The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Audrey Azoulay, announced that the United States has indicated its intention to rejoin the organization in July 2023. She made this known to the representatives of 193 member states at the organization’s headquarters in Paris, France.
In her statement, Azoulay said that the U.S. has officially informed UNESCO about its decision to rejoin but on the basis of a concrete financial plan expected to be submitted to the General Conference of UNESCO Member States for approval.
She praised the U.S. decision and defined it as a “strong act of confidence in UNESCO and in multilateralism, not only in the centrality of the organization’s mandate—culture, education, science, and information—but also in the way this mandate is being implemented today.”
In a letter addressed to Azoulay, the U.S. Department of State applauded UNESCO’s recent efforts and how it has managed new issues, modernized its management processes, and eased political tensions.
Under the leadership of Azoulay, UNESCO has made significant inroads, especially in its effective management of the organization’s finances, despite escalating political tensions in some countries and regions of the world, including the Middle East.
Azoulay has also repositioned UNESCO to tackle present-day challenges facing member states, including “the ethics of artificial intelligence, the protection of the ocean, and the reconstruction of the old city of Mosul, Iraq.”
Though the U.S. government officially terminated contributions to UNESCO in October 2017, internal legislation suspended contributions to the organization in 2011.
In December 2022, the U.S. Congress reversed the decision and approved financial contributions to UNESCO as the country began the process of reintegrating into the organization.
