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TREASURES

SE

WORLD ART

INDONESIA

Curled up concentration

Carved in 1953 by a Balinese sculptor, this powerful sandalwood statuette seems

to portray a man lost in deep prayer, or nursing an inner anguish, or coveringhis face in shame. Whatever the artist's intention, the pure lines and burningintensity of this work are quite remarkable. The form and movement bring tomind the famous miniatures of Japan known as "netsuke" (pronounced "netske").

IPhoto © Professor Friedrich W. Funke, Cologne

CourierOCTOBER 1973

26TH YEAR

PUBLISHED IN 15 LANGUAGES

Page

English

French

Spanish

Russian

German

Arabic

Japanese

Italian

Hindi

Tamil

Hebrew

Persian

Dutch

Portuguese

Turkish

6

Published monthly by UNESCO

The United Nations

Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organization

Sales and Distribution Offices

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris

Annual subscription rate 17 French francs

The UNESCO COURIER is published monthly, except inAugust and September when it is bi-monthly (11 issues ayear). For list of distributors see inside back cover.Individual articles and photographs not copyrighted maybe reprinted providing the credit line reads 'Reprinted fromthe UNESCO COURIER." plus date of issue, and threevoucher copies are sent to the editor. Signed articles re¬printed must bear author's name. Non-copyright photoswill be supplied on request. Unsolicited manuscripts cannotbe returned unless accompanied by an international replycoupon covering postage. Signed articles express theopinions of the authors and do not necessarily representthe opinions of UNESCO or those of the editors of theUNESCO COURIER.

The Unesco Courier is produced in microform (micro¬film and/or microfiche) by : (1 ) University Microfilms(Xerox). Ann Arbor, Michigan 48100, U.S.A.; (2)N.C.R.Microcard Edition, Indian Head, Inc., Ill West 40thStreet. New York, U.S.A.; (3) Bell and Howell C°..Old Mansfield Road, Wooster, Ohio 44691, U.S.A.

The Unesco Courier is indexed monthly in theReaders' Guide to Periodical Literature, published byH. W. Wilson Co.. New York, and in Current Con¬tents - Education, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

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33

Editorial Office

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris - France

Editor-in-Chief

Sandy Koffler

Assistant Editor-in-Chief

René Caloz

Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief

Olga Rodel

Editors

Ronald Fenton (Paris): Jane Albert Hesse (Paris)Francisco Fernández-Santos (Paris)Georgi Stetsenko (Paris)Werner Merkli (Berne)Abdel Moneim El Sawi (Cairo)Kazuo Akao (Tokyo)Maria Remiddi (Rome)Ramesh Bakshi (Delhi)N.D. Sundaravadivelu (Madras)Alexander Peli (Jerusalem)Fereydoun Ardalan (Teheran)Paul Morren (Antwerp)Benedicto Silva (Rio de Janeiro)Mefra Telci (Istanbul)

Assistant Editors

English Edition : Howard BrabynFrench Edition : Philippe OuannèsSpanish Edition : Jorge Enrique Adoum

Illustrations : Anne-Marie Maillard

Research : Christiane Boucher

Layout and Design : Robert Jacquemin

All correspondence should be addressed tothe Editor-in-Chief in Paris

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Managing EditorsEnglish Edition :

French Edition :

Spanish Edition :

Russian Edition :

German Edition :

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Italian Edition :

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UNESCO AND THE STRUGGLEFOR HUMAN RIGHTS

25th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rightsby Pie/re Juvigny and Marie-Pierre Herzog

40 MILLION CHILD -WORKERSIN THE WORLD TODAY

An inquiry into the scourge of child labour

SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND RACISMUnequal development : a product of history, not of nature

by Grigory G/ezerman

LEO FROBENIUSTHE MAN WHO EXPLORED AFRICA'S SOUL

by Eike Haberland

MARRIAGE AGE 16, CIVIL MAJORITY 18,VOTING AGE 21WHY?

The rights and responsibilities of youth

by Titos Patrikios

THE AGE LADDER OF RIGHTSAND OBLIGATIONS

An international comparative table of the legal age for marriage,civil majority, criminal responsibility and the right to vote

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE POSTAGE STAMP

UNESCO NEWSROOM

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

TREASURES OF WORLD ART

Curled up concentration (Indonesia)

E-OtttSB

40 MILLION

CHILD-WORKERS

This young garagehand is one of the40 million children under the age offourteen, throughout the world, whoare obliged to go out to work froma pitifully early age. This staggeringfigure is clear evidence that child lab¬our is by no means a thing of thepast and gives food for thought ata time when the world is celebratingthe 25th anniversary of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights.

25th anniversaryof the Universal

Declaration

of Human Rights

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the adoption,on December 10, 1948, of the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights, Unesco is to publish a 100-page booklet byPierre Juvigny and Marie-Pierre Herzog entitled Unesco andHuman RightsSuccess, Obstacles, Hope. This study will reviewUnesco's action in the field of human rights during the pastquarter of a century and examine new questions raised by theevolution of the contemporary world which Unesco will have toface if it is to remain true to its mission "to contribute to peace

and security" and "to further universal respect of justice",the essence of which is respect for human rights. One sectionof this booklet will be devoted to Unesco's efforts to combat

racism and other attacks on human dignity. Another sectionwill describe Unesco's achievements in areas involving the rightto education, to science, to culture and to information. Thearticle below is excerpted from the introduction and otherchapters of the forthcoming Unesco study.

UNESCO AND THE STRUGGLE

FOR HUMAN RIGHTSby Pierre Juvigny

and Marie-Pierre Herzog

HE Universal Declaration

of Human Rights was proclaimed bythe United Nations in Paris in 1948.

As Unesco's Director-General, RenéMaheu, has said: "It is Human Rights,as defined in the Universal Declaration

of 1948, which inspire the whole ofUnesco's work, and give it its mean¬ing..." ("In the Minds of Men Unesco1946-1971"). In order to understandthis fundamental orientation it is

necessary to look back into the past.

If one goes back in this way to

4

PIERRE JUVIGNY, French jurist and memberof the French Conseil d'Etat, has been amember of the U.N. Commission on Human

Rights since 1972. A former chairman ofthe U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention ofDiscrimination and Protection of Minorities,he assisted In the drawing up of Unesco'sConvention Against Discrimination in Edu¬cation. An extract from his study "The Rightto Privacy In the Modern World" was publish¬ed in the July 1973 issue of the "UnescoCour;er".

MARIE-PIERRE HERZOG Is head of Unesco's

Human Rights Co-ordination Unit, set up inMay 1973. She was previously Director ofUnesco's Philosophy Division. A formerprofessor of philosophy and member of theCentre National de la Recherche Scientifi¬

que, she is the author of a study entitled'La Théorie de la Volonté de Kant à Scho¬

penhauer".

the historical sources, one finds thatsince 1919, international life and theway in which international institutionsare envisaged fall into two distinctperiods. The first has been markedby an effort to institutionalize inter¬national relations in order to avoid

new conflicts on a scale comparableto that of the First World War.

This was what the League ofNations, established in January 1920,tried to achieve. But the essential

purpose of the League of Nationswas to regulate relationships betweenStates, with a view, as the Frenchjurist Georges Scelle put it, to "reduc¬ing the frequency of wars".

However, the interests of individuals

or groups were not outside the pur¬view of the Covenant of the Leagueof Nations; indeed, the League didmake a contribution to the protectionof minorities. The series of treaties

concluded after the First World War

contained recognition of the rights,including the cultural rights, of ethnic,religious or linguistic minorities.

In many cases such minoritiesfound themselves within states whose

frontiers had been redrawn by thesetreaties. The League of Nations wascompetent to consider petitions from

individuals or from minority groupsthat believed their rights were beinginfringed.

Furthermore, the Covenant of theLeague of Nations, by setting up themandate system (conferring powerupon a State to govern other territo¬ries), imposed certain obligations onthe mandatory powers including somerelating to economic, social and cultu¬ral rights.

Some degree of international controlwas exercised over these States in

the form of questionnaires, reports,freedom to submit petitions, debatesin the Assembly of the League ofNations and even the possibility fora third-party State to bring a manda¬tory State before the Permanent Courtof International Justice at The Hague.

This legal power held by theLeague of Nations, incomplete as itmay have been in the field of humanrights, was by no means insignificant,for it was also instrumental in promot¬ing the protection of women andchildren, in the fight against slaveryand the traffic in human beings.

Moreover, the International LabourOrganization, set up by the 1919peace settlement and affiliated with

CONTINUED PAGE 35

,^

1=

Photo © RAI, Rome

Incredible as it may seem, there are still over 40 millionchildren aged under fourteen throughout the world workingin factories, on farms and plantations, in small-scale indus¬tries, handicraft workshops, hotels, restaurants, shops, asstreet traders, etc. This is Just one of the surprising factsto be found in the special report below based on (1) anInternational Labour Office study, "Minimum Age for Admis¬sion to Employment", published last year, and (2) a Unescostudy "Rights and Responsibilities of Youth".

6

OUNG adults, particularlythose under twenty, make up a con¬siderable proportion of the labour forcethroughout the world. In countrieswhere industry is expanding rapidlyand there is considerable progress in

education this proportion has shown amarked and continuing decline.

In the developing countries, the per¬centage of young people under twentyin the working population, althoughdifficult to assess, remains high. Thefundamental causes of this phenome¬non lie in the economic backwardness

of these countries, closely linked tothe colonial domination experienced by

the majority of them, the persistenceof obsolete social and economic struc

tures, the drastic falling off in schoolattendance rates after the age ofeleven and, lastly, the population explo¬sion which has resulted in an increased

proportion of young people up to50 per cent and sometimes even more

in the total population.

One of the most important problemsarising from the employment of youngpeople is child labour work by chil¬dren under fourteen to fifteen years of

age.

Under the influence of international

standards and minimum-age laws andthe pressure of economic and socialtransformations, child labour in the

classic sense of mass exploitation ofchildren in mines and factories has

become an evil of the past. Yet, whileits nature and dimensions may have

changed, child labour itself remainswidespread and persistent.

Some idea of just how widespreadit is may be gained from the fact thatthe number of children aged fourteenor under working in the world wasthought to number more than 40 mil¬lion in 1970.

More than 90 per cent of thesechildren were in the developing regionsof the world. In those regions workingchildren numbered 41,125,000 (or 5.1

per cent of all the children aged upto fourteen) in 1960 and 39,975,000 (or4 per cent) in 1970. In the industrial¬

ized regions, by contrast, the figures.were 4,085,000 (1.4 per cent), and

3,343,000 (1.1 per cent).

Child labour is a very broad termand does not have the same character¬

istics everywhere. The formal statusof the working child (that is, whetherhe is a full-fledged employed personas opposed to something like aninformal trainee or an unofficial helperto an adult worker or an unpaid familyworker or an "adopted child"), thenature, intensity and regularity of thework, the hours of work and other

40 MILLION

CHILD-WORKERS

IN THE WORLD

TODAY

The scourge of child labour

- a blot on the conscience

of the developed

and developing countries

conditions of employment and theeffect of work upon schooling, are asimportant as numbers in judging theseriousness of the problem.

Child labour is least apparent inlarge-scale, reasonably modern indus¬try; more so in small, marginal fac¬tories; very common in small-scale and

cottage industries, handicraft "work¬shops, industrial home work, smallretail shops, hotels, restaurants, ser¬vices, street trades and domestic ser¬

vice; and most prevalent by far inagriculture.

Child labour in factories has not,

of course, altogether disappeared.Appreciable numbers of children

clearly below the legal minimum ageare still employed in small, marginalfactories that rely on keeping wageslow. Such factories are most numerous

in Asia and, to a somewhat lesser

extent, in Latin America and the Middle

East, but they also exist in parts ofsouthern Europe and even in depressedareas of more industrialized regions.From the examples which recur in allthese regions, they seem to be particu¬larly concentrated in certain industries:

textiles, clothing manufacture, foodprocessing and canning.

A striking illustration of the abuseswhich occasionally arise in factories ofthis kind was provided by a surveymade in one area of Thailand in 1965

covering a limited number of factories

employing ten or more workers.

The factories were engaged in manu¬facturing or packaging such things asbottles, cigarettes, textiles, sweets,biscuits and seafood. Children, espe¬cially girls, were found to constitute a

large part of the work force. Many ofthem between ten and fifteen yearsold, and some as young as six, wereworking eight to fourteen hours a day,seven days a week, for derisory wagesin overcrowded, poorly-lit, badly-venti¬lated and insanitary premises.

Whole family groups were often atwork, with a parent or other olderrelative alone receiving payment forthe entire group. In a cigarette factorychildren were being hired as "assist¬ants" by adult workers who gave themonly a fraction of what they hadactually earned, or paid them piecerates. It was normal for periods oflay-off to alternate with periods ofheavy overtime (worked at ordinaryrates).

Another survey, made two yearslater and limited to textile factories and

workshops in part of the same area,revealed similar conditions and also

showed that nearly half of the workingchildren under sixteen years of agehad never been to school.

The work done by children in fac¬tories is generally relatively light butthey are often given tasks presentingclear risks to their safety and health.

Numerous instances have been

observed in various countries of the

employment of children in dangerousoccupations, including the manufactureof fireworks, glass-blowing, carryingpieces of incandescent glass, the useof toxic materials in dye houses, workinvolving exposure to dust and lint intextile mills and to extremes of heat

and cold in the manufacture of confec¬

tionery, work in foundries and, in allsorts of factories, work near furnaces

and unguarded machinery. Even ifsuch practices are becoming less com¬mon, they are still very disquieting.

