“I deeply remorse President Donald Trump’s choice to as soon as once more withdraw the USA of America from UNESCO,” Audrey Azoulay, Director-Common of the Paris-based company, mentioned in a assertion.
In New York, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric mentioned that the Secretary-Common joins Ms. Azoulay “in deeply regretting the choice by the USA.”
The US first withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 beneath President Ronald Reagan and didn’t rejoin for twenty years. Fourteen years after re-entry, the primary Trump administration withdrew from the group in 2017, however the choice was reversed beneath President Joseph Biden in 2023.
Ms. Azoulay underscored that “this choice contradicts the elemental ideas of multilateralism,” and he or she highlighted that this choice would have an effect on UNESCO companions in the USA, together with communities in search of website inscription.
A White Home press assertion on the withdrawal mentioned the choice had been taken to guard American pursuits from UNESCO’s work to advance “divisive social and cultural causes.”
The assertion additionally mentioned the group is concentrated on the UN Sustainable Improvement Objectives (SDGs), which it described as “a globalist, ideological agenda for worldwide growth at odds with our America First international coverage.”
The assertion additionally particularly cited UNESCO’s choice to confess the State of Palestine as a Member State as problematic, opposite to US coverage and fuelling the United Nations’ “anti-Israel rhetoric”.
Ms. Azoulay in her assertion denied these claims that UNESCO is “anti-Israel,” highlighting the group’s work in Holocaust training and combating antisemitism.
“UNESCO is the one United Nations company answerable for these points, and its work has been unanimously acclaimed by main specialised organizations,” she mentioned, together with American organizations resembling the USA Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
Diversifying funding in preparation
Ms. Azoulay harassed that this announcement was anticipated, and the group has ready accordingly, highlighting main structural reforms lately, together with the diversification of funding sources.
“The lowering pattern within the monetary contribution of the US has been offset,” she defined. Regardless of the US now representing eight per cent of the group’s funds, UNESCO’s funds has steadily elevated due to donations from member states and personal contributors, the latter of which have doubled since 2018.
“At present, the Group is healthier protected in monetary phrases,” she mentioned.
Persevering with US partnerships
“UNESCO’s goal is to welcome all of the nations of the world, and the USA of America is and can at all times be welcome,” Ms. Azoulay emphasised.
The group will proceed to work with its US companions within the personal, tutorial and non-profit sectors, and it’ll pursue discussions with the US Authorities.
