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Luisa Blanchfield and Marjorie Ann Browne of the Congressional Research Service have produced  a report on UNESCO  for the U.S. Congress. The report was published on March 18, 2013. Here are my comments on the report: The report may leave the impression that the member states of UNESCO granted membership in the organization to the PLO. They granted membership to Palestine.  In considering whether Palestine has "the internationally recognized attributes of statehood" you might mention that 107 member states of UNESCO elected Palestine to be a fellow member state. 138 members states of the United Nations have also elected Palestine to the status of "non-member observer state", not "observer organization". According to Wikipedia, as of April of this year 132 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognized the State of Palestine.  You might also have noted that -- in spite of the provisions of the law -- the United States has continued to fund a...

“A good textbook must engage students and relate to their reality,” declares Jean Bernard of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. A producer of learning materials and advisor on textbook quality, Bernard believes that all textbooks and learning materials should reflect the principles of education for citizenship and peace   UNESCO has designed a new toolkit for writing stereotype-free textbooks. The toolkit is designed to help remove cultural, religious and gender-biased stereotypes from curricula and learning materials. To test the tool before its publication in September 2013, UNESCO organized a workshop in Rabat (Morocco) from 6-9 May 2013 for authors, publishers, curriculum developers and experts in textbook development from 15 countries to work with the toolkit designers and test for usability and relevance. The feedback will be used to improve all aspects of the toolkit. Read more on the effort!

Global Memo has begun to track information on the election of the Director General of UNESCO which is to take place this Fall. Click here to access the archive of its posts.