Industrial work other than in fac¬

tories is a common activity amongchildren throughout Africa, Asia, LatinAmerica and the Middle East where

many small workshops, cottage indus¬tries and handicraft undertakings em¬ploying children are to be found.

Moreover, many children in partsof both northern and southern Europeas well as in these regions are knownto perform industrial work at home.

The jobs they perform include weaving,spinning, sewing, embroidery, metal-work, leather work, woodwork, makingpottery and carpets, clothing, shoes,toys, buttons, baskets, fireworks, etc.

To a large extent, of course, theseare family undertakings in which thechildren are working and learning atraditional family trade under theirparents. But this is not the case as

often as it may seem. In one part ofIran, for example, the labour inspection

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

7

8

CHILD-WORKERS (Continued)

service regards all handicraft work¬shops as family undertakings andtherefore outside the scope of most

labour legislation even though, in fact,many of the children working in themare wage-earners employed by personsother than their parents.

Child workers in certain countries

are also frequently represented asapprentices or learners, and many ofthem undoubtedly are in a sense, butthe training they get is often minimal,the work strenuous, the treatment that

of servants and the pay far belowstandard. Lighting, ventilation andsanitary conditions in such workplacesare generally poor. Safety precautionsare negligible and children can be seenoperating bellows, wielding acetylenetorches, using cutting or piercing tools,working near furnaces and performingother hazardous tasks.

Children are often brought to theworkshop by their parents or otheradults sometimes presumed to be theirparents; they work as "helpers" underthe responsibility of those adults andare paid by them rather than by theproprietor.

Thus, a recent inquiry in India foundthat it was usual for weavers in both

handloom and powerloom establish¬ments to be assisted by school-agechildren, who were not regarded asemployees and whose wages, such asthey were, were paid only by theweavers themselves. Arrangements,such as these were found to be com¬

mon in carpet-weaving and brocadework.

The hand-made carpet industry is alarge-scale and well-known employerof child labour in other countries as

well, and the employment of childrenin it often follows much the same

pattern.

In Iran, for example, carpets arecustomarily made by women with theassistance of girls, often but notalways their own daughters and oftenextremely young. In government-owned workshops, the legal minimumage of twelve is observed and reason¬able standards of wages, hours andphysical working conditions are main¬tained. But the bulk of productioncomes from small, private workshopsand especially, home work. Conditionsin such workshops are generallyextremely poor and the employment ofvery young girls below the age oftwelve is normal.

Home work is an even greater prob¬lem in Iran. The work is handed out

to women by middlemen who havenone of the responsibilities of em¬ployers and is performed at home bythe women with their daughters or girls

CONTINUED PAGE 10

tov **' *%%*:.£ *.u.

¡£Ä

The scourge of child labour remains a

world-wide problem today, affecting devel¬

oped and developing countries alike.

Obliged to work for a living in agricul¬

ture, industry, handicraft workshops, etc.,

millions of children are deprived of their

right to education. Above left, shoe-

shine boys at work near a Brazilian beach.

Above, bent almost double under his

heavy load this young Peruvian returns

from a day's work in the fields. Right,

a young Iranian girl concentrates on the

meticulous work of weaving one of the

sumptuous Persian carpets for which Iran

is famous. Left, a group of Iraqi children

help in the building of a new village.

CHILD-WORKERS (Continued)

Under guise of 'adoption', young girls sold into domestic service

from other families. The girls are oftenpractically infants and their employ¬ment and conditions of work are sub¬

ject to no controls. Similar practicesare found in many countries in handi¬craft work.

Finally, many children are employedin the building industry throughoutmost of Asia, Latin America and the

Middle East, and also, recently, in partsof southern Europe where large-scalebuilding has been intense. Older boysbelow the legal minimum age seem tobe widely employed on building sitesin these areas as casual, unregisteredlabourers to clear debris, carry equip¬ment and do other odd jobs at lowwages; such jobs often involve seriousrisks of accident and injury.

I

10

I N non-industrial employ¬

ment, very many children in all regionsof the world work in small shops, res¬taurants, hotels, street trades and

various service occupations. In mostcities and towns in Africa, Asia, LatinAmerica and the Middle East, children

are commonly employed as waiters andbusboys in cafés and restaurants,maids in hotels, sweepers, shop clerks,garage assistants, barber-shop assis¬tants, errand boys, shoe-shine boys,

automobile guards, street vendors and,of course, beggars.

The street trades, in particular, arecertainly the most visible forms of childlabour and, for obvious reasons,

among the most difficult to control.

The children engaged in them are oftenvery young, homeless and grosslyexploited by adults.

The street trades are sometimes dis¬

missed as light, harmless occupationsthat keep children busy and out oftrouble. In fact they prejudice thesafety, health, moral welfare and socialdevelopment of children whose uncon¬

trolled wanderings in the streets forlong hours, until late at night, con¬stantly expose them not only to badweather, dirt, fumes and traffic but also

to the most sordid aspects of city life.

Domestic service is another largelyuncontrolled and widespread occupa¬tion for children. In countries where

servants are normally found in all

reasonably well-off households, manyof them are bound to be children. This

is very often the case in Africa, Asia,Latin America and the Middle East.

Recent studies by the InternationalLabour Organization tend to confirmthat in various countries substantial

numbers of children aged under four

teen are working as domestic servants(often, it should be said, quite legally,since the minimum age for domesticservice is sometimes twelve or thirteen

and sometimes no minimum is pre¬scribed).

In some countries it is common for

very young children mainly girls inCentral America, the Middle East and

some parts of Asia to be brought tocities from rural areas by their parents,or purported parents, and virtually soldinto domestic service. The children are

usually unpaid and the practice is oftendescribed, euphemistically, as "adop¬

tion". It is generally rationalized bythe argument that these children enjoymuch better conditions than in their

previous homes. While this may oftenbe true, there is always a potentialdanger of overwork, neglect, mistreat¬ment and exploitation.

This problem has from time to timebeen drawn to public attention invarious countries, but the efforts that

have been made to control it throughlaws and regulations, such as the legalrequirement to register domestic ser¬vants now in force in some parts ofSri Lanka (Ceylon), have had littlesuccess.

Non-industrial child labour is also

a problem in southern Europe. Chil¬

dren below the legal minimum age areemployed fairly widely in shops, cafésand restaurants and to a much lesser

extent in markets and street trades.

Employment is often combined withschool attendance, or at least school

enrolment, and provides a supplementto family income.

In the more developed countriesalso this problem sometimes arises,but again it is of a different nature. Inmost such countries children below the

basic minimum age can be legallyemployed subject to certain safeguards(the work must be limited to specifiedactivities, it must not be carried on

early in the morning or at night orduring school hours, the hours of workmust not exceed a specified maximum,

the children must not be under a speci¬fied lower age limit, etc.). Failure toobserve these safeguards is probablythe most common problem.

The question has received consider¬

able attention over the past year in theUnited Kingdom, where the regulationof the employment of children agedbetween thirteen and fifteen in non-

industrial activities is in large measurea matter for local bylaws. Childrenwere reported to have been employedin prohibited activities, particularly

during weekends and school holidays,and, more frequently, at prohibitedtimes (such as delivering newspapersor milk over one hour before school

started) or for excessively long hours.

Many instances of illegal employ¬ment came to light only when teachersinquired into the reasons why somechildren had no time to do their home

work or could not stay for after-schoolactivities or were too tired to concen¬

trate on their school work or fell

asleep in class.

In the developed countries difficul¬

ties of a new and more specializedkind occasionally appear. For instance,in the application of safeguards forchild performers, problems have arisenwith television publicity films.

The head of a prominent children's

model agency in the United Kingdomrecently pointed out that children aresometimes asked for during schoolhours and that they can be called tothe studio early in the morning, onlyto spend the whole day getting boredand tired while waiting to be employed.

HE sector in which the bulk

of the children in every region areemployed is, of course, agriculture.Traditionally, children begin at an earlyage to do some work on the land beingcultivated by their parents: this is noless true of Europe and North Americathan of the countries of Asia, Africa

and Latin America. Minor farming jobs,the care of animals and a certain

amount of field work are performed byyoung children almost everywhere.

In the traditional, mainly subsistencesector of agriculture in the developingcountries, the direct regulation of theemployment of children is generallynot practicable. Until primary educ¬ation becomes universally availableand until it becomes possible for mostfamilies to dispense with the work oftheir children on farms, there is little

chance that child labour by unpaidfamily workers will be reduced to anysignificant extent.

Employment in commercially orientedagriculture is a different matter. Whilechildren are far less extensively em¬ployed in commercial agriculture thanin unpaid family work, they do engagein it to an appreciable extent in mostdeveloping countries.

On plantations it often takes the formof work as part of a family group: theparents do the main field work and the

children either assist them (in pluckingtea leaves, picking coffee beans orcollecting latex) or do secondary jobs

such as weeding, spreading fertilizeror caring for plants.

This is a fairly common pattern insome Asian countries, including Indiaand Pakistan; it is also found, but toa much lesser extent, in certain African

countries, especially at harvest time.

Most countries have at least some

legislation regulating the minimum agefor employment, but it is usually notvery effective. Even where the legis¬lation is fairly well enforced, as on thetea and rubber estates in Sri Lanka

(Ceylon), appreciable numbers of chil¬dren work unofficially helping theirparents in weeding or other tasks.

The use of piece rates or contractsspecifying quotas tends to encouragethe unofficial employment of childrenby parents on plantations. As a rule,light work by children under certainconditions is legally permitted, and tosome extent child labour is, in prac¬tice, limited to such work.

It is by no means uncommon, how¬ever, for children to do full-scale agri¬cultural work, including such heavyjobs as ploughing. In Brazil, the plant¬ing of cotton, rice and sugar-cane andthe harvesting of coffee and cocoa arefrequently done by both children andadults.

Child labour in agriculture is by nomeans confined to the developingcountries. In southern Europe childrenare widely employed as farmhands orin caring for animals and are usuallypaid very low wages sometimes in theform of food and lodging. Many ofthese children have left school at an

early age or attend irregularly.

In northern Europe such employmentis less widespread and more subordi¬

nated to schooling, but it does exist.There are several countries in which

employment in .agriculture is not sub¬ject to a minimum age as long as workis not performed during school hours;children often start work, either on

their family farms or on other localfarms, early in the morning beforeschool, put in additional work after

school and work long hours duringvacations.

In the United States interest in the

conditions of migratory labour hasbrought to light over the past few yearsa considerable amount of disquietinginformation on the employment of chil¬dren in agriculture generally.

Until 1966, the U.S. federal FairLabor Standards Act contained no

provisions regulating child labour inagriculture outside school hours and

even now does so only for hazardousoccupations; moreover, few State laws

contain such provisions. Thus, chil¬dren of any age can work legally inagriculture at certain times in mostStates. Many children do in fact havesuch jobs and a large proportion aremigratory workers. In 1967 about309,000 children under fourteen yearsdid some farm work for wages; about38,000 of them were migratory.According to several studies carriedout in the U.S.A. in the mid-1960s,

many migratory children worked prac¬tically full time, but in recent yearsthere seems to have been an appre¬ciable decline in the illegal employmentof children in agriculture.

'VER the past 55 years theInternational Labour Conference has

adopted ten Conventions dealing withthe minimum age for employment.

The first of these, the Minimum Age(Industry) Convention fixed this age,in 1919, at fourteen. It was partiallyrevised in 1937 when the minimum agefor employment in industry was raisedto fifteen.

Among countries which have raisedthe minimum age to sixteen i.e. ahigher level than the standards set inthese two Conventions are Australia,

Bulgaria, the U.S.S.R., the United Sta¬tes (under federal legislation and underthe legislation of twenty States), andin principle, Japan and Singapore.

In Europe, the minimum age foremployment in industry is fifteen inCzechoslovakia, Italy, Netherlands (forgirls), Norway, Sweden and Yugosla¬via; in Belgium, Denmark, Finland,

Hungary, Malta, Netherlands (for boys)and Romania, it is fourteen. In Hun¬

gary and Romania work during schoolattendance hours is forbidden for chil¬

dren who have not completed the com¬pulsory schooling period.

In the United States the age limit isfifteen in one State (Texas) and four¬teen in 28 States and the District of

Columbia.

Jamaica has raised the minimum ageto fifteen. In Barbados, Chile, Colum¬

bia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, theage is fourteen.

In Asia and the Pacific a minimum

age of fifteen has been established incertain States in Australia, in India (formining and transport), and New Zea¬land. In certain other parts of Austra¬lia, in India (work in factories), Pakis¬tan (mining and transport), Thailand

and the Republic of Viet-Nam, the ageis fourteen.

In Africa a minimum age of fifteenhas been laid down in Ghana, Mauri¬

tius, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. InAlgeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast andUpper Volta, it is fourteen.

In a few countries the minimum ageis still below that established by thetwo conventions. In Costa Rica, the

Arab Republic of Egypt, Iran, Pakistan(work in factories) and Turkey, it isfixed at twelve years of age.

Another important convention deal¬ing with the age of admission ofchildren to agricultural work, wasadopted in 1921.

Under this convention children under

fourteen years of age may only workin any public or private agriculturalundertaking outside the hours fixed forschool attendance. Such work shall

not be such as to prejudice their atten¬dance at school.

