U.S. to rejoin UNESCO after 12 years…

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on Monday announced that the United States has decided to rejoin the organisation in July.

The U.S. will rejoin the UN cultural agency after having stopped all funding in 2011 and announced its complete withdrawal from the agency.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay told Member States that the decision was “a strong act of confidence in UNESCO and in multilateralism”.

He added that it was also an expression of confidence in the way that the agency was implementing its mandate on culture, education, science and information.

UNESCO said that in a letter sent to Azoulay, the U.S. State Department “welcomed the way in which UNESCO had addressed in recent years emerging challenges, modernised its management, and reduced political tensions”.

The country stopped funding UNESCO in 2011 after the organisation extended membership to Palestine. At the time, U.S. funding made up 22 percent of the agency’s budget.

The United States is a founding member of UNESCO and had also withdrawn from the organisation in 1984, then rejoined in 2003.

The full return of the U.S. as a UNESCO Member State was made possible by an agreement reached by Congress in December 2022.

The agreement was part of the $1.7 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Bill, authorising the resumption of financial contributions to the organisation.

The suspension of contributions in 2011 took place after a large majority of other UNESCO countries accepted Palestine as a Member State.