U.N. cultural and scientific agency UNESCO has announced that the United States plans to rejoin — and pay more than $600 million in back dues — after a decade-long dispute sparked by the organization’s move to include Palestine as a member. U.S. officials say the decision was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap in UNESCO policymaking. The U.S. government has presented a plan for paying the arrears in order to rejoin. UNESCO’s director informed ambassadors of the U.S. decision in a special meeting Monday. The U.S. was once the agency’s biggest funder. Its official return is expected to face a vote by UNESCO’s 193 member states next month.
  • njm1314@beehaw.orgEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    Fantastic news. It was extremely shitty that the US pulled out in the first place over such a nonsensical reason. UNESCO is about world heritage and such should be above, extremely, petty politics.

        • n2burns@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          From the article:

          The U.S. and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011. The Trump administration decided in 2017 to withdraw from the agency altogether the following year, citing long-running anti-Israel bias and management problems.

          So, shared between the Obama & Trump administration. Definitely not in the nineteen eighties.

    • thirdorbital@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Completely agree, some things should be above politics. I mean, just look at the list: in America it’s mostly our best national parks. In other places it’s priceless cultural history. I don’t keep a formal bucket list but the list of places I’d love to see and the list of places UNESCO helps preserve has a TON of overlap.