It is clear that legislation on juvenilelabour in agriculture is less strict andmore limited in scope than that con¬cerning employment in industry or atsea. Fewer countries have established

a minimum age in this sector, and theage is often fixed at fairly low levels.Furthermore, family undertakings areoften excluded from the relevant provi¬sions and light work is frequentlyauthorized.

LS a final comment concerningchildren employed in agriculture, it isworth emphasizing that, contrary totraditional ideas on the healthful nature

of farm work, modern agriculture expo¬ses workers to at least as much phy¬sical risk as most other sectors.

This is not only .a matter of heat,sun, dust and insects or the strains

caused by stooping and lifting: theincreasing mechanization of agriculturehas made it an especially hazardousoccupation. The dangers created bythe use of power-driven machinery,such as harvesters, threshers, reapers,tractors, are obviously all the greaterfor children and young persons.

Some countries, like the United Sta¬tes, have made special efforts both toprevent the employment of children indangerous agricultural work and totrain young persons in handling machi¬nery safely.

In the United States, agriculture isclassified after mining and construc¬tion as the third most hazardous occu¬

pation. In the state of New York alone,

official satisfies indicate that during theperiod 1949-67, forty-seven childrenaged between five and fourteen years 1 1old died as a result of occupationalaccidents: forty-two of these were inagriculture.

byGrigory Glezerman

Science

Societyand

The unequal development of people

of different races is a product

of history not of nature

12

lACE and racial oppressionbelong to entirely different categories:the origin of race is in nature; thatof racial oppression is social. Ideo¬logists of racism tend in one way oranother to deny this distinction andelevate racial inequality to the rank ofnatural law. Anthropology, historicalsciences and sociology refute anti-scientific notions of this kind.

Natural distinctions among peopledo not in themselves give rise tosocial distinctions and it is only incertain social conditions that they maybe connected with social inequality.Neither colour of skin nor structure

of hair nor any other characteristicsof race can ' possibly account forunequal levels of social, economic orcultural development of people be¬longing to different races. Thisinequality is a product of history, notof nature.

In this connexion it is importantto define correctly the relationshipbetween biological and social factors.One cannot deny the influence of bio¬logical factors on social life. Nodoubt, there are biological relationsbetween human beings united in asociety (like those connected withthe reproduction of mankind, forexample), but it is not these relationsthat determine the structure of societyand its forms. Man's relationshipwith nature is different from that of an

animal. Man produces the means ofhis existence, and this fact alonemakes it inadmissible to extend the

application of laws valid for animallife to human society.

An outstanding Russian scientist,

GRIGORY GLEZERMAN, Professor at theInstitute of Philosophy of the Soviet Academyof Sciences, is a leading Soviet philosopherand sociologist and has several times beenawarded the U.S.S.R. State Prize for hiswork in these fields. Professor Glezerman

was a member of the committee of expertswhich met at Unesco headquarters in Parisin 1972 to study problems of racism. Thearticle published here is based largely onthe paper he presented at this meeting. Heis the author of a number of books including"Historical Materialism and the Developmentof Socialist Society' which has been publish¬ed in English, French and German editions.

Kliment A. Timiriazev, who was a

follower of Darwin, once aptly ob¬served: "the doctrine of struggle forexistence stops short at the thresholdof the history of culture. All reason¬able, cultural activity of man is nothingbut struggle against the struggle forexistence."

Society develops in accordancewith its own social laws and therefore

the influence of biological factors isalways refracted through the prism ofsocial relations. Moreover, biologicalrelations themselves change under theimpact of and depending on socialrelations.

Anthropologists have convincinglydemonstrated that race distinctions

concern only minor characteristics anddo not allow any sharply marked bor¬derlines to be drawn between the

different groups of mankind. Somescientists estimate that only one percent of the total number of genes areresponsible for transmitting charac¬teristics that distinguish one race fromanother. And those genes are res¬ponsible only for such superficialfeatures as colour of skin and the like.

There was a time when these

features did play a part in man'sadaptation to natural conditions butnever did they determine the courseof history. Moreover, even their rôlein the process of adaptation togeographical environment graduallylost its significance, as man changednature by his activity and at the sametime changed his own way of life (interms of urbanization, for example).

Furthermore, in the course ofhistory changing social conditionshave been exerting an ever increasinginfluence on the biological aspect ofthe development of races. The sizesof race populations, their migration,the process of mixing and so ondepend mainly on the conditions ofsocial life. This manifests itself,

among other things, in the fact thatthere are no "pure" races now.

In spite of the obstacles created byracial segregation in a number of

countries the process of mixing goeson steadily. A leading Soviet authorityon genetics, Nicolai P. Dubinin, estim¬ates that "on the whole, one mayassume that now about half of the

world population are the product ofrace mixing... The year 1492, whenColombus discovered America, wasthe starting point of the present roundof the ever expanding genetic processof pooling human heredity within asingle gigantic population."

HIISTORY has shown the fu¬

tility of attempts to regard the destiniesof peoples, their potential abilities andpatterns of behaviours as dependenton racial peculiarities. First of all, itshould be noted that the main biolo¬

gical features of man which were theprerequisites for the emergence anddevelopment of his social life theupright position of the body that freedhis hands in the process of movingabout, thus enabling him to work, thestructure of his skeleton, the develop¬ment of the brain, etc. are common

to all human races. Therefore theyunite, rather than divide mankind.

The different destinies of peoplesin history are accounted for not bytheir biological features but by ma¬terial conditions of life, by theirhistorical circumstances. Many scien¬tists, including the British archaeo¬logist Gordon Child (in "Progress andArchaeology") feel that the socialdevelopment of peoples is not iden¬tical with their biological development.Since man of the present typeappeared it has proceeded withoutsignificant changes having taken placein the structure of his body, and therate of this development is notdetermined by biological factors.

The difficulties involved in definingthe notion of race have promptedsome scientists to propose that thisnotion should be given up altogether,and replaced by that of ethnic groups.The absence of sharp borderlines,however, does not mean that races

CONTINUED PAGE 32

13

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4^- *^-^

LEOFROBENIUSTHE MAN WHO EXPLORED

AFRICA'S SOULA great German humanist, free of prejudice,

who proved that wherever men livethere is civilization.

by Eike Haberland

14

EIKE HABERLAND is a professor of ethnologyand Director of the Frobenius Institute at

the Goethe University of Frankfurt (Fed Rep.of Germany). The author of a number ofethnological and anthropological studies onAfrica and Oceania, he has carried out sev¬eral research expeditions, in particular insouthern Ethiopia and New Guinea. Pro¬fessor Haberland is a member of the Council

of the International Union of Ethnologists

\T a time

still caught up in thesuperiority of the whculture, a man opencomprehensive cultuof the entire world,turning the traditionaapproach to history.

This man was a

Leo Frobenius, born

when Europe wasprejudices of the

ite race and white

ed the door to a

ral-historical view

thus at last over-

I, Europe-centered

German scientist,in Berlin on June

29, 1873. Philosopher and ethnologist,Frobenius published his first scientificworks at the age of 20, and at 25 heastonished the scientific world with

his book "The Origin of AfricanCultures" which marks the beginningof historical and cultural research in

Africa.

With his vigorous mind and strong-willed temperament, Frobenius was

During a lifetime of tireless research, Leo Fro¬benius (seen, left, at work at a camp-site in theSahara) made a series of twelve great ex¬peditions to Africa (see map below) from whichhe brought back an immense wealth of infor¬mation about the previously unsuspected culturaltreasures and ancient civilizations of the conti¬

nent. He was one of the first to make known

the importance and splendours of the Zimbabwecivilization in southern Rhodesia. In this regionhe discovered a number of magnificent rockpaintings of which this seated dignitary (right)is one of the most famous examples (see alsonext pages and back cover).

& ¡m

really nobody's disciple as far asscience was concerned. He served

his apprenticeship at various museumsand universities although as hehimself put it his real teachers werethe original sources.

His doctoral thesis on the originsof African culture was rejected by aGerman faculty, and he turned hisback on the universities for good.From then on, he went his own wayIt is true that, as an older man, hereceived an honorary professorshipfrom the University of Frankfurt, buthe never held public lectures, althoughthe number of those who call

themselves his pupils is considerable.

His achievements are all the more

impressive when we consider that hewas not only a scientific genius, butalso a gifted administrator. His entirelife-work, his research institute with

its many collaborators, his numerousresearch expeditions, his extensivescientific archives were supported forthe greater part of his life with moneyhe raised himself.

A series of twelve great expeditions,beginning in 1904 and ending in 1935,shortly before his death, took him tothe Congo and the Kasai, to WestAfrica which he covered in two tripsof almost four years' duration, to

Morocco, Algiers, Libya, and into thedeserts and mountains of the central

Sahara, to Egypt, to the Sudan, to theshores of the Red Sea and to South

Africa. He also took an extended

trip to India. Thus many years of hislife were spent in the bush, in thesavanna and the tropical forest.

Those travels and the numerous

books he wrote about them in a highlymemorable style established his fame.At that time, Frobenius was quiteproperly called the true scientificdiscoverer of African culture, for henever returned from his expeditionswithout material of immense value toscience.

HMS reputation as an active

researcher was equally undisputedamong the general public and amongethnologists. He was the daringrevolutionary in many fields, attackingunsolved problems and making entirelynew discoveries.

Consider Zimbabwe (Rhodesia)whose culture he brilliantly explainedfrom the traditions of the wise men and

priests still living in 1930. Consider Ifein Nigeria where his excavationsbrought entirely novel aspects of Afri¬can art to light

Frobenius had a genius for dis¬covery. From every journey hebrought back things previously un¬known whether objects or traditions,myths or historical reports. Heshowed quite remarkable intuition indiscovering things which others, whohad been longer in the country thanhe had, passed by unnoticed.

In Nigeria, for example, a man fromIfe told him that "in my countryeveryone who lived in olden times isa big stone." What no one hadbelieved possible was shown to betrue Frobenius went to Ife and there,

despite opposition from the Yorubasand the British colonial authorities,

excavated marvellous pieces of terracotta and bronze heads. In so

doing he not only founded Africanarchaeology but revolutionized thepicture of African art which hadprevailed in Europe till that time, bydemonstrating what consummate worksAfrica was able to produce.

His writings about these journeysare today counted among the standardworks of African literature. The most

important are: a comprehensive twelve-volume collection of African myths,fairy tales and folk tales; his threevolumes "And Africa Spoke" (in whichhe laid down the results of his travels

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

15

FROBENIUS (Continued)

16

in western and central Sudan); "DyingAfrica" in which he describes the

gradual decline of the high traditionalculture; "Erythrea" describing theZimbabwe culture; "Paideuma" inwhich he sets down his credo as a

philosopher of culture; and finally hispowerful summary the "History ofAfrican Culture".

Yet Leo Frobenius shares the fate

of many other important men: oftenmentioned, seldom quoted, and evenmore rarely read. Most of his books

some were published in the firstquarter of this century have not beenre-issued. Few of them have been

translated into English (1).

(1) A selection, in English, of the works ofFrobenius, 'Leo Frobenius 1873-1973, AnAnthology", edited by Eike Haberland andwith a foreword by Leopold Sedar Senghor,has just been published by Franz SteinerVerlag GmbH, Wiesbaden, Fed. Rep. of Ger¬many. Other important works of Frobeniustranslated into English include: 'The Child¬hood of Man', Meridian Books Inc., NewYork, 1960; "The Voice of Africa", BenjaminBlom, New York, 1968.

Few anthropologists during his time,or indeed before or after him, havedevoted their lives with so much pas¬sion to uncovering the secrets of inter-cultural influences and relations. Onlythe immediate experience of the livingcustoms of the African, only close,even intimate, contact with Africanpeople made it possible for him toachieve such perfection in his work.

Frobenius was a tireless worker

as is proved not only by his numerouspublications, but also by the treasures

.

PAINSTAKING GENIUS Frobenius recorded every aspect of African cultures with the samepainstaking precision. His personal archives contained some 250,000 notes on African art,history, traditions and folklore. He made vivid reproductions of African paintings, such as thissplendid rock painting from Rhodesia (left), and meticulous plans and drawings of dwellings, fur¬niture, carvings and decorative designs such as this embroidery from Nigeria (below).

he left behind in his archives, most ofthem in his own hand, comprising250,000 excerpts, pictures and maps inwhich he systematically catalogued allthe most important facts from theliterature of his day on Africa.

Frobenius' lifework was crowned

officially when the city of Frankfurttook over the sponsorship of theAfrican Institute which, up to then, hehad supported by his own efforts, andappointed him a Director of theEthnological Museum of the same city.

Frobenius could now work more

freely, and devoted the last years ofhis life principally to training hisstudents to succeed him in his work.

He sent them, under his own super¬vision, on several great expeditions,the finest fruits of which were the

copying and recording of the Arabianand the Sahara rock pictures.

Although constantly attacked by theNazis, the Institute which later bore his

name, survived the bad years followinghis death at Biganzalo, Italy, on

August 9, 1938, up to 1945. Today itis continuing his work as a centre ofAfrican research in the Fed. Rep. ofGermany.

The vast collection of the Africa

Archive, in which Frobenius recordedall aspects of African cultureswith great meticulousness whether itconcerned sample calabashes or thedistribution of certain types of beds orpile dwellings provided the basis ofFrobenius" greatest achievement: therecognition of the historical back-

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

17

18

FROBENIUS (Continued)

ground of African cultures and thenotion of culture as an independententity.

