Malcolm Adiseshiah
From 1 to 16 November 1945 a United Nations Conference was convened in London for the establishment of an educational and cultural organization (ECO/CONF). In the conference, a new organization was created to establish the “intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind” and thus prevent the outbreak of another world war. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded by thirty-seven countries. Its Constitution to promote collaboration between member states in the fields of education, science and culture was signed on 16 November 1945 and came into force on 4 November 1946. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, former President of India, was a former student of Adiseshiah’s father. He made a referral to Sir Julian Huxley, then Director-General of UNESCO, who invited Adiseshiah to the organization in 1948. He was posted as Deputy Director of the department of exchange of persons. In that capacity Adiseshiah signed the UNESCO Fellowship letter in 1949 to M. S. Swaminathan, eminent scientist and administrator, to pursue research at the Agricultural University in Wageningen, the Netherlands which was the starting point of his illustrious career.
Windhoek Declaration
Since it was formally approved by the UNESCO Member States during the 28th Session of the General Conference (November 1995), the Windhoek Declaration has become a major reference in the United Nations system. It is part of the New Communication Strategy decided by UNESCO's General Conference during its 25th Session in November 1989, at the same time as the fall of the Berlin Wall. This new strategy "de facto" distanced itself from the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) which was subject to controversies within the Organization in the 1980s. These controversies have divided UNESCO and caused the United States and the United Kingdom to withdraw from the Organisation (in 1984 and 1985). The NWICO was also subject to oppositions from several professional media organizations, which saw in the New Order a means allowing states to control the media with the justification, among others, to encourage wider and better balanced dissemination of information between North and South.