[21.09.2001]
- 18 NEW SITES ADDED TO UNESCO’S NETWORK OF
BIOSPHERE RESERVES
Eighteen new sites in 13 countries
have been added to UNESCO’s World
Network of Biosphere Reserves and two
existing biosphere reserves have been
extended. The reserves provide a framework
for the study and conservation of the
environment and for the sustainable
utilization of natural resource. A key
aspect of the World Network, which now
consists of 411 sites in 94 countries, is
that local populations work together with
all other concerned parties to achieve
these aims. Continue
[12.09.2001]
- THE HUMAN GENOME AND THE
PATENT BOOM CHALLENGE
The current explosion in the
number and variety of applications for
patents on the human genome is giving rise
to increasingly strident controversy. Will
the rapid growth of intellectual property
protection impede research holding the
promise of dramatic breakthroughs in the
fight against HIV/AIDS, cystic fibrosis,
muscular dystrophy and diabetes, among
other diseases and health conditions? Will
the cost of licensing fees for new
therapies confine their use to the rich
alone? Is there a contradiction between
the TRIPS Agreement (The Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights) negotiated in the World
Trade Organization (WTO) and
internationally protected economic, social
and cultural rights? Continue
[12.09.2001]
- EDUCATION MINISTERS CALL
FOR REFORMS TO BOOST QUALITY EDUCATION
80 education ministers and some
600 delegates from 127 nations today
called for education reform, notably a
better policy dialogue with civil society,
a greater involvement of teachers in
education policy-making, and a bolder set
of actions to close the gap between
quantitative advances in school enrollment
and qualitative improvements in teaching. Continue
[07.09.2001]
- 
SEPTEMBER 8: INTERNATIONAL
LITERACY DAY
There are now almost four billion
people on the planet who can read and
write. As we prepare to celebrate the
first International Literacy Day of the
third millennium, this fact highlights the
significant progress made in past decades.
But, as the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro
Matsuura, stresses in a message for
September 8: “The scale and complexity
of the task of achieving literacy for all
are certainly daunting.” Continue
[07.09.2001]
-
2001
UNESCO COMENIUS MEDAL AWARDED TO LEADERS
IN LITERACY AND EDUCATION
Integrating disabled children into
a mainstream Bulgarian school, building
the first pan-African teachers
organization, sending thousands of
university student volunteers to work in
Brazil’s slums, UNESCO today honoured
these and other initiatives around the
world at the presentation of the 2001
UNESCO Comenius Medals. Continue
[06.09.2001]
-
THE JEWISH-ARAB CENTER FOR
PEACE AT GIVAT HAVIVA AND UGANDAN BISHOP
NELSON ONONO ONWENG, WINNERS OF THE UNESCO
PRIZE FOR PEACE EDUCATION
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro
Matsuura, has decided to award the UNESCO
Prize for Peace Education 2001 to the
Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat
Haviva (Israel) and to Ugandan Bishop
Nelson Onono Onweng. This choice comes
with the unanimous recommendation of the
international Prize jury that deliberated
at UNESCO headquarters on September 3 and
4. Continue
[05.09.2001]
- DELEGATES FROM 180
COUNTRIES TO EXAMINE NEW CHALLENGES,
"BEST PRACTICES" IN EDUCATION
When education ministers and
delegates from more than 180 nations
convene to discuss new challenges and
critical policy choices at the 46th
International Conference on Education (5-8
September 2001, Geneva), they can look
back on a past decade shaped by both
positive and negative trends in education.
Continue
[05.09.2001]
- SLAVERY AND RACISM
The transatlantic slave trade saw
the greatest deportation in history. From
the mid 15th century to the closing
decades of the 19th century tens of
millions of Africans were brutally
wrenched from their villages and
transported to the plantations and mines
of the Americas and West Indies. The
impact of this unprecedented movement is
still burdening the descendants of these
stolen people, and the continent that was
their home. Continue