Frobenius was the first to try toshed some light on the apparentdarkness of African history and to putthe African cultures drawn up by himinto historical perspective. With thehelp of a cartographic method whichhe developed himself he attempted inhis immense work, the "Atlas Afri-canus", to locate the most importantelements of African cultures and thus

to determine their scope and extent.

He identified an old original Negropeasant culture which he called"Ethiopian", the cattle breedingpeoples of East Africa and the variousforms of the state systems andtheocratic kingships which play sucha significant part in recent Africanhistory.

On the other hand he strove to see

the- individual cultures he discovered

not simply as a conglomeration ofvarious elements, but rather as livingorganisms whose various forms ofexpression were meaningfully related.

The doctrine of the Gestalt of

cultures from which the expression"culture morphology" derives culmi¬nates in the philosophical principle ofpaideuma which might be besttranslated as the "soul" or "spirit"of a culture which uses man as an

outlet for its expression.

It "takes possession" of man, manis "possessed" emotionally involved.As paideuma is a living being, a culturehas its youth, its zenith, its decay anddeath. For Frobenius the study ofAfrican history meant the study ofthe great African cultures and thevarious stages of their development.

'OPIES made by Frobeniusof the great rock pictures were epoch-making in the development of Africancultural history. The rock picturesparticularly those in the Sahara regionand in southern Africa were barelyknown before Frobenius investigatedthem. He surveyed them withscientific accuracy, made copies ofthem and added as many more newdiscoveries to what was already known.

For this purpose he trained an entiregeneration of artists who accompaniedhim in his expeditions and after themiddle 1930's went on expeditions oftheir own to make a record of the

treasures of south-west European andAfrican rock paintings and engravings.

In view of the unexpected wealthand the stylistic range of hisdiscoveries, Frobenius hoped thatmore extensive surveys would bringto light enough new pictures ofsignificance to fill an enormous"picture book" illustrating the historyof pre-literate cultures.

This hope was not fulfilled. Todaysome of the dates given to rockpaintings by Frobenius are rejected,although for lack of archaeologicalevidence there has been no success in

dating them correctly.

Be that as it may, Frobenius holdsthe honour of having recognized thatmany rock pictures belonged to anearlier epoch of mankind, when theinhabitants of Europe as well as Africawere still hunters. They made picturesof the things that formed the centreof their lives and thoughts: theanimals they hunted.

Animals were not simply prey and asource of food. They lived with manin symbiotic union. They were centralto the culture. Men were to use

Frobenius' expression "possessed",emotionally involved, with the animals'existence.

This was expressed in many rockpictures, which go beyond merenaturalistic reproduction of animals.They show beings with human bodiesand animal heads or with masks.

A climax is reached in the picture ofa demonic elephant which, through thepower of its artistic sensitivity, haslost none of its strong impact for ustoday.

HE rock pictures in theSahara took on new meaning whenFrobenius compared them with thoseof South Africa some of which had

been made in recent times by hunters,the Bushmen, before their old culture

collapsed and disappeared leaving fewtraces. Here again, we find the over¬powering profusion of animal picturesof the highest degree of artistic per¬fection, here again the same demonicbeings.

On many of his trips around AfricaFrobenius collected information on the

remnants of an old hunting culturewhich must have formerly coveredthe whole of Africa before it was

supplanted by younger and morevigorous cultures.

Furthermore, Frobenius found won¬derful rock paintings in the vicinityof Zimbabwe which really give theimpression of being illustrations ofhistory. In the centre there is theconstantly recurring figure of thetheocratic king. Particularly expressiveare the pictures depicting his burial inthe centre of a naturalistically depictedlandscape with its characteristic rocks.

Frobenius had a singular affectionfor what he called "Ethiopian culture"(the reference is to Homer's "irre¬proachable Ethiopia" and has noconnexion with the country of thatname). It is the culture of the trueNegro that left its imprint on the wholeAfrican continent south of the Sahara.

He said of it: "I was often asked

what occupation best expressed the

CONTINUED PAGE 23

Colour pages

Opposite

GENIAL TUMBLER

Worn during the performanceof acrobatic dances, thisclown- like mask with a mo¬

vable lower jaw is the workof the Oguni who inhabitthe delta of the river Niger.

Photo H.

igeria

Pecclnotti © Mobil,

Centre pages

KING OF BRONZE

This superb bronze is astatuette of Oba Ovonramwen,

king of Benin, who wasdeposed in 1897 after theBenin Expedition. The secretof the lost-wax bronze cast¬

ing technique has been knownfor centuries in this region ofNigeria.

Photo H. Peccinottl © Mobil,Nigeria

RITUAL MASKS

Masks play an important role in African life,being used in ceremonies marking occasions ofspecial importance for the community. Left, awooden Baluba (Zaire) mask worn duringdances performed in honour of the chiefs.Centre, a ritual magic mask of the Aduma peopleof the Lastoursville region of Gabon. Right,an Ouahou (Upper Volta) mask. Carved fromthe wood of the silk-cotton tree it is worn at

the seed-time festival and at funerals.

MAN-MANTIS

These arresting rock paintings of insect-likemen were discovered in southern Africa by LeoFrobenius. Their meaning remains a mystery.

Photo Frobenius Institut, Frankfurt

Page 22

ART IN DAILY LIFE

Hollowed out and, dried, ca¬

labashes, or gourds, are usedas plates, dishes or drinkingvessels. Their decorative

designs, often symbolic, arecarved by women using sharpknives; the calabashes arethen coated with a mixture of

butter and ashes to bring outthe design. Left, two finelydecorated calabashes from

Chad : above, a calabash of

the pastoral Fulani people,or Bororo; below, detailfrom a large (28 cm.) Bororocalabash.

Photos J. Oster,Musée de l'Homme ©'Unesco Courier"

GUARDIAN BIRD

Standing 40 cm. high, thisguinea-fowl carved on awooden panel adorns thedoor of an Nkanu (Zaire)initiation lodge.

Photo © Musée de l'Homme

h.

-'.

"

^ÜP

FROBENIUS (Continued Irom page 18)

essence of Africa. In my opinion theessence of Africa is best reflected in

the peasantry with its indomitablespirit. It decides the fate of continents.Don't be deceived by the glamour oflarge cities, the power of kings andnobles, artists and craftsmen whichpush the peasantry into the back¬ground."

Since Frobenius, a great deal hasbeen written about the African

peasantry, but seldom has it beendescribed with such warm sympathy.Frobenius has described the cosmic

dualism which is the great universallaw governing the peasant's existence:the interaction of the maternal,

receptive, life-giving, nourishing earthand the paternal heaven procreating,fertilizing the earth with rain.

He has lauded the peasants' industryand described how sowing andharvesting are carried out as a sacredritual, a religious ceremony reflectinga consciousness of the miracle of

Nature, the eternal cycle of life anddeath, growth and decay.

No other culture, he maintains, hasthe strength and genuine religiousfervour to equal that of Africanpeasant culture. With great admir¬ation he describes the clay fortressesbuilt by the peasants and the patriar¬chal family and clan within itsprotecting walls.

M ROBENIUS, in his impress¬ive style, liked to speak of the "gloryof the Sudan", when he referred to theAfrican state with monarch, cities,highly developed crafts and art. Tohim we owe impressive reports of thehigh culture which prevailed in thecities and the courts he himelf visited

both in western and southern Africa.

He also pointed out the numeroussimilarities in the structure of these

states, which not only had a commonbasic principle namely the divineruler as the symbol of the state, thepeople and the culture but a greatmany other common elements as well,so that there can be no doubt as to

their historical relationship.

Frobenius not only made a recordof the history, traditions and folk talesof the Sudanese city culture andpublished them in many books. Wealso owe to him and his assistants

the rich collection of reproductions ofits architecture and the artistic

creations of its craftsmen (embroidery,leather-work, metalwork, pottery andwrought ironwork).

Long before archaeologists provedthat contacts had existed betweenAfrica and its northern and eastern

neighbours, Frobenius had alreadypointed out cultural relationships. Forhim African high culture was not anisolated phenomenon developing inde-pently of the rest of the world. It had

close and fruitful contact with the old

cultures of the Mediterranean and the

Near East. Africa responded to theseinspirations and created its owndistinctive African high culture.

"It was Leo Frobenius who gave usback our dignity", declared LeopoldSédar Senghor, distinguished Africanpoet and writer, and president of theRepublic of Senegal since 1960.

"To the first pioneers of négritude,Leo Frobenius was more than a

teacher whose ideas deserved con¬

sideration. He became for them an

effective and driving force in thediscovery, awakening and streng¬thening of the energies lying dormantin black men. Frobenius spoke to usof the one problem which had becomeour cause: the nature, the value andthe destiny of African culture."

All the cultures of the earth are now

considered to be of equal value. Theyare only different, with differing linesof thought. Frobenius would say: theyhave another paideuma, anotherculture soul. But this implies novalue judgment. Frobenius was thusfar ahead of other historians who, intheir works, deal with the so-called

"primitives" only in passing.

Leo Frobenius not only recognizedthe historic values of all the cultures

of this earth, he also tried to follow the

actual course of their development,regardless of the lack of writtensources. It does not matter that todaymany of his historical reconstructionsrequire revision. Every great man isa child of his times.

We should remember how little

source material he had at his disposal ,he had collected most of it himself

during his travels. We must alsoconsider that he had absolutely notechnical aids, such as archaeologistshave today, to help him date hismaterial.

This fate he shares with manyother great pioneers. Nevertheless,his insight remains the foundationfor the study of African culturalhistory. Only subtle intuition andtremendous industry the two charac¬teristics of genius made possible hisvast life work, which we cannot helpbut admire.

We see him not only as the founderof African cultural history, but also asa great humanist, free of prejudice,who proved that wherever men live,there is civilization. We also recognizein him a bold spirit with the courage tobe independent of current officialpolicy, at a time when racial madnesshad reached its peak, with the courageto say in public that race had nothingto do with culture.

What he said prophetically in 1921has now become a commonplace forus today, namely "that human culturemust be seen and understood in its

entirety as one organic whole from itsearliest origins". For this he deservesour gratitude.

Leo Frobenius was quick to realizehow Important the Sahara rockpaintings and carvings were to theunderstanding of the history ofancient Africa. From Morocco to

Libya he discovered and copiedhundreds of these carvings and, in1925, in collaboration with the

Spanish archaeologist Hugo Ober-maier, he published his reproductionsin an analytical study entitled"Hadjra Maktuba" (from Arabicmeaning "written on stone"). Thefigures above were found at Taghit QQand Mou'l Maktuba, not far from £yBechar in the Sahara.

Drawings © Dr. Germann. Munich

WHY9 marriage age 16

civil majority 18voting age 21

by Titos Patrikios

I N all countries, parents areunder a legal obligation to feed,support and bring up their childrenand also usually to meet the cost ofthe children's education.

But the present trend is to extendparental responsibilities to includemedical care, education beyond theelementary level (as stipulated by lawin several States of the United States

of America), or even vocational training(in Romania, the Code of the Familystipulates that the parents shall bringup the child and make provision forhealth and physical development,education, schooling and vocationaltraining).

These facts emerge from a Unescoinquiry covering 45 countries (1) theresults of which were published re¬cently in the Unesco booklet "Rightsand Responslbilites of Youth".

The duty of supporting the childdevolves upon the father and mother,and also upon the grandparents.There are some countries such as the

United States, Bulgaria and Turkey,where this obligation exists betweenbrothers and sisters, while in Japanthe Family Court may, in specialcircumstances, impose such dutiesupon relatives of the third degree.In countries such as Pakistan and

Liberia, the obligation devolves uponthe "family" in a broad sense.

As a general rule, these parentalresponsibilities, together with the

24

TITOS PATRIKIOS, of Greece, Is a sociologistand jurist and former director of a programmeof research in Greece on juvenile delinquencyand on economic and social development.He has been a Unesco consultant on prob¬lems of youth and education since 1968 andfrom 1972 has been particularly concernedwith the prevention of drug abuse amongyoung people by educational means. He Isthe author of the Unesco study "Rights andResponsibilities of Youth' (No. 6 in the seriesEducational Studies and Documents, 1972),prepared with the collaboration of the WorldAssembly of Youth and the World Federationof Democratic Youth. It Is on this study thatthe article we publish here is based.

corollary rights of the children, ceaseto exist when the young people comeof age. However, such responsi¬bilities and rights expire in somecountries before the children come of

age and in others after.

In the United States the law of

certain States stipulates that, if a minorof sixteen starts to work and earns

enough to keep himself, his father isno longer obliged to support him. InAustralia too, parents are releasedfrom their obligation to provide fortheir children when the latter reach

the age of sixteen (Queensland,Australian Capital Territory).

In Laos, on the other hand, theparents' obligation lasts until thechildren can earn their own living, butif a child is later without a job andcannot find one, the parents are againobliged to provide support.

Discrimination between illegitimate andlegitimate children. In most countrieschildren born out of wedlock do not

have the same rights as legitimatechildren despite the trend in favourof greater equality between them.

As a rule, it is only when they havebeen legitimized that children born outof wedlock have the same rights andobligations as the legitimate childrenof the marriage. If they have merelybeen recognized by the father, theyare entitled to be fed and brought upat their father's expense, but theycannot claim the same rights aslegitimate children, particularly inmatters of inheritance.

