When, cultural differences and traditions notwithstanding, States agree to common rules, they can draw up an international instrument: an agreement or convention, which are legally binding, a recommendation or a declaration.
UNESCO participates in this effort through its standard-setting action, serving as a central forum for coordinating the ethical, normative and intellectual issues of our time, fostering multidisciplinary exchange and mutual understanding, working – where possible and desirable – towards universal agreements on these issues, defining benchmarks and mobilizing international opinion.
This site lists each instrument by type and by UNESCO sector of activity. For each instrument you will find HTML versions of the texts in English and French, and links to PDF files from our official documents in the six official languages of UNESCO.
