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Commission Update
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Friday March 2, 2012
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Secretary Clinton Talks About UNESCO on Capitol Hill
 Earlier this week Secretary Clinton was on Capitol Hill to talk with Congressional Committees about the State Department's proposed FY 2013 budget.
As you might imagine, her testimony covered a wide range of topics - but UNESCO came up a couple of times.
You can see some of the back and forth about UNESCO here.
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UNESCO Executive Board Kicks Off
UNECO's 189 Executive Board meeting kicked off this week, which included national statements.
You can check out the statement that our Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion delivered yesterday at the Exective Board here.
Paris based American observer Leslie Limage has been watching the proceedings and generously offers her take here.
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Khalifa Prize for Using Information and Communication Technology
Educating Youth for Responsible Global Digital Citizenship
UNESCO is currently accepting nominations for the King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technology in Education.
This $50,000 UNESCO prize sponsored by the Government of Bahrain is split equally between two recipients who demonstrate best practices and creative uses of technology to enhance learning, teaching, and overall education.
This year's theme is Educating Youth for Responsible Global Digital Citizenship. Our Commission can submit two nominations, but we have to have them in by Mon 4/16. For more details, look here and here.
If you know of any U.S. individuals or organizations who might be excellent candidates for this honor, please let me know!
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In honor of the upcoming International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade on March 25, the UN will observe a series of events between Friday 3/23 and Friday 3/30.
This year's events will include a global video conference on Friday 3/30 aimed at students between the ages of 12-18 at the UN Headquarters in New York. This live interactive forum will provide students living in countries along the Slave Trade Route an opportunity to share and discuss what they have learned about this event and how it has shaped their societies through a video conference with their fellow peers in Africa, the Caribbean, Western Europe and the United States.
Additionally, this event will help students link the history of the transatlantic slave trade to places where people live, raise global awareness of the wide spread resistance to slavery, link the legacy of slavery to racism and prejudice, and discuss actions that can be taken to address this problem. This year's theme for the upcoming events will focus on "Honoring the Heroes, Resisters and Survivors" of the transatlantic slave trade.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade (TST) education project is a UNESCO initiative to raise awareness about the causes and consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade - including modern forms of slavery and racism - through educational exchanges, sharing best practices and developing and diffusing educational material.
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A Reason To Be Dramatic
 The U.S. International Theatre Institute (ITI) based with the Theatre Communications Group in New York City recently announced that award winning actor John Malkovich will deliver the message for this year's 50th anniversary of World Theatre Day at a special celebration at UNESCO in Paris on 3/22.
ITI and World Theatre Day were originally founded through UNESCO 50 years ago. The mark the occassion, the U.S. International Theatre Institute are coordinating a number of initiatives including...
Generation Without Borders: a call for early to mid career theatre practitioners and students to submit essays envisioning our global theature movement 50 years from now.
SHINSAI: A nationwide event on 3/11 - the first anniverary of the earthquakes and Tsunami in Japan, involving more than 50 theatres, to raise relief funds for the Japanese theatre community affected by the disaster
I AM THEATRE: An online platform for theatre people across the world to share their stories and express the diversity and vitality of the international theatre community.
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UNESCO Director General to Visit the United States
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UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova
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Later this month UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova is scheduled to visit several areas in the U.S.A..
Her visit will include stops in Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Florida, and the West Coast.
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How is Your Memory?
Initiated in 1997, the Memory of the World Register is UNESCO's list of library collections and archive holdings of world significance to promote documentary heritage of universal value.
The U.S. National Commission is eligible to submit up to two nominations before 3/31. If you know of any potentially great American nominees, please check out the nomination process here and definitely let us know!
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To Russia, With Love
 The Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Program and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, along with a number of other partners are convening a conference in Moscow between Mon 6/25 and Wed 6/27 entitled "Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies."
Our Commission has been invited to designate an American expert to attend the conference. Would you, or do you know somebody in the field, who would like to go?
Sorry to say we can't help with travel costs, but we will gladly put you in touch with the conference organizers. It would be great to have the U.S. represented at this conference! See more information here.
If you or someone you know is interested, please let me know. Deadline for signing up for the conference is Sunday 4/15.
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U.N. Report Card for UNESCO
 A lot of people have a lot to say about how UNESCO is run.
The U.N. Joint Inspection recently came out their report about UNESCO.
If you'd like to see what they said, you can read the report here!
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Gender Equality in Education E-Forum
UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) is convening an e-forum on Gender Equality in Education between Monday 3/26 and Friday 4/6 and they would like you to participate.
Do you have something to say about the importance of education for women and girls? If so, shout about it here!