But in certain cases they may applyto the putative father for maintenanceand education allowances. In Belgiumillegitimate children can exercise thisright up to the age of eighteen, inFinland up to seventeen and in Guyanaup to sixteen.

A significant step towards the elim¬ination of discrimination between

legitimate and illegitimate children wastaken in New Zealand with the Status

of Children Act of 1969, which providesthat "for all the purposes of the lawof New Zealand the relationshipbetween every person and his fatherand mother shall be determined

irrespective of whether the father andmother are or have been married toeach other."

Diminution of paternal authority. Thesocial functions performed by thefamily, while still very important, areundergoing radical changes as a resultof the economic, social and culturaltransformation which is taking placein all parts of the world, especially inthe most highly developed countries.

Paternal authority, which is the basisof a number of parental rights andcorollary responsibilities of children,is being undermined, reduced andweakened. However, the currentchange in paternal authority (whichof course varies considerably fromcountry to country) can be seen in thenew parent-child relationship ratherthan in new legislation.

Nevertheless, one finds a growingnumber of countries now adoptinglegislation recognizing, to some extent,the weakening of paternal authority.

Responsibilities of society and rightsof children. It is now recognized inall countries that it is the parentsalone who can ensure children andadolescents the rights they are entitledto within the family. This is particu¬larly true for health matters andphysical and mental training. Althoughthis responsibility mainly concernsparents, it is to an increasing extentbeing assumed by society as a whole.

In the Declaration of the Rights ofthe Child, unanimously adopted onNovember 20, 1959 by the GeneralAssembly of the United Nations,parents and all citizens, local and

national authorities were called uponto recognize the rights set forth inthat Declaration and to seek, pro¬gressively, to make them a realitythrough legislative and other measures.

Under the principles set out in thisDeclaration, "the child shall enjoyspecial protection, and shall be given

CONTINUED PAGE 28

(1) The forty-five countries covered in thisstudy were: Algeria, Australia, Barbados,Belgium, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Central AfricanRepublic, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cze¬choslovakia, Denmark, Arab Republic ofEgypt. Finland, Ghana, Guyana, Hungary,India, Iran, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan,Laos, Liberia, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Ne¬therlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway,Pakistan, Romania, Sierra Leone, Singapore,Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tur¬key, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,United States of America, Upper Volta, Repub¬lic of Viet-Nam and Yugoslavia.

Today young people everywhere are claiming the right toa bigger say in the organization and running of all aspectsof the political, educational, cultural, social and economiclife of their countries. Below, a youth demonstration in thestreets of Tokyo.

Photo Léon Herschtritt © Parimage. Paris

AGE LADDER OF RIGHTS

AND OBLIGATIONS

This comparative table, drawn up by the "Unesco Courier", shows the legal minimum age established in48 countries for marriage, civil majority (generally defined as the age at which parental authority ceases),criminal responsibility and the right to vote. Where the minimum age for marriage given is lower than theage of civil majority, this means that parents consent to the marriage is still required. It will be noted thatthere is still often a discrepancy between the minimum voting age and the age of criminal responsibility,that is to say the age at which, in criminal proceedings, young people are considered as adults.

ALGERIA

ARGENTINA

AUSTRALIA

BANGLADESH

BELGIUM

BRAZIL

CAMEROON

CANADA

BoysMarr ag

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

14/16

Girls

16

18

16

16

15

16

15

12/16

Civil

Majority

21

21

21

21

21

21

21

18/19

Criminal

responsibility

18

21

18

18

18

21

18

16/18

Vote

19

21

18

18

21

18

21

18/19

CHILE 14 12 21

COLOMBIA no ago limitboys 21

girls 18

18

18

18

21

COSTA RICA 15 15 21 21 18

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 18 18 18 18 18

DENMARK 20 18 20 15 20

EGYPT 18 16 21 21 21

ETHIOPIA 18 15 18 18 21

FINLAND 18 17 20 18 20

FRANCE ....+.GERMAN DEM. REP.

GERMANY (FED. REP.)

GHANA

IRAN

ITALY

IVORY COAST

JAMAICA

JAPAN

KOREA (REPUBLIC OF)

LAOS

MADAGASCAR

MAURITIUS

MEXICO

NIGER

NIGERIA

NETHERLANDS

NEW ZEALAND

NORWAY

1816

1516

,2118

21 16 21

18 13

15 15

16 14

18 16

18 16

18 16

18 16

18

17

18

16

21

14/18

18

16

18

15

14

15

14

18

14/18

16

16

16

21

18

21

21

21

20

20

18

21

21

18

21

21

21

20

20

1818

21

21

18

18

18

16

20

14

16

21

21

18

18

17

18

17

16

21

18

18

21

18

21

21

18

20

20

18

18

21

18

21

21

18

20

20

ROMANIA 18 18 18

SENEGAL 20 16 21

SINGAPORE 18 18 21

18

18

16

18

21

21

SPAIN 14 12 21

SWITZERLAND 20 18 20

TANZANIA (UNITED REP. OF)

TURKEY

18 15 18

17 15 18

UNITED KINGDOM 16 16 18

16

20

18

18

17

U.S.A. 14/21 12/18 18/21 18/17/16

U.S.S.R. 18 16/18 18 18

VENEZUELA 14 12 21 21

YUGOSLAVIA 18 18 18 18

ZAIRE 18 18 21 21

N.B. Where more than one figure is given this means that the minimum age level varies from region to region or state to state within the same country.

21

20

18

20

18

18

18

18

18

18

The drawing illustrating marriage, by the Japanese artist Yukio Ota, is 6and is taken from his book "Locos - Lovers Communication System". Japan, 1973.

The other drawings are by Asdrubal Salsamendi. Unesco.

28

WHY ? (Continued Irom page 24)

opportunities and facilities, by law andby other means, to enable him todevelop physically, mentally, morally,spiritually and socially in a healthyand normal manner and in conditions

of freedom and dignity."

Children, the Declaration adds,should also enjoy the benefits ofsocial security, adequate nutrition,housing, recreation and medical ser¬vices. Special protection should alsobe provided for the child's mother,"including adequate pre-natal andpost-natal care." The child who isphysically, mentally or socially handi¬capped should be given the specialtreatment, education and care required.

The Declaration proclaims thatchildren need love and understandingfor the full and harmonious develop¬ment of their personalities and should,wherever possible, grow up in the careof their parents. It also declares thatState and other assistance toward the

maintenance of children of largefamilies is desirable.

Duration of parental authority. Thelegal coming of age (or age ofmajority) which marks the end, at leastofficially, of paternal or parentalauthority was fixed until recently at

LEARNING TO VOTE,

Photos © Tom Kennedy, Dublin, Ireland

twenty-one. This has now beenlowered by law in quite a number ofcountries to twenty or even eighteenyears of age. Furthermore, theinquiry carried out by Unesco hasrevealed the interesting fact that thelegislation of all the countries studiedsets even lower minimum ages at whichyoung people have the right to performcertain acts independently.

Minimum age for marriage. In nearlyall the countries studied, young peoplemay marry before attaining the age ofmajority generally twenty-one. Butin the Socialist countries the minimum

age for marriage coincides as a rulewith the age of majority, which is fixedat eighteen. In Chile, too, the two agescoincide at twenty-one, while in Den¬mark the minimum age for marriage isthe same as the age of majority(twenty) but this only applies to boys.Generally speaking, the minimum agefor marriage is lower for girls thanfor boys. In some countries youngpeople can get married even beforereaching the minimum legal age ifspecial permission is obtained fromthe judicial or administrative auth¬orities. Such permission, which isusually granted in grave circumstances,especially in the event of pregnancy,

can be requested by young people ofeither sex (in Denmark, the Nether¬lands, Czechoslovakia, U.S.A., etc.) orby girls only (in Romania, Singapore,Laos, etc.).

The minimum legal age of marriagefor boys and girls in different countriesis given in the table on page 26.

Parent's consent. Young people maynot marry before attaining theirmajority without the consent of theirfather and mother or of the personexercising parental authority.

In Belgium young people who haveattained their majority, are required,up to the age of twenty-five, to consulttheir father and mother before gettingmarried.

In Monaco, young people who haveattained their majority are required,up to the age of thirty, to produceevidence of their parent's consent.These requirements are pure for¬malities, but it is noteworthy that theyhave not yet been abrogated

In Algeria, under Islamic law, womenmay not make the decision to marryof their own accord, even after theyhave attained their majority.

Early in 1973, just before the Irish general elections and at a time when the minimumvoting age in Ireland had just been lowered from 21 to 18, the students of Marion College,Dublin, held their own mock elections complete with candidates, canvassers, political pam¬phlets and rallies. Candidates were permitted to visit classes (left) to explain their platformsand electioneering continued long after school hours (right). Student-officials supervisedpolling (below) and candidates were elected under the proportional representation systemin force in Ireland. On one point the vote was unanimous everyone learned a greatdeal about elections and throughly enjoyed themselves in the process.

By contrast, in the socialist countries,where the minimum legal age ofmarriage is the same as the age ofmajority, the parent's consent is nolonger required.

In the United States, girls in mostStates and boys in nine Statesmay marry without their parent'sconsent upon reaching an age usuallyeighteen lower than the age ofmajority.

Emancipation by marriage. In mostcountries where young people maymarry before attaining their majority,minors achieve legal independence onmarriage. They then cease to besubject to parental authority and enjoycertain legal rights (Belgium and Italy)or even the same as they would obtainon attaining their majority (Finland,Costa Rica, Guyana, New Zealand,Japan, Singapore, Ghana). In theUnited States, marriage does notconfer legal independence upon minorsexcept in four States.

Age of majority. The legal definitionof the age of majority varies littlefrom one country to another: it is theage at which parental authority ceasesto be operative, and young people arerecognized as capable of carrying out

all acts of civil life on their own. In

most countries, this age is twenty-one.

As pointed out earlier, young peoplein most highly developed countrieshave already in many instances brokenaway from parental authority practi¬cally if not legally long before theycome of age.

On the other hand, in certaincountries where old traditions remain

in force, where the patriarchal familypattern dominates and the father'sauthority is still very strong, youngpeople often find that in practice theirlegal incapacity extends well beyondthe age at which they attain theirmajority in law.

Analysis of the legislation of thecountries studied, shows, however,that although the age of majority isstill twenty-one in most of thesecountries, there is an increasinglypronounced trend towards a loweringof this age. In a large number ofcountries, and particularly in theSocialist countries, it is alreadyeighteen, while in others, such as theScandinavian countries, it is twenty(see table page 26).

We have a typical example of the

trend towards a lower age of majorityand the curtailment of parental auth¬ority, which is evident in the de¬veloping countries, in the reply to theUnesco questionnaire supplied by theMinistry of Education of Sierra Leone(March 4, 1970):

"Up to about 20 years ago, youngpeople had very little say in the choiceof education, profession and disposalof their leisure. The dictates of their

parents were regarded as final. Anyobjection to these was regarded bysociety as deviating from the norm.The age of maturity then was muchhigher than today (say between 25 and30 years).

"But with the infiltration of western

custom and the increase and availab¬

ility of visual aids in the form ofcinemas, books, etc., young peoplebecame mature much earlier and

assumed responsibility for their wayof living, around the age of 21. Thistoo, had taken a different trend insociety which had accepted thischange. Parents are aware of it andthis is gradually being reflected inthe relationship with young people."

Right to vote. In most of thecountries studied in the Unesco survey

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

29

WHY ? (Continued)

The three-pronged advancetowards an extension of the rights of youth

the age of political majority is stilltwenty-one (Belgium, Italy, Malta,Monaco, Turkey, Colombia, Jamaica,Trinidad and Tobago, India, the IvoryCoast, Mauritius, Liberia, Nigeria andSierra Leone, etc.). It is higher inItaly for Senate elections, for whichthe right to vote is not granted untiltwenty-five. On the other hand, inBelgium, the right to vote in localelections is granted at eighteen.

In view of the earlier maturityof young people today and theirincreasing involvement in all fields ofsocial activity, this age limit seemsrather high and is one of the obstaclesto active participation by young peoplein political, or at least parliamentaryaffairs, and to their standing forparliament. It is highly significant thatthe age at which young persons areconsidered responsible for theircriminal acts, liable for military ser¬vice, or old enough to start work isusually lower than the legal voting age.

The lowering, of the age of politicalmajority to eighteen is in fact acommon objective of many youthmovements and youth organizationswhich have been campaigning in thisdirection in several parts of the worldfor some time.

Legislative reforms recently intro¬duced to this effect in several

countries have gone some way towardsmeeting these demands. Thus, thevoting age was lowered to twenty inNorway in 1967, New Zealand in 1969,and in Denmark in 1971; to nineteenin Sweden in 1969; and to eighteenin the United States in 1971. The right

to vote at eighteen has beenrecognized in an amendment to theUnited States Constitution which

applies to all elections, federal, stateor local. The age of political majorityin the United Kingdom has beendropped to eighteen since 1970.

It is worth noting that surveysconducted in certain countries of

western Europe, such as Belgium andNorway, which are included in thepresent study, indicate that in theeighteen-to-twenty age group thoseexpressing themselves in favour oflowering the age of political majorityto eighteen are still in the minority.Some political youth organizationswould seem not to attach importanceto lowering this age limit, since theylook on it as little more than a formal

gesture which would not, in theabsence of other measures, enable

young people to play a larger or moreeffective part in political life.

In the Socialist countries, the ageof political majority has in recent yearsbeen lowered to eighteen.

