UK Seminar on Scientific World Heritage Sites

A three-day international workshop, designed to develop guidelines to identify future World Heritage Sites which represent advances in science and technology of global significance, will be hosted next week by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the UK National Commission for UNESCO on behalf of the World Heritage Committee.

The workshop, taking place from 21-23 January, brings together experts from 15 countries, representing the physical sciences and technology as well as those with detailed knowledge of the operation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.

The delegates will discuss ways to create a scientific framework, to help identify and recognize sites which represent the heritage of science and technology that could potentially become World Heritage Sites. The conclusions of the expert meeting will be presented to the World Heritage Committee for consideration at their next meeting this July in Quebec, Canada.

1. The program for the workshop can be found on the UK National Commission for UNESCO website at http://www.unesco.org.uk/Science-Heritage-Meeting.htm.
2. There will be particular focus on four areas: astronomy, physical sciences, biological sciences and engineering and technology.
3. This workshop was organized at the UK's suggestion during the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee, held last July in Christchurch, New Zealand.
4. The outcome of this meeting will contribute to the development of guidelines for the identification of sites and a preliminary framework for the evaluation of properties of interest for the heritage of science and technology and their potential inscription on the World Heritage List. The recommendations of the Workshop will be submitted to the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee. This session will be held from 2-10 July in Quebec, Canada.
5. The concept of World Heritage Sites is at the core of the World Heritage Convention, adopted by UNESCO in 1972, to which 184 nations belong. The Convention required the establishment of the World Heritage List, under the management of an inter-governmental World Heritage Committee, as a means of recognizing that some places, both natural and cultural, are of sufficient importance to be the responsibility of the international community as a whole. The UK ratified the World Heritage Convention in 1984.

Editorial Comment: Given American leadership during much of the last century in science and technology, I would think that the United States might proudly claim a number of such world heritage sites. How about Cape Canaveral, Edison's laboratory, the sites of the American System of Manufacturing, the University of Chicago site of the first nuclear reactor, a site linked to the invention of the Internet, etc. JAD

Two from Roger Coate

Roger Coate, a long time member of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO has published two important articles in The Interdependent Winter 2007-2008 issue. The Interdependent is the flagship publication of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA).

• Poverty Goals: The Possible, the Probable, the Unlikely

  The article points out that while the Millennium Development Goals are not likely to be met, their importance may not be so much in defining a specific development path as in creating a process by which the nations of the world focus on poverty and agree on means to combat it.



• AID AND DEBT RELIEF: Development’s Bottom Line

  Coate shows that the donor community is lagging badly on its committments to provide financial assistance to developing nations. Moreover, that assistance is being focused on only a few countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The lack of donor assistance, which is covered in MDG 8, is in part responsible for the shortfall in meeting the other Millennium Development Goals. So too is the international trade domain that does not allow developing nations equitable access to international markets. Coate notes that a bad as the failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goals might be, abandonment of the global effort to erradicate poverty would be much worse for the world.

Culture and Human Rights

Culture and Human Rights

Created in 1945 to combat "the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual respect of men", UNESCO, through its founding ideals, prefigured the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed sixty years ago. For the signatory states of the UNESCO Constitution, the “dissemination of culture” is more than a right; it is a sacred obligation.

Text of the Universal Declaration:
A common ideal that remains relevant in today’s world
UNESCO Conventions in the field of culture:
A comprehensive series of standard-setting instruments
Social Status of the Artist:
World Observatory and copyright
The Slave Route Project:
Understanding and combating modern forms of slavery
An Alliance of Civilizations:
A partnership for the future

UNESCO and partners help teachers bring technology to the classroom

UNESCO initiated, in 2006, a project aimed at providing core standards for the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into the classroom. Competency Standards for Teachers (CST) were launched on 8 January 2008 after two years of development, at the Moving Young Minds conference, an international seminar gathering 100 education ministers from around the world to discuss the role of technology in enhancing education.

ICT competency standards for teachers: policy framework

ICT competency standards for teachers: competency standards modules

ICT competency standards for teachers: implementation guidelines: version 1.0

UNESCO takes Mini-laboratories and Microscience to the Middle East

For a decade now, UNESCO has been introducing the methodology for microscience into the education systems of both developed and developing countries. One of UNESCO’s key partners in this endeavour is the RADMASTE Centre, Witwatersrand University, South Africa. Training workshops in microscience have been organized in some 84 countries and recently, UNESCO has turned its attention to the Middle East.

In collaboration with the Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture (ISESCO), UNESCO has introduced the microscience project into Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Syria. As project coordinator at UNESCO, Maria Liouliou took part in the first training workshops in Beirut and Ramallah, in November 2006 and February 2007.

The microscience methodology gives primary and secondary school pupils and university students alike an opportunity to conduct practical scientific experiments in physics, chemistry and biology using kits that come with a textbook. These kits are veritable mini-laboratories. They are perfectly safe, insofar as pupils never need to use more than a couple of drops of chemicals for each experiment. The kits are also affordable and far cheaper than conventional laboratory material. Each kit is compact, can be reused and is unbreakable because made of plastic. In addition, the small quantities of chemicals used make it environment-friendly.

Read more!

UNESCO and HP Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement

UNESCO and Hewlett-Packard (HP) signed a strategic partnership agreement on 19 December to strengthen their collaboration around existing education projects.

“UNESCO’s education priorities are very much in line with the goals of HP’s education strategy. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, HP has supported more than 200 education projects in over 20 countries, reaching over 50,000 young people in 2007. On a worldwide level, HP contributed grants to more than 850 schools in 36 countries, worth €30 million between 2004 and 2007,” said Gabriele Zedlmayer,vice president, Global Citizenship HP Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Read more!

UNESCO photo contest on The Changing Face of the Earth

UNESCO’s International Geoscience Program (IGCP) is running a photo contest on the theme of The Changing Face of the Earth, to raise awareness among youth of the state of the planet. There are several cameras and 40 book prizes to be won. Entries close on 30 June 2008.

Go to the contest website.