U.S. withdraws from UNESCO over ‘divisive social and cultural causes’ : NPR
A photo taken on October 12, 2017 shows the logo of the headquarters of the United Nations, the Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
Jacques DeMarthon / AFP via Getty Images
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Jacques DeMarthon / AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration will remove the United Nations United States for the United Nations, Scientific and Cultural Nations (UNESCO)-about two years after the United States joined the group under Biden.
The agency focuses on the promotion of international collaboration in education, science and culture. It is best known for its list of world heritage sites, which recognize places with cultural or natural meaning.
On Tuesday, the spokesman for the US State Department Tammy Bruce said in a statement that participation in UNESCO was “not in the national interest of the United States”, accusing the United Nations agency to advance “the social and cultural causes”.
Audrey Azoulay, CEO of UNESCO, said that the decision was disappointing but planned. According to Azoulay, the withdrawal will take effect at the end of 2026.
“This decision contradicts the fundamental principles of multilateralism and can affect first and foremost our many partners in the United States of America – communities looking for the site’s registration on the World Heritage List, the status of the creative city and university chairs,” Azoulay said in a press release.
UNESCO has 194 Member States and oversees more than 1,200 World Heritage sites – 26 of which are located in the United States, including the statue of Liberty, Yosemite National Park and the Grand Canyon National Park. Sites added to the World Heritage List have access to international financing to help protection and conservation.
Among the reasons, Bruce gave the decision to withdraw from UNESCO, were the “disproportionate concentration” of the organization on the UN sustainable development objectives, which include the fight against poverty and hunger, as well as the promotion of gender equality and clean energy.
She described the objectives of “globalist and ideological program for international development in contradiction with our first foreign policy in America”.
Bruce said that the Trump administration also challenged UNESCO’s decision to admit Palestine’s state as a member in 2011.
“UNESCO’s decision to admit” the state of Palestine “as a member state is very problematic, unlike American policy, and has contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israeli rhetoric within the organization,” she said.
This is not the first time that the Trump administration has been withdrawing from UNESCO – this did it during President Trump’s first term in 2018 for similar concerns about anti -Israeli biases at the United Nations Agency.
Five years later, in 2023, the Biden administration joined UNESCO and announced its intention to pay more than $ 600 million on contributions.
UNESCO’s decision to include Palestine as a member has triggered a debate for years. In 2011, the Obama administration also opposed the decision and reduce the funding of the organization.
Michele Kelemen of NPR contributed the reports.
