Humanity in the making

In order to "advance the objectives of international peas and inton common welfare of mankind for which the United Nations Organization was established and which its Charter proclaims", the Governments of the States Parties to the Constitution adopted in London on 16 November 1945 "on behalf of their peoples" agreed on the purpose of "promoting the educational and scientific and cultural relations of the peoples of the world".

Therefore they created UNESCO in order to lay the foundations for the "intellectual and moral solidarity" of mankind by "advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples through all means of mass communication", "giving fresh impulse to popular education and to the spread of culture" and "helping maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge.

This very specific agenda has been developed over the last sixty years, through the ups and downs of history and in keeping with the changing viewpoints of successive generations.

This work, based on a selection of texts from UNESCO's archives, examines the complex accommodations between mandate, historical environment and intellectual currents that have enabled an increasingly universal organization to pursue the task of leading humanity towards greater harmony.