Category : InternationalPublished on: June 17 2023
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The United States will rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in July.
The move ends Washington's more than ten-year dispute with the UN cultural agency after the US left UNESCO in 2018.
The U.S. cut funding off under former President Obama in 2011 following a vote by UNESCO member states to admit Palestine.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma submitted a letter to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay last week to formalize plans to rejoin.
This isn't the first time the U.S. has pulled out of UNESCO only to rejoin later.
The country exited UNESCO in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan, citing "poor management and values opposed to our own," including advocating for limits on freedom of the press, according to the State Department. The U.S. wouldn't rejoin the body for nearly two decades.
In 2002 President George W. Bush announced a return to UNESCO, praising reforms to the management structure and the group's renewed dedication to the values of press freedom and universal education.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN).
It is also a member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UN SDG), a coalition of United Nations agencies and organisations that aims to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
