U.S. back in UNESCO

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

After a 19-year absence, the U.S. this week rejoined the U.N. cultural and educational organization, UNESCO, at a ceremony in Paris. First lady Laura Bush, a former children’s librarian and a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, was the keynote speaker at the ceremony and stressed education’s role in preventing terrorism. “Education can help children see beyond a world of hate and hopelessness,” she said. The U.S. pulled out of UNESCO in 1984, accusing it of mismanagement and anti-Western bias. But in a speech seeking U.N. support for action against Iraq last year, President Bush announced that the U.S. would resume cooperation with the group.