Race, UNESCO Statements on

Michael Banton

Four statements of expert opinion about race were sponsored and published by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) between 1950 and 1967. Widely distributed, they were regarded as authoritative rebuttals of outdated theories. The four statements bore on one of UNESCO's central concerns, because its constitution, dating from 1945, had declared, “The great and terrible war which now has ended was made possible by the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual respect of men, and by the propagation, in their place, through ignorance and prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequality of men and races.” This entry summarizes the UNESCO statements. The UN's Economic and Social Council asked UNESCO in 1951 to develop effective educational programs in the fields of prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities and to undertake “a programme of disseminating scientific facts designed to remove what is commonly known ...

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