Criminal law. In most countries

youngsters who break the law aretried by special juvenile courts or, asin the case of the Scandinavian

countries and Romania, by otherbodies which are even less formal and

in which there is a greater degree ofpublic participation.

Juvenile courts and other competentbodies follow a procedure that isrelatively free of judicial formalitiesand as a general rule they applyprotective, preventive and re-edu¬cational measures, according to the

30

IN MORE THAN 40 COUNTRIESEDUCATION STILL NOT COMPULSORY

In 42 countries and territories (1), most of them in Africa. Asiaand Oceania, education is not yet compulsory in law. Almostall of them are developing countries without the resources toprovide schooling for all their school-age children. In manyother countries too, where education is legally compulsory,lack of money and a sufficient number of teachers means thatthe law is far from being fully applied. It is in these countriesthat the minimum school-leaving age is the lowest. In thedeveloped countries, however, the general trend is towardsan extension of the period of compulsory education.

(1) According to information supplied by the various countries for the compila¬tion of the 1972 Unesco Statistical Yearbook, these countries are: The Afars andIssas (French territory of), Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Burma, Burundi,Cameroon. Dahomey, Ethiopia, Gambia, Hong Kong. Indonesia. Ivory Coast.Kenya. Lebanon. Lesotho. Malawi, Malaysia (West), Maldive Islands, Mauritius.Netherlands Antilles, Nigeria. New Guinea. New Hebrides, Pakistan, Papua.Quatar, Samoa (Western), Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore.Solomon Islands (British), Somalia. Sudan, Swaziland. Tanzania, Uganda. UnitedArab Emirates. Yemen, Zambia.

age of the minor, his or her characterand the seriousness of the offencecommitted.

Above a certain age, prison sen¬tences, usually light ones, or otherforms of restriction of liberty can beimposed on minors who have com¬

mitted serious offences. This age, theseverity of the sentences permittedand the re-educational measures

applied vary from country to country.In most countries, minors below theage of eighteen are not liable to capitalpunishment. In Japan this age limitis twenty, in Nigeria it is seventeenand in Singapore sixteen.

In most countries the special treat¬ment reserved for young offenderscontinues up to the age of eighteen.From this age onwards the young areconsidered, from the penal point ofview, as adults and are subject tonormal jurisdiction, receiving the sametreatment as adults.

A comparison of these age limitswith those given in the table onpage 26 brings out clearly that in manycountries a gap still exists betweenthe age at which civil and politicalrights are acquired (21) and the ageat which young people are consideredto be adults for the purposes ofcriminal law (18) and are thereforesubject to the same penalties as adults.

Conclusion. The Unesco study dem¬onstrates clearly that there is anincreasingly strong movement in theworld today towards the recognition,extension and consolidation of the

rights of the young.

Within this general movement, thereare, roughly, speaking, three trends.The first trend shows changes in twodirections: on the one hand a loweringof the age at which young people areconsidered adult in respect of civilresponsibility, and on the other handa raising of the age limit up to whichyoung people continue to benefit fromcertain rights and protective measures.

The most typical example of the firstcase is the lowering of the age ofmajority and of the right to vote whichsome countries admittedly only a fewso far have Introduced.

As to the second case, we maypoint to the raising of the age levelsup to which young people receivespecial social benefits or are grantedspecial treatment in penal matters, thelonger duration of studies and thegranting of material aid up to anincreasingly high age level, the raisingof the minimum age of employment,and of the age limits up to whichyoung workers enjoy special protec¬tion in regard to working conditions.

The second trend is the trend

towards recognition of certain rights

MILITARY

AND

CONSCIENTIOUSOBJECTION

Military service is generally considered by theState as an honourable duty required of allcitizens. Some countries in which militaryservice is compulsory recognize conscientious

objection, but this is true of very few of the45 countries (see note page 24) studied in the

Unesco inquiry on the "Rights and Responsi¬

bilities of Youth". In Denmark, Finland, Norwayand Sweden, young men opposed to the principle

of military service on serious moral or philo¬sophical grounds may, subject to various condi¬tions, do some form of civilian service instead.

In the United States, conscientious objection isrecognized solely on grounds of religious belief.Conscientious objectors are assigned to civilianwork or enrolled in non-combatant branches

of the armed forces. In Australia and New

Zealand, conscientious objectors may be exemp¬ted from military service or assigned to non-combatant duties. In other countries, such as

Belgium, France and Italy, young people whohave not claimed the status of conscientious

objector may be allowed to do civilian service

on technical co-operation projects in developingcountries. Right, a young Swede reads "A

manual for those opposed to military service".

which affect young people in parti¬cular, without being directly dependenton age.

Examples include the measuresadopted in some countries for thedemocratization of higher education,attempts, still limited, to obtain par¬ticipation by pupils and students inthe running of educational establish¬ments; recognition, in some cases, oftime spent by young workers invocational training as normal workingtime; and the recognition in a fewcountries of the right of conscientiousobjection.

The third trend is the considerable

effort being made by all countries toset up, strengthen or reform the manyinstitutions and services which are

helping to enforce the rights of theyoung as laid down in existing legis¬lation.

This movement is not, of course,uniform in all countries and throughoutthe world, but if we study the resultsproduced so far by this movement, wehave to recognize that most of whatare called "the rights of youth" consistin most cases of measures of pro¬tection, welfare and training which, in

aim to integratethe final analysis,youth into society.

Seen in this light, the responsi¬bilities of young people, instead ofmeaning an opportunity for the youngto take the initiative in actions which

concern them directly and whichultimately concern society as a whole,seem more like obligations imposedon them by adult society, more likean obligation to receive educationdevised essentially by adults or notto receive it at all if they belong tounder-privileged groups; the obli¬gation to go to work, often at a veryearly age (see article page 6) andunder harsh conditions or, conversely,to be the first to be fired; the obli¬gation, finally, to respect a worldorder established independently ofthem and from which they feelthemselves increasingly alienated.

Without seeking to minimize theconsiderable progress accomplishedin many countries in promoting therights of young people, it neverthelesscannot be denied that this progresshas not resulted in any world-widechange in the social and legal statusof youth.

The many attempts made to improveyouth participation in schools andother institutions raised great hopes.But we must recognize that to theextent that participation remains lim¬ited and fails to give youth thepossibility of taking part in fundamentaldecisions, or is incomplete, in that itdoes not allow young people todevelop their activities in all socialfields, it is increasingly rejected byyouth in many countries.

The need to promote the rights andresponsibilities of young people is nowgenerally recognized and the effortsmade in this direction are producingmore and more positive results, butyoung people are still unable to asserttheir rights in an independent andcomprehensive manner, or to assumereal responsibility.

It is clear today that a real possi¬bility of achieving this transformationin the status of youth does exist; andit is towards this goal that efforts arebeing made by the most progressiveelements among youth and by thoseadults who have realized that this

transformation will have an emanci¬

pating effect on the whole of society.

31

SCienCe, SOCiety & raCISm (Continued from page 12)

32

do not really exist. As for ethnicgroups (tribes, peoples, nations), itshould be pointed out that by theirnature they differ from races aboveall in that they are historically evolvingforms of the human community.

Mankind as we know it today con¬sists of some 2,000 different nations,

peoples and tribes a reflection of thedifferent development stages of thedifferent parts of mankind, some ofwhich stayed longer at the stage ofcomparatively small tribes while othersadvanced further and formed the bignations of today.

The way nations were formed in¬volved the unification of different lands

inhabited by kindred tribes and peoplesand the formation of a common na¬

tional territory. It Involved the emer¬gence of an economic communityfounded, above all, on the formationof a single national market, the emer¬gence of a national language andsome common features of mental

make-up expressed in specific formsof culture and so on.

All these ingredients of a nationevolved historically, though not quitesimultaneously. They were first fusedinto a single alloy in a definite epochof history, that of the decay of feu¬dalism and the emergence of capi¬talism. Thus, both historically andfrom the point of view of their socialcontent, the development of tribes,peoples and nations is a processentirely different from that of theformation of races.

'OME scientists considerculture to be the basic attribute of race.

This is based on the notion that

evolution, continuity and stability of aculture are rooted in the geneticheredity of a race. Notions of thiskind, however, are entirely fallacious.

True, the inheriting of a culture, thepreservation of its specific charaeter,of cultural traditions, are of greatimportance for the development ofpeoples, for awakening their sense ofdignity. But the mechanism of conti¬nuity in history is quite different fromthat of genetic heredity.

In the organic world the accumulationand transmission of information from

one generation to another take placemainly through the mechanism ofheredity, which underlies the innateinstincts, and, among higher animals,also by transmitting the acquiredhabits from parents to their offspring.

In social life, a fact of tremendous

importance is that each generationinherits the means of productioncreated by the previous generations.This also applies to social experiencewhich is embodied in language,thought, culture and tradition.

Whereas biological transmission ofcharacteristics is confined to the stock

of information accumulated in the

genetic code, the inheriting of socialexperience has no limits. Culture,understood in its most general sense,is an embodiment of this experience,the totality of material and spiritualvalues created in the course of human

history.

Since culture and the way it isinherited are not connected with the

mechanism of genetic heredity, it isevident that neither have they anyorganic connexion with race, specificfeatures of the latter being transmittedin a genetic way. Culture, with itsuniqueness, is not connected with race,but with ethnic communities of

different kinds: tribes, peoples, nations.

Races, however they may be defined(Mongoloid, Negroid, or Caucasoid,etc.) have no common culture sharedby all the peoples that may be classi¬fied as belonging to the same race.

Negroes in the United States, forinstance, have a certain stock ofcultural traditions and particular fea¬tures inherited from African Negroes,but their culture is to a much greaterextent connected with the conditions

of their present life.

Peoples of Europe that may bereferred to as belonging to theCaucasoid race possess differentnational cultures. The community ofcultures that exists among WestEuropean peoples stems from itssocial content, not from a racialcommunity of white peoples.

Cultural development is sometimesassociated with psychological qualitiesof one kind or another, with intelli¬gence, for example, which, in theopinion of ideologists of racism, isdependent on race. Some writers onthis subject, while formally acknow¬ledging equality among races, attemptto connect certain features of national

psychology, or even psycho-patho¬logical complexes, with race. As aresult, whether intentionally or not,they attribute mental inferiority tocertain peoples, thus subscribing infact to racist conclusions.

Repeated attempts to establish linksbetween race and intelligence exper¬imentally by means of tests have failedto provide convincing evidence ofconnexions between the two.

The method of testing has itselfproved to be open to doubt. It isimpossible to evaluate test scoreswithout taking account of factors whichdo not depend on race, such as thesocial environment of those tested,their income, educational level andexperience, degree of proficiency inthe language of the test papers,cultural traditions and customs and

so on.

Comparison of scores made bypeople who are in more or less similarsocial conditions refutes the myth ofinnate superiority or inferiority of onerace or another, as Otto Klineberg,

a leading world authority on racerelations, pointed out in "Race andI.Q." (Unesco Courier, November 1971).

However, the decisive refutation ofracism is to be found not in psycho¬logical tests but in the historicalexperience of peoples that have ridthemselves of racial or national

oppression. Accelerated developmentby these peoples, their ability toovertake, in their cultural development,more advanced peoples, the rapidgrowth of educational standards andof the number of specialists, allprovide a convincing rebuttal of thereactionary conjectures of racists.

II N the struggle for liberationthe oppressed races and nations ofthe Third World defend their rightsand dignity. Their national awakeningnot infrequently manifests itself inideas of nationalism which are putforward in opposition to the nationalismof the dominant races or nations.Nationalism of this kind is of some

significance for progressive develop¬ment. It contributes to the unification

of the various democratic forces which

are able to wage the struggle fornational liberation.

Among the fighters against racialand national oppression there arethose who put forward racism of theoppressed as a counterbalance to theracism of the oppressors. But theoutstanding Negro leader, MartinLuther King, stressed that the way toequality is not through separatism butthrough integration which wouldexclude judging the merits of peopleby the colour of their skin.

A radical solution for racial and

national problems can be achieved notby opposing peoples one againstanother or dividing them, but byuniting their progressive forces. Thisview is shared by Shery Taki, adelegate from Tanzania to an inter¬national scientific conference on

racism, held in Moscow in December1971, who rejected the idea that"white" supremacy must be opposedby "black" supremacy.

Comparing the status of the blackpopulation in Cuba where it is aminority with its status in Haiti whereit is the majority, he emphasized thatit was a mistake for coloured peopleto aim at creating states with exclus¬ively coloured governments, unlesssocial conditions are taken into

account in setting this aim.

"No doubt", he said, "we see thetremendous difference between the

violence of the oppressors and theviolence of those who defend them¬

selves. The problem, however, cannotbe solved in this way. A search fora solution to the race problem that failsto take account of social conditions

is a road without end..."

Grlgory Glezerman

HUMAN RIGHTSAND THE

POSTAGE STAMPOn these two pages we present a selection of the

many postage stamps on human rights themes issued

over the years in all parts of the world.

"A little bit of paper... covered at the back with

a glutinous wash which might, by applying a littlemoisture, attach to the back of the letter" was

how English civil servant Rowland Hill describedhis scheme for a form of postage prepayment

which was to lead to the issue on May 1,

1840, of the world's first adhesive postage stamp,

the famous "penny black".

Since then the right to issue these "little bits

of paper" has been considered one of the symbolsof sovereignty and has remained a jealously guard¬ed prerogative of government.

