UNESCO’S ARK: 80 YEARS OF JOURNEY TO AN UNATTAINABLE GOAL

Abstract

An article dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) analyzes the path taken by this important international institution to the lofty goals that were enshrined in its Constitution in 1945. The philosophical, historical and international legal prerequisites for the creation of a specialized organization in the field of humanitarian cooperation are considered. The organic ideological connection of the UNESCO Constitution with such a fundamental document of the entire UN system as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is revealed.

The statutory mission of UNESCO is most clearly expressed in an unattainably high, but truly Kantian formula: “a peace based only on the economic and political agreements of governments will not be able to win the unanimous, lasting and sincere support of peoples; it must be based, to avoid failure, on the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.”^[4]. The subsequent course of history confirmed both the practical unattainability of this ideal and its enduring value as a goal for the development of the civilization of homo sapiens.

Some vicissitudes of the development of relations between the Soviet Union, and later the Russian Federation with UNESCO, are considered. Ways to overcome such a long-standing problem of UNESCO as the politicization of program activities are outlined. On almost any issue within the competence of the Organization, progress can be made, if the member states show good will, refrain from raising imaginary issues or politicizing real problems, and if no country or group of countries seeks any privileged position in the Organization, which is incompatible itself with the essence of multilateral international cooperation.

At the same time, there is a need to modernize the Organization, increase its efficiency, and concentrate its activity on solving problems that require the unification of the intellectual forces of whole mankind.