Paving the way for the US to rejoin UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is among the international forums to which President Donald Trump severed ties during his term in office (see Physics Today online, 13 March 2019 ). Scientists and policymakers hope the US will rejoin UNESCO on the coattails of returning to the Paris Agreement on climate and the World Health Organization—actions President Joe Biden took his first day in office—and other reversals anticipated with the new administration.

Officials from UNESCO and within the US government and science communities have been talking with the Biden transition team. “They are aware,” says Franklin Carrero-Martínez, who heads global sustainability programs at the US National Academy of Sciences. “We don’t know the final calculations, but we hope the US will rejoin soon—along with rejoining other international organizations.”

UNESCO’s goal is to foster peace, security, human rights, and sustainable development around the globe. Perhaps best known for its designation of World Heritage sites, the organization sets frameworks for such issues as open access to science, biodiversity, and sustainability. It served as midwife in the formation of CERN and, more recently, SESAME, the Middle East synchrotron light source in Jordan.

Among its current activities, UNESCO is responding to COVID-19 with measures to increase availability of education, with initiatives on its own and in support of such efforts by governments and other entities. The organization has trained more than 10 000 journalists on how to cover the pandemic. It is also drafting the first global recommendations on the ethics of artificial intelligence, scheduled for adoption in November. “The UNESCO AI initiative will certainly affect the US whether they are a member or not,” a UNESCO official says.

To rejoin, top US officials simply have to indicate a desire to return; as a member of the United Nations, the country has an automatic right to membership in UN agencies. A letter from the US administration would accord immediate membership, which would allow the US to participate in committees, meetings, and all activities except voting.

To regain full membership with voting rights, the US would have to pay its dues. The US owes more than $600 million in back dues; in keeping with a 1990 US law, it stopped paying in 2011 when Palestine was welcomed as a full member. Annual dues are based on GDP, and when the US ended its contributions, it punched a big hole in UNESCO’s budget. The organization cut staff and scaled back on activities.

The sticky question of dues will need to be addressed eventually, but proponents are keen for the US to rejoin as soon as possible. For one thing, US foundations can donate tax-free only if the US is a member. And membership makes it easier for international partners to collaborate with US scientists and foundations. “Money is important, but being together with other countries to tackle challenges related to education, science, and culture is the most crucial thing,” says Romain Murenzi, executive director of the World Academy of Sciences.

Murenzi recalls the help he received from UNESCO in 2001–2, in the early years of his term as Rwanda’s first minister of education, science, technology, and scientific research, shortly after the genocide against the Tutsi in that country. “UNESCO helped write a policy to get all children in primary school,” he says. “If enrollment in primary and secondary school is low, where do the children who were not schooled go when they become adolescents and adults? They become soldiers, or end up in the street.” By being a part of UNESCO, the US supports global education, science, and critical thinking, he says. “These are very important issues for global peace for the long term.”

“When you have a global action related to science, it’s important that the US be involved,” says Jean-Paul Ngome Abiaga, science adviser to UNESCO’s director general. UNESCO officials say they are “optimistic and have our fingers crossed that the US will come back.” The US was a founding member in 1945.

When Trump pulled out of UNESCO, he complained that the organization was in disarray and that it was unfair to Israel, which withdrew around the same time. In the meantime—and indeed, in a process that began even before the pullouts—"the management has been overhauled and transformed,” says a UNESCO official. He points to initiatives launched over the last three years to rebuild schools and museums in Mosul, Iraq, and Beirut, Lebanon, and notes that consensus was reached by Israel and other countries in the region about all decisions relating to the Middle East. Since Audrey Azoulay became director general in 2018, “the political tensions are down,” the official says. “The organization is healthier.”

Rejoining UNESCO would be “a signal that the US cares about science and that we are back in the game,” says Carrero-Martínez. “It’s important for our community for the US to have a leading role.”