The United States left UNESCO in 2017, at the same time as Israel, under the presidency of Donald Trump. But the country had stopped funding the UN organization in 2011, under Barack Obama.
“The resolution was adopted“, announced the president of the assembly, the Brazilian Santiago Irazabal Mourao, triggering applause. The United States officially joined UNESCO, which they had left under the presidency of Donald Trump, after a favorable vote during an extraordinary general conference of this UN organization based in Paris.
Some 132 states voted for this American return, 15 abstained and ten opposed it, including Iran, Syria, China and above all Russia, whose delegation had multiplied its speeches on Thursday June 29. points of procedure and amendments on Friday in order to delay the debates. “We would be ready to welcome Washington’s will“to join Unesco, which “would strengthen our organization“, but “we think they’re trying to take us to a parallel world, which really surpasses all the absurd descriptions in Lewis Carroll’s books“Thundered a Russian diplomat on Friday.
“In this distorted space, those who defend democracy and the rule of law begin to lead us towards a violation of these rules and to arrogate privileged rights“, he continued, believing that the United States must fully pay its arrears to Unesco before being able to join it, when Washington proposes to do so gradually.The way the United States requested this return is not acceptable” and is similar to “a violation of the spirit of the Constitution” of this institution, for his part castigated an Iranian diplomat.
A debt of 619 million dollars
Washington had left Unesco in October 2017 denouncing the “persistent anti-Israel bias” of this institution. This withdrawal, accompanied by that of Israel, had been effective since December 2018. Since 2011, and the admission of Palestine to UNESCO, the United States, then led by Barack Obama, had stopped all funding to the UN organization, a huge setback for it, while American contributions represented 22% of its budget. But Washington proposed in early June, in a letter to Audrey Azoulay, “a map“for their return to the United Nations Organization for Education, Culture and Science.
While the American debt to Unesco, contracted between 2011 and 2018, is today 619 million dollars, more than the annual budget of Unesco, evaluated at 534 million dollars, they indicated that they had asked to the United States Congress to disburse $150 million for fiscal year 2024, with an equivalent amount to be disbursed in subsequent years”until resorption“arrears at Unesco.