Trump’s Unesco withdrawal is part of a broader assault on democracy | Liesl Gerntholtz and Julie Trebault
DOnald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States a second time from what is essentially the lighthouse of world culture and heritage – UNESCO – is depressing but not surprising given the lack of respect for the administration for art and culture which celebrates the diversity of humanity in all its fullness. But it is always a serious error in moral leadership that harms the global position of the United States on freedom of expression, human rights and democracy.
Earlier this year, he triggered a takeover of the programming and content of the Kennedy Center, and linked the national endowment for the arts (NEA) and the national endowment for the human sciences (NEH) to very partisan ideological conditions. Meanwhile, government attempts in government in schools rewrite the whole American history.
Trump has also systematically abolished the United States from the global obligations related to health, human rights and the improvement of society. This includes the withdrawal of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Human Rights Council (CDH) and in fact the dismantling of the American Agency for International Development (USAID).
It was just a matter of time before UNESCO – the United Nations educational, scientific, scientific and cultural organization – was not criticized, representing as it does all that the White House Trump Rails. The head of Unesco was not surprised, saying that the last time Trump was in power and withdrew the United States from the organization, they had considerably reduced their dependence on American funding and would continue his mission.
Why is this withdrawal important? It can surely be reduced to another tactic of strong arms designed to make the headlines and give the administration other “America First” policies to boast. Unfortunately, with regard to culture, it is not so simple.
Culture is under fire when democracy is dying. Imprisonment by writers, artists and cultural figures by Russia who question the official accounts on the war against Ukraine; Or the destruction by the Taliban of Buddhas Bamiyans – these are examples of the way in which culture becomes both a target and a battlefield because it represents identity, memory and freedom of thought – the very things that authoritarianism seeks to control or erase.
What the American administration has rejected as “awake” is in fact the preservation of the democratic ideals of UNESCO, the teaching of the world of precious lessons based on history and the protection of artistic freedom – all the things that autocrats consider a threat to their ability to control the story. It is not a little irony that the recognition of Palestine by the organization was also used as an excuse for withdrawal, when UNESCO is one of the leaders in the education of the Holocaust in the world, and Palestine itself suffers close to total cultural erasure.
It would be a serious mistake for the United States not to recognize that Trump’s disdain for cultural preservation is part of a broader attack on human rights, democracy, free expression and artistic freedom. It is a repeated story around the world and over time. It should be noted that one of the few countries to also withdraw from UNESCO was South Africa, which retired in 1955 to protest against UNESCO’s position against apartheid. During this period of isolation, the apartheid government has intensified its control over culture and education, seeking to closely control the story in South Africa and on a global scale of its discriminatory policies.
There is still time to reverse this decision. Pen America, who defends freedom of expression worldwide and arc, connection artists who protect artistic freedom, urges the congress to oppose this last decision to isolate the United States in the world and to guarantee that the country continues to fulfill its international obligations on human rights. Donors and American foundations should also increase support for writers, journalists and the media, artists and cultural institutions, and defenders of freedom of expression in countries affected by the closure of American foreign aid.
By working with UNESCOTO commemorates apartheid resistance sites when it joined in 1994, South Africa showed how global commitment can honor the truth and build an inclusive memory; The United States, on the other hand, may lose this same moral leadership by withdrawing from the very institution which makes this progress possible.