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Love For Wisdom in India
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Dr. Harris speaks with Indian students about self assurance as a virtue in the face of humiliation
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Dr. Leonard Harris of Perdue University recently traveled to India to conduct a series of lectures on American Philosophy as a guest of the Indian Government.
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At Osmania University in Hyderabad
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Leonard has been involved with recognition of UNESCO's World Philosophy Day here in the U.S. and currently has an application in with UNESCO to establish a new UNESCO University Chair in American Philosophy at Perdue.
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Punch Back
 Last week I referenced a bunch of articles that were kind of down on UNESCO. This week there were a few that were up on UNESCO. Our Youth Working Group Chair gave us a shout out about our engagement with UNESCO in terms of Youth. Lastly, Andrew Clark offers a piece in Sea Technology magazine that describes some of the effects U.S. defunding of UNESCO has on the ocean industry.
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U.S. UNESCO Associated Libraries
What is a UNESCO Associated Library? Well - it's really just a way to recognize any library that regularly conducts programming that cuts across UNESCO's sectors of communication, culture, education, social science and natural science.
This program is brand new/just getting started - so we currently have exactly zero UNESCO Associated Libraries in the United States. Do you know a library in your town, county, or state that would like to be the first?
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Got Mad Skillzz?
 As part of the Education For All 2012 focus on skills, UNESCO is currently accepting submissions as part of an art contest open to participants ages 18 to 24.
The contest asks youth to address the question of what skills young people need to create a better future.
If you (or somebody you know) would like to participate in this contest, please send them here.
First prize is a trip to Paris; deadline for submissions is Sunday 4/1!
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Hey! Are you on the Twitter?How about the Facebook?
 So is the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO! If you haven't liked us yet, we won't take it personally. But...what are you waiting for! Like us here. 
Do you do the Twitter? If so, follow us here! If you are too respectable for Facebook or Twitter, that's ok. But how about connecting to our group on LinkedIn?  |
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Have some UNESCO-esque Stuff?
....That you'd like spread around here for the good of the order? Please let me know know!
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UNESCO in the USA
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Important Dates
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Mon 2/27 - Sat 3/10: 189th Session of UNESCO's Executive Board (Paris)
Tues 3/6, 3 pm: Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship Call
Thurs 3/8: International Women's Day
Sun 3/11: Japan Tsunami Anniversary World Theatre Day Shinsai Event
Wed 3/14 12 pm - 2 pm: UN Foundation International Women's Day Lunch (Washington, DC)
Thurs 3/15 9:30 am - 11:30 am: UNESCO World Heritage Independence Hall Event (Philadelphia)
Thurs 3/15 12 pm - 2 pm: UNESCO Lunch hosted by U.S. ICOMOS (Philadelphia)
Thurs 3/15: Penn UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy Dedication events (Philadelphia)
Thurs 3/15 - Tues 3/20: 32nd Ordinary Session of the Executive Board of the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers, and Associations (Veracruz, Mexico)
Fri 3/16 11:45 am - 1:30 pm: Chicago Council on Global Affairs Women and Global Development Forum (Chicago)
Thurs 3/22: World Theatre Day Celebration (Paris)
Fri 3/23 - Fri 3/30: Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Commemorative Events
Mon 3/26 - Thurs 3/29: Planet Under Pressure Conference (London)
Mon 3/26 - Fri 4/6: UNESCO IIEP Gender Equality in Education e-Forum
Tues 3/27: World Theatre Day
Thurs 3/29: 14th Annual L'Oreal - UNESCO Awards for Women in Science (Paris)
Sat 3/31: Memory of the World Register Nomination Deadline
Sun 4/1: Education for All Art Contest Submission Deadline
Mon 4/16: UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize Application Deadline
Fri 4/27: World Book Capital 2014 Nomination Deadline
Thurs 5/3: World Press Freedom Day
Thurs 5/10 - Sat 5/12: Canadian National Commission for UNESCO Annual Meeting (Ottawa)
Mon 5/21: International Day for Cultural Diversity, Dialogue, and Development
Thurs 5/31: Education For All Challenge Deadline
Thurs 5/31 - Sat 6/2: US/ICOMOS 15th Annual Symposium (San Antonio, TX)
Fri 6/1: Digital Replay Submission Deadline
Wed 6/20 - Sun 6/24: 6th Annual National Underground Railroad Conference (St. Augustine, FL)
Mon 6/25 - Wed 6/27: Conference on Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies (Moscow)
Fri 6/29 - Sat 6/30: UNESCO Center of Peace First Ladies' Youth Infusion Summit (Annapolis, MD)
Wed 7/18 - Sat 7/28: UNESCO Center for Peace 6th Annual IMUN Conference (Frederick, MD)
Wed 9/26 - Fri 9/28: Memory of the World in the Digital Age Conference (Vancouver)
Mon 10/1 - Sat 10/13: 190th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board
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