UNESCO

In one line

UNESCO was created by the Constitution adopted in London on 16 November 1945 to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration through education, science and culture, on the premise that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.

The Preamble

The Governments of the States Parties declare:

That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.

That ignorance of each other's ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war.

That the great and terrible war which has now ended was a war 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.

That the wide diffusion of culture, and the education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern.

That a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous, lasting and sincere support of the peoples of the world, and that the peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.

For these reasons the States Parties, believing in full and equal opportunities for education for all, in the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth, and in the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, are agreed and determined to develop and increase the means of communication between their peoples and to employ them for mutual understanding and a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other's lives.

In consequence whereof they create the Organization for the purpose of advancing, through the educational and scientific and cultural relations of the peoples of the world, the objectives of international peace and of the common welfare of mankind for which the United Nations Organization was established and which its Charter proclaims.

Read the fifth recital as a criticism of the Charter itself. A peace resting only on the political and economic arrangements of governments would fail; peace needs the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. UNESCO exists because the drafters thought the Security Council would not be enough.