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SHSviews 19
 
UNESCO Social and Human Sciences Sector Magazine
2008 – Year of Planet Earth: Mobilizing societies to adapt to climate change / Interview with Koïchiro Matsuura: “Social and Human Sciences play an indispensable role” / Dossier: Social and Human Sciences within National Commissions for UNESCO: Focus on the Philippines – January-March 2008 (English | Français | Русский)
 
SHSviews 19 Making science work for peace

‘Putting science to work in the struggle against poverty and ensuring that science resolutely serves peace: this will be our main goal.’

Every new year is an opportunity to wish each other all the best for the coming days and months. This is not just a tradition one should respect. This ritual is a real pleasure: the promise we all make to build a better life both individually and collectively.

In these first days of 2008 – the UN International Year of Planet Earth – I wish all Earth people the brightest of futures, although I am well aware of all we need to do to make it possible.

This first issue of 2008 is an opportunity to remind everyone how urgent it is to increase awareness of our eco-system’s fragility and of our responsibility as human beings to protect our environment and what we most value: life.

From North to South, climate change is under way all over the planet. It is pointless to deny it. If we do not act as soon as possible, the short and long-term consequences will be devastating for the most vulnerable. In some places, climate change has already seriously affected the means of subsistence of the poorest people. This fact concerns everyone.

As the year changes, we thus also need to change behaviour and maybe even to enter a whole new era. Some of us hoped to remain carefree, but that time is over. It is clear that the application of scientific and technical progress is not always for the better. And even when the results are positive, the benefits are far from being shared by all.

For UNESCO, which is starting a new cycle in 2008 after the adoption in October of its strategy for the next 6 years, synergy must be created between the activities in the natural sciences and in the social and human sciences.

As the Organization’s Director-General explains in this issue, ‘development fuelled by scientific progress cannot be sustainable without ethical and human dimensions’.

Putting science to work in the struggle against poverty and ensuring that science resolutely serves peace: this will be our main goal.

This means we need to go beyond our own boundaries and accept continuous development, just as this magazine has been trying for the past few months to give a better account of the activities implemented by the Social and Human Sciences Sector on issues of crucial significance for its principal agents and partners.

Thus, while the structure of the magazine has not been totally revamped, changes have been made: a new Reader’s Forum has been created while some other sections have new names to reflect more clearly our main lines of action (Promoting principles, practices and ethical norms / Directing research for action in the service of populations / Contributing to the dialogue of civilizations and cultures).

This is the beginning of a new cycle but also the occasion to launch a series of dossiers exploring the place occupied by the social and human sciences within National Commissions for UNESCO. The first dossier deals with one of the oldest: the Philippine National Commission, which can offer an exemplary experience in this respect.

The main idea and key resolution of SHSviews for this New Year is neither to claim to be a model nor to preach: simply to share.

Pierre Sané
Assistant Director-General
for Social and Human Sciences


This issue of SHSviews covers topical issues from January to March 2008:
  • 2008 – Year of Planet Earth: Mobilizing societies to adapt to climate change
    The UNESCO strategy to address the challenges of climate change, presented at the end of 2007, is designed to help Member States to adapt to change by developing scientific knowledge as well as making technical and political choices informed by ethical values. More … [PDF]


  • Interview with Koïchiro Matsuura: “Social and Human Sciences play an indispensable role”
    As the world commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Director-General of UNESCO stresses the crucial role that the Organization has played and will continue to play in the promotion of the principles enshrined in the Declaration. He also clarifies the role of the social and human sciences in the new medium-term strategy of the Organization, particularly in respect to dealing with the ethical and social dimensions of such global trends as globalization and climate change. More … [PDF]


  • Dossier: Social and Human Sciences within National Commissions for UNESCO: Focus on the Philippines
    The first in the series of dossiers that SHS Views will dedicate to social and human science activities within UNESCO’s National Commissions, this dossier explores the case of the Philippines … More … [PDF]
Also in SHS Views N° 19:


Click here to download SHSviews in PDF format.
 
Author(s) UNESCO - Sector for Social and Human Sciences
Periodical Name SHSviews
Publication date 2008-01
Publisher UNESCO
Publication Location Paris, France
Number of pages 32 p.




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