US Must Not Rejoin UNESCO

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has been working to build a socialist world government since its founding. As "The Saturday Review" editorialized in 1952, "If UNESCO is attacked on the grounds that it is helping to prepare the world's peoples for world government, then it is an error to burst forth with apologetic statements and denials. Let us face it: the job of UNESCO is to help create and promote the elements of world citizenship. When faced with such a 'charge,' let us by all means affirm it from the housetops."

As part of its efforts to build world government, by 1984 UNESCO was openly promoting the "New World Information Order." This proposal would allow only UN-licensed journalists, broadcasters and the like to work at their profession, and would have regulated what could be published. The proposal was regarded as so contrary to American constitutional principles that the US withdrew from membership in UNESCO.

Now, at the instigation of President Bush, our government is on the verge of rejoining the organization. According to Bush and other UN boosters, UNESCO has "reformed" and is now worthy of American support. Just how true is that claim? If anything, the situation is worse than it was in 1984.

For now at least, the New World Information Order has been withdrawn. Other outrageous policies have been added. For example, UNESCO promotes abortion worldwide, supporting even the murderous one-child policy of the Peoples Republic of China. After the birth of a first child, the PRC forces many mothers to abort any subsequent children. In addition to the abortions themselves, the policy results in outright infanticide as many parents kill their baby girls until they succeed in delivering a boy.

UNESCO also has been appropriating "World Heritage Sites" in the US and other countries. They now consider even Yellowstone National Park and numerous other American sites to be in some sense the property of the UN. The federal government has used World Heritage Site designation to justify increased federal regulation of some sites, in response to international pressure. This illustrates the serious danger that UNESCO poses to our national sovereignty.

Perhaps the most worrisome recent actions of UNESCO are its attempts to promote its Earth Charter. The charter contains a list of environmental and other politically correct pronouncements called the Sixteen Principles, touted by former Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev and others as the replacement for the Ten Commandments. A copy of the charter is being venerated by supporters in city after city in the so-called Arc of Hope, a box that bears a strong resemblance to the sacred Arc of the Covenant.

As part of its program to popularize the Earth Charter, UNESCO has proposed school curricula designed to counteract the religious and political influence of parents. Most of us American parents are just too Christian and patriotic to suit UNESCO, so we can't be allowed to ruin the next generation of children by teaching them our outmoded principles.

It seems clear that UNESCO has not "reformed" itself in a way that would make most Americans want to be associated with it. Yet our president and Congress have set in motion the process to rejoin the organization. Rep. Ron Paul (R. Texas) and others have been working to amend HR 1950 (the Foreign Relations Authorization Act) to prevent our rejoining UNESCO. Those of us who agree that UNESCO is dangerous and unsavory should ask our representatives to support Rep. Paul's amendment.