So it was a historic occasion when, on October

24, 1951, the United Nations Postal Administration

(U.N.P.A.), established with the approval of theUniversal Postal Union, became the first non-

national body officially authorized to issue its own

postage stamps.

These stamps, whose face value was expressed

in U.S. dollars, were placed on sale at the United

Nations Post Office at U.N. headquarters in New

York. On October 4, 1969, a second United Na¬

tions Post Office came into operation at the Palaisdes Nations in Geneva at which United Nations

stamps in Swiss denominations were put on sale.

Despite the fact that since the creation of theU.N. P.A. 103 million covers have been franked

with United Nations stamps, it is no part of the

U.N.P.A.'s purpose to set up as a rival to existing

national postal authorities. Its aim is to make theideals and activities of the United Nations and its

Agencies more widely known throughout the world.For this the carefully selected designs that figureon U.N. stamps are a perfect vehicle, using as

they do an easily understood international symbol¬

ism that transcends language barriers.

Among the many themes that have been illus¬trated on United Nations stamps are: Human

Rights, the Fight against Racial Discrimination,

the World Refugee problem and, to mark the 25th

anniversary of the United Nations, Peace, Progressand Justice.

Unesco, which was itself the subject of a 1955

U.N. stamp issue, does not issue its own stamps.

However, it runs a philatelic service which sells

U.N. stamps and encourages its Member Statesto issue their own stamps to illustrate human

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

33

GUYANA ¿SGLONE RACE-THE HUMAN RACE

4|U¡3 jgfyt

25eINTERNATIONALRACE RELATIONS YEA 1971

TtiillTK COHOElYKTl 100KURUS

MQUK VI M *rtMMA US$ UlUSWIAUSI UV« TU

Turkey

HUMAN RIGHTS YEAR -1968

! -

0^~

ülLi» M tK.

Ké: g GAMBIA

Gambia

: oppVjI

i i i

sáiC ano internacional daI luta contra o racismo

k e discrimmacâo raciaî

THE POSTAGE STAMP (Continued)

rights and other themes (1). No less than 100Unesco Member States brought out special stamp.issues to commemorate the 20th anniversary ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights, amongthem several with outstandingly successful designs.

United Nations stamps quickly found favourwith philatelists throughout the world and for thecollector U.N. stamps represent a good investment.The 50 cent stamp of the first regular series of1951 is now valued at about $18, the 1954 series

of two human rights stamps which had a face valueof 11 cents fetch about $32 and the 1955 souvenir

sheet for the 10th anniversary of the UnitedNations has a market price of about $143.

Pakistan

Indonesia

(1) Unesco's Philatelic Service (Place de Fontenoy, Paris75700, France) is the sole agent in France for the U NPostal Administration and stocks all U.N. stamps and firstday covers currently on sale as well as stamps of UnescoMember States on U.N. themes. U.N. stamps and furtherinformation can also be obtained from: U N P.A., UnitedNations Building, Ist Avenue, New York, NY. 17' USA-and UN.P.A., Palais des Nations, CH -' 1211 Geneva 1Ó'Switzerland.

Argentina

POSTAGE o ¡3r0 SMfllrlU THAÏLANDE*"r a ' i 4i u'Pf" *'J <

'm*l msSnülS"infiuvi-ai!i'!3nu«tJ!!vilBi?©9 E1 INTERNATIONAL YEAR FOR HUMAN RIGHTS 1968 |

Vatican

E SHQIPERIA

emaerae

Korea (Republic of)

AHM!

19 »68 ¡HUM

iff M X&i HUMUtO km <il DIS DS0ITS

\ V Si^11

*r*REPUBLIQUETOGOLAISE

S'iam»'.UN*i HUMAN H1GH1S YFAR FOR PÍÜ3Ü11 KilUGHS 13 6*1

STATE OF KUWAITI

Kuwait

I4r ülU

i

R

/It¿ :. -,"M "4Ú.S1

\

: T

: SII1A

ii/tZ* ¿Mr

ThailandAlbania

IH)*n<»MWi:Kt3Ki]

rtS* on'nivi

" D «O ITS DE

(ÍOCCURACION UNtVCRSAl DE LOS DERECHOS* ¡

50CTS I ¡CORREO ° i

AEREO ¡

) Di uatukuoii am i*-»«i.

iftj;

Belgium

Congo

Czechoslovakia

UNESCO AND THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS(Continued from page 4)

the League of Nations, not only playeda major rôle in laying down and pro¬tecting workers' rights, but also pio¬neered a number of new and dynamiclegal and political concepts in thefield of social rights.

The same period saw the estab¬lishment of the International Instituteof Intellectual Co-operation. But asGian Franco Pompei, former chairmanof the Unesco Executive Board, writes

in "In the Minds of Men", althoughthe Institute "is sometimes thought ofas the embryo of Unesco, (it) wasvery different from Unesco in Its non-govermental structure and its aims."

Thus, between 1919 and 1939,human rights made their first tenta¬tive appearance on the internationalscene in a manner which was prag¬matic, fragmentary, unco-ordinated andfortuituous... one might almost say bystealth; however, as this sort oftachiste picture of human rights tookshape, the background remained domi¬nated by the cold marble figures ofsovereign States.

icase ¡n point an isolatedincident but highly revealing ocurredin Geneva "when a German citizen of

Upper Silesia complained to the Coun¬cil of the League of Nations concern¬ing the violation by Hitler's régimeof the German-Polish Treaty, signedin 1922 under the auspices of theLeague of Nations, guaranteeing therights of minorities within thoseterritories.

"Discussion in the Assembly, ini¬tially restricted to the matter of 'mino¬rities', was extended to a wider fieldof reference, that of human rights notexpressly covered by the Covenantof the League of Nations.

"The delegates of Member States,who were determined to fulfil theirsocial and humanitarian obligationsbut, at the same time, were anxiousto avoid a break with Hitler's Germany,which had remained a member of the

League of Nations, adopted a draftresolution, couched in very moderateterms, which merely invited the gov¬ernments concerned, to respect humanrights even if they were not mention¬ed in a treaty.

"But this was to no avail. Goebbels

adamantly insisted that: 'Every manis master in his own house. The

sovereignty of the Reich precludesany form of interference in its internalaffairs. The way in which it treatsits citizens is its own concern.'

"A few days after this vote, onOctober 21, 1933, Germany announc¬ed its withdrawal from the Conference

for Reduction and Limitation of Arma¬

ments and from the League. Thus, thebreak occurred principally over theproblem of human rights.

"In the ensuing tragedy, one ofthe crucial points at issue was whetherhuman beings, who in the eyes ofinternational law, might as individualsbe considered the injured or the guiltyparty, should not be recognized aspersons in international law subjectto the obligations that this statusimplies while, at the same time, havinga legal right to the protection and theguarantees afforded by the law ofnations. " (René Cassin, "La Décla¬ration Universelle et la Mise en

des Droits de l'Homme", in AcadémieInternationale de La Haye, Recueil desCours, 1951).

At the height of the Second WorldWar and at a time when men and

women in the countries of the free

world were engaged in a heroicstruggle against totalitarianism, certainpioneering minds conceived the ideaof a world which would not be govern¬ed exclusively by sovereign Statesfor the sole purpose of furtheringtheir own material interests.

As early as 1941, a speech byFranklin D. Roosevelt had given pro¬minence to the equality of economic,social and cultural rights on the onehand, and of civil and political libertieson the other, by giving the sameemphasis to freedom from "fear andwant" as to traditional fundamental

freedoms, such as freedom of speechand expression and freedom of wor¬ship.

Similarly, the Declaration of the26 United Nations of January 1, 1942was a big stride forward in the inter¬nationalization of human rights: notonly did these nations proclaim thenecessity of protecting and respectinghuman rights within "their own terri¬tory" but also in the territory "ofother countries". This was an implicitaffirmation of a real measure of inter¬

national supervision in the field ofhuman rights.

The march of history continued:in November 1942, in a London batter¬ed by air raids, the President of theBoard of Education of England andWales, Richard A. Butler, invited hiscolleagues from the allied govern¬ments in exile to lay the foundationsof an international organization foreducation.

In April 1944, the Conference ofAllied Ministers of Education, at whichthe United States was represented bySenator James W. Fulbright, drafted aproject for such an organization. OnJune 28, 1945, the Charter of theUnited Nations was adopted and the

United Nations came into existence.

On November 20, 1946, the first

session of Unesco opened with amembership of 34 States which adopt¬ed a budget of $6,950,000.

The Charter of the United Nations

had brought about a veritable politicaland juridical revolution: it gave asmuch weight to respect for humanrights and to international co-operationin the economic, social, intellectualand humanitarian fields as to the main¬

tenance of peace and security or,rather, it regarded these two aspectsas inseparable. (Until then only thepreamble to the statutes of theInternational Labour Organization hadadopted a similar position, as early as1919, concerning working conditions.)

The Constitution of Unesco, which

shared the same general aims, wasclearly explicit in linking the consoli¬dation of peace and the efforts madeby individual States in areas whichhad never previously been consideredindispensable to the achievement ofsuch a goal: "a peace based exclusi¬vely on the political and economicarrangements of governments wouldnot be a peace which could securethe unanimous, lasting and sinceresupport of the peoples of the world;... peace must therefore be founded,if it is not to fail, upon the intellectualand moral solidarity of mankind."

To this end, in the words of theConstitution, "full and equal oppor¬tunities for education for all, ... the

unrestricted pursuit of objective truth,and... the free exchange of ideas andknowledge" as well as the fightagainst prejudice, particularly racialprejudice, became "weapons" whichwere to prevent the recurrence ofwar, and also indispensable meanstowards the establishment of a true

international community.

ARALLEL with the creation

of Unesco, and as part of the samegeneral inspiration, other U.N. Speciali¬zed Agencies appeared, such as theWorld Health Organization and theFood and Agriculture Organization,while the Economic and Social Council,

established by the Charter of theUnited Nations, was to co-ordinateand to promote the execution of thisgreat enterprise.

As this undertaking rested largelyon the hopes which had been pinnedon the development of human rightsthrough international co-operation, itis understandable in retrospect, thatthe same impetus that had broughtthe United Nations together, and that OChad strongly influenced the distribution ÜÜof tasks within the newly createdsystem, should have resulted in a U.N.

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

UNESCO AND THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (Continued)

decision to proceed without delay toa Declaration of Human Rights.

It was fully appreciated that the¡deals professed In the various pream¬bles were In need of clearer formu¬

lation in order to ensure that theyhad the greatest possible intellectualimpact and practical effect.

On December 10, 1948 the General

Assembly of the United Nations pro¬claimed the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights.

It Is true that the Declaration was

not binding and that, in the main, itis not recognized by national legalsystems as having the same standingas national law. It is also true that

the work of the United Nations and

of the Specialized Agencies may beconsidered, to a large extent, as agradual process designed to enlistthe co-operation of States themselvesin transcending their inherent limita¬tions and circumventing the legal andpolitical obstacle created by the prin¬ciple of non-interference in internalaffairs.

In any event, the Declaration hada considerable impact on governmentsand on public opinion and has neverceased to be a source of support andguidance for all mankind, voicing itshopes and aspirations.

We

36

HAT is Unesco's rôle as

regards Articles 26 (The Right to Edu¬cation), 27 (The Right to participate inCultural Life) and 19 (The Right toFreedom of Opinion and Expression)of the Universal Declaration, whichconcern Unesco directly, as well asArticles 1, 2 and 7 which emphaticallyproclaim the equality of all men"without distinction of any kind, suchas race, colour, sex, language, religion,political... opinion" and also the over¬riding principle of non-discrimination?

A brief account of this rôle is givenbelow, and a more detailed accountappears in the book, "In the Mindsof Men", published by Unesco on theoccasion of its twenty-fifth anniver¬sary (1). The reader who examinesthe texts of this book and thinks

about the activities described in them

in relation to the principles set outin Unesco's Constitution and in the

Universal Declaration, will be astound¬ed by the magnitude of the fieldscovered in which Unesco has endeav¬

oured to be true to its ideal.

The right to education, for instance,involves many different things: non¬discrimination, respect for the rightsof minorities, equality of opportunity,special assistance for the least favour¬ed members of the community, adulteducation, life-long education, and theessential quality of education capable,

(1) "In the Minds of Men", Unesco, Paris,1972. An account of Unesco and its work over

25 years (1946-1971) by 15 international autho¬rities.

by its aims, methods and content, ofensuring the development of the indi¬vidual within his own group, hiscountry and the world community.

But it also involves education for

Palestine refugees, educational assis¬tance to African refugees, the strugglefor what are regarded as merely"normal" rights such as the right toattend school, in situations of crisis,political upheaval and extreme poverty,situations which Unesco has a duty toface. The reader will also note thatas soon as a decisive move is made

in a new direction it is necessary togo further, and at a faster pace.

Thus, the first two Unesco decla¬rations on the racial question, publish¬ed in 1950 and 1951, which marked asignificant advance by emphasizingthat the biological differentiation ofraces was without foundation, had to

be supplemented by further statementsin 1964 and 1967 because biologicalconsiderations were no longer ade¬quate and because racial conflictswere coming to be recognized as theresult of a combination of complexsocial and economic factors.

Work is now in progress on a newdraft declaration on race which is due

to be submitted to Unesco's General

Conference in 1974 in order to extend

still further the detailed analysis of oneof the most formidable scourges ofthe modern world.

