the role of education.

4. In order to enable every person to contribute actively to the fulfilment of the aims referred to in paragraph 3, and promote international solidarity and co-operation, which are necessary in solving the world problems affecting the individuals' and communities' life and exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms, the following objectives should be regarded as major guiding principles of educational policy:

(a) an international dimension and a global perspective in education at all levels and in all its forms;

(b) understanding and respect for all peoples, their cultures, civilizations, values and ways of life, including domestic ethnic cultures and cultures of other nations;

(c) awareness of the increasing global interdependence between peoples and nations;

(d) abilities to communicate with others;

(e) awareness not only of the rights but also of the duties incumbent
individuals, social groups and nations towards each other;

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(f) understanding of the necessity for international solidarity and cooperation;

(g) readiness on the part of the individual to participate in solving the problems of his community, his country and the world at large.

This paragraph of the Guiding Principles introduces the problem-centered focus for education, the active participation of the individual, and the role of international cooperation.

The U.S. delegation at the Committee of Experts participated in making the language in this section congruent with current educational concepts in the United States. For example, the draft version of the Recommendation prepared by the Secretariat had used phrases such as "a global approach to education", which was confusing in its implication, implying (at least in English) that the "whole child" was to be considered rather than the whole world. After this confusion had been discussed, it became clear that there was basic agreement among the large majority of governmental experts on the meaning and appropriateness of the phrase "an international dimension and a global perspective in education".

The term "a global perspective" can be thought of as encompassing capacities, attitudes, and knowledge which are enumerated in the definition. "Perspective" implies a set of basic assumptions or a way of looking at

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