There are many other fascinatingdevelopments, along similar lines,which could be described. When an

activity is well launched it containsthe seeds of its own development.This has been the case with the Uni¬

versal Copyright Convention, revisedin 1971 to broaden its field of appli¬cation for the benefit of developingcountries, and also with the pro¬tection of man's cultural heritage,including the magnificent achieve¬ments of the campaigns to save themonuments of Nubia and Venice, aprogramme which now extends notonly to monuments but also to sites,historic city areas and landscapes.

It may be asked whether such wide-ranging activities are justified. Wouldit not have been preferable to concen¬trate the slender financial resources

available on one or two objectives?The very absurdity of the questionaffords sufficient reply.

How can one opt for culture inisolation from education, or for commu¬nication in isolation from science?

What significance would all theseundertakings have were it not for thestruggle against racism? How can oneconceive of the development of allthese rights if one does not see themas a coherent whole, civil and politicalrights on the one hand, social andeconomic rights on the other? Lastly,how can one isolate the sum total

of rights, and the duties which theyimply, from their context the buildingof peace?

But if one adopts this point of viewwhich necessarily involves a moralcommitment in relation not only to thepast and the present but also to thefuture, one becomes aware of freshdifficulties ¡n the way of the interna¬tionalization of human rights.

Such difficulties are numerous and

complex: the confused aspirations andneeds of all kinds that are to be found

in every human being; the clashbetween individual liberties and the

requirements of States; the gap inpace and level of development bet¬ween industrialized and developingcountries; the conflict between cultu¬

res, systems of values, and modes oflife brought about by upheavals dueto movements of economy and oftrade, by the increased flow of commu¬nications and by the faster pace ofscientific discoveries and technolo¬

gical development; and lastly thedifficulties experienced in placing Inter¬national life on a firm and harmonious

footing owing to our universal igno¬rance, in our rapidly changing world,of what should be the nature of theman of the future.

ERHAPS, it may be said,the task is impossible and we shouldsettle for piecemeal, bilateral, regionalor even world-wide agreements basedon a pragmatic approach with the limit¬ed aim of settling problems on a day-to-day basis.

This is not the view which we take

at Unesco: for us, the Universal is

a reality and a declaration of rightswhich is described as "Universal" is a

necessity close to the hearts of allmen. One has only to re-read theselection of texts prepared under thedirection of Jeanne Hersch for the

20th anniversary of the Declaration("The Birthright of Man", see page 39).

It will be seen to what extent these

rights, which may seem to us, inmoments of discouragement, abstractor Utopian, are the deliberate express¬ion of aspirations which in differentcultures, civilizations, religions andcreeds have survived the vicissitudes

of history, giving a specific form tothose realities we call respect for theindividual, freedoms, national identityand independence, brotherhood.

Unesco is shortly to publish abooklet entitled "Unesco and Human

Rights Success, Obstacles, Hope".Let us hope that it will give to thosewho fight for human rights a clearview of the difficulties which stand

in the way of progress, and that itwill reveal the tremendous forces

engaged in this combat through theinsight it affords into the rôle that canbe played in this respect by a UnitedNations agency with weighty respon¬sibilities in this field.

Pierre Juvignyand Marle-Plerre Herzog

BOOKSHELF

RECENT UNESCO BOOKS

The Teaching of ReadingEdited by Ralph C. Steiger. (A Unes¬co source book on curricula and

methods.) Co-edition Unesco-Ginnand Co.. 1973, 213 pp. (30 F)-

Planning Educational Assistancefor the Second Development DecadeBy H. M. Philips. (No. 18 in theseries Fundamentals of Educational

Planning) 1973, 75 pp. (8 F).

Technical and Vocational Teacher

Education and Training(No. VIII in the series Monographson Education) 1973, 240 pp. (20 F).

Annual Summary of Information onNatural Disasters

No. 6, 1971. 1973, 82 pp. (14 F)-

UNESCO'S TRANSLATION SERIES

INDIA

A Death in Delhi : modern Hindi

short stories

Edited and translated by Gordon C.Roadarmel. University of CaliforniaPress, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Lon¬don, 1972, 211 pp. ($ 6.95).

IRAN

The Ship of SulaimanTranslated by John O'Kane. Rout-ledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1972,250 pp. (£ 3.75).

The Successors of Genghis KhanBy Hashid Al-Din Tabib. Translatedby John Andrew Boyle. ColumbiaUniversity Press, New York andLondon, 1971, 371 pp.

Vis and Ramin

By Fakhr Ud-Din Gurgani. Translatedby George Morrison. Columbia Uni¬versity Press, New York and London,1972, 357 pp.

JAPAN

An Outline of a Theory of Civili¬zation

By Fukuzawa Yukichi. Translated byDavid A. Dirworth and G. Cameron

Hurst. Sophia University, Tokyo,1973, 205 pp. ($ 10).

KOREA

The Bamboo Grove : an introduc¬

tion to SijoEdited and translated by RichardRutt. University of California Press,Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1971,177 pp. ($ 7.50).

OTHER BOOKS

Geology and Engineering(2nd Edition), by Robert F. Legget(international Series in the Earthand Planetary Sciences). McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York andLondon, 884 pp.

Japan, its Land, People and Cul¬ture

(3rd Edition). Compiled by the Japa¬nese National Commission for Unes¬

co. University of Tokyo Press, 1973,702 pp.

El rpD El ÜÜ GS

New Unesco

human rights unitA special unit to co-ordinate Unesco's

work for human rights and the promotionof peace has been set up at Unescoheadquarters in Paris. Its programmeincludes participation in the Decade forAction to Combat Racism, a proposedinternational declaration on race, a peaceforum, and studies on violence, theresolution of conflicts and the world role

of international organizations. It will beassociated with such activities as the

struggle against discrimination in education,education for international co-operation andpeace, human aspects of scientific progress,access to cultural life, codes of conductfor the mass media, etc.

Borobodur rescue bid

With the inauguration of preliminaryworks on the site by President Suharto,of Indonesia, on August 10, Unesco'scampaign to save the ancient Buddhistsanctuary of Borobodur took an importantstep forward. Meeting in Paris a few daysearlier, Unesco's Executive Committee forBorobodur noted that contributions totallingtwo million dollars towards restoration costs

had already been pledged and urged anintensification of fund-raising efforts.

Unesco inquiryon women's opportunities

Unesco is carrying out an on-the-spotinquiry into the educational facilities andjobs open to women in five countries(Argentina, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, SierraLeone and Sri Lanka) to find out whatbarriers to the advancement of women

actually exist. Reports are being compiledon occupations in which trained womencannot find openings, jobs which womennormally do at a level lower than theirtraining fits them for, and on anyregulations limiting women's access totechnical or vocational training. Researchersare also looking at the opportunities forsecondary and higher education for womenand girls aged from 15 to 24 and at bothmen's and women's attitudes towards

women's education.

Tanzania's textbook

revolution

Tanzania has been rethinking and revamp¬ing its educational system so as to makeprimary education, in the words of the coun¬try's president, Julius Nyerere, "a prepa¬ration for life rather than simply for secon¬dary school á complete education initself". New textbooks have been written

by Tanzanian specialists in their own lan¬guage, Kiswahili, and teachers are beingre-trained for the new courses.

Music of the centuries

The article "Music of the Centuries"

which appeared in the June 1973 issue ofthe Unesco Courier was attributed to Pro¬

fessor Maurice Freedman. This text will

form part of a section of a chapter onSocial and Cultural Anthropology by Pro¬fessor Freedman to be published in 1973-1974 by Mouton/Unesco in Part II of "MainTrends of Research in the Social and

Human Sciences".

Professor Freedman asks us to make

clear that the above section on music was

based upon a special report prepared byProfessor Bruno Nettl of the University ofIllinois, U.S.A.

In the introduction to the chapter onAnthropology Professor Freedman under¬lines the fact that a large number of worldauthorities in various fields of anthropologycollaborated with him in the preparation ofthat chapter, which in effect is a notableeffort of international scholarship "restingupon the labours of scholars in many partsof the world."

The Editors regret that this informationdid not accompany the article published inour June issue.

U.N. operationagainst drug addiction

Specialists from the World Health Orga¬nization, the International Labour Organi¬zation and thé United Nations are to helpfight the problem of drug addiction inThailand. The 5-year treatment and rehabi¬litation programme to help the country'sestimated 400,000 drug addicts is the firstof its kind ever launched by U.N. specia¬lized agencies.

Unesco films

for world TV

A new series of 15-minute colour films

for TV is being produced by Unesco'sRadio and Visual Information Division. The

films, scheduled for release later this yearand early in 1974, deal with populationproblems of S.E. Asia, the historic routein Ethiopia, saving the sea and the world'scultural heritage. New co-productionsinclude a film on literacy in Tanzania (withSwedish TV), on training and technology(with Algerian TV), and Islamic influencesin Spanish culture (with Spanish TV).

New rabies vaccine

A new simple rabies vaccine beingdeveloped in France and the U.S.A. maysoon replace the painful and sometimeshazardous 21-day series of Injections withwhich over a million potential rabiesvictims are treated each year, according toa report of the World Health OrganizationCommittee on Rabies (Technical ReportSeries No. 523).

Flashes...

Gambia became Unesco's 131st member

state on August 1.

On December 10, 1973 25th anniver¬sary of the Universal Declaration of HumanRights the U.N. General Assembly willlaunch a Decade of Struggle AgainstRacism and Racial Discrimination.

During the past ten years 300 industrialplants that polluted Moscow's air have beenrelocated or rebuilt and equipped with air-treatment equipment.

Well over 10 million persons suffer fromleprosy, according to the World HealthOrganization: 3,868,000 in Africa, 385,000 inAmerica, 6,475,000 in Asia, 52,000 in Europeand 33,000 in Oceania.

40 per cent of Iceland's 200,000 popu¬lation live in homes heated by geothermalenergy from underground steam, geysersor hot springs.

37

Letters to the Editor

THE GREAT

COPERNICUS

Sir,

Thank you for the lovely issue on thegreat Copernicus (April 1973). Thearticles and illustrations are expertlychosen, but an article in the issue aboutpresent-day achievements in astronomywould have made the greatness of theoutstanding Polish scientist shine evenbrighter.

I read the children's supplement tomy seven-year-old boy, but I cannotsay it fully conveys the grandeur of theachievement of Copernicus in all itscomplexity. I wonder whether this newfeature is going to be repeated infuture. I am all for it but I hope you arenot going to make the "Courier", whichis so keenly read by adults, a children'spublication.. Readers may be interested to knowthat the Soviet Union issued a specialcommemorative medal for the Coper¬nicus anniversary. The 60 mm. medal(above) was struck at the Moscow Mint.

Alexander Arutchev,Moscow, U.S.S.R.

THEO-LOGIC UNLOGIC

Sir,

Reactions of theologians (PasteurClaude Giraud, Friar Jean Oger, in yourletters column of June 1973) to Jean-Claude Pecker's admirable "Copernicusfor Children" (April 1973 issue) wereas confused as other policies of orga¬nized religion. If men who subdue theearth by fire, plague, deceit and pollu¬tion really are considered the " centreof the world", not scientists but theolo¬

gians should be "embarrassed".Theologians instituted the stake, in¬

quisition, crusades (including children'scrusades), holy wars, pogroms andracist persecution. Theologians used ortolerated horror weapons and torturechambers. They implored the blessingsof God on instruments of death instead

of proclaiming excommunication uponall who indulge in killing. Still todaythey can't quite recognize that some¬thing terrible has happened to men, aslowly accelerating insanity of total des¬truction. Such men are not the master-

work of creation. They claim in vaindominion over all things alive.

Neither the scope of men's languagenor the size of their brain

are superior (for instance) to the sixtimes larger brain of tortoises and dol¬phins and their extraordinary communi¬cation systems (Lily). A built-in, instantmemory bank in gray whales is farabove anything man-made computerscould accomplish. Even in art and de¬corative beauty the Australian Bower-birds are hardly to be matched.Senses, navigational, electronic and so¬nar skills, instinct and reason of animalsare often incomparable.

Man-built machines faster than sound,bombs to annihilate multitudes with one

strike, soaring skyscraper heaps, an

amok-running technocracy are ratherdoubtful achievements. Just this con¬

centration of power and people mightcause men's tragic sickness of violence(Montague) which now threatens thewhole planet.

Theologians should admit that theirtolerated, so called civilized society andnot primitive "savages" is the curseof this earth. The recently discoveredgentle Tassadehs of the Philippines, orsome Indian tribes still escaping "civi¬lization" deep in the jungles of theAmazon could prove that men are ableto live in harmony with themselves,nature and God.

Herbert Rona

Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

SCIENCE FOR YOUNG READERS

Sir,

What a happy surprise to find anattractive supplement for children inyour Copernicus anniversary issue.

I recall an earlier feature for youngreaders, "Sophie and Bruno in the Landof the Atom", published in your July-August 1968 issue on Peaceful Use ofthe Atom.

Though it may not be possible forUnesco to publish a magazine designedexclusively for world youth, I hope the"Courier" will continue to produce simi¬lar supplements on the major themes itpresents.

They would help to open a dialoguebetween educators (teachers and pa¬rents) and children and would encourageyoungsters to take an interest in today'sglobal problems.

Cristobal Suria Sorni

Valencia, Spain

We hope our reader enjoys the 8-pagesection for youngsters in our August-September 1973 issue, "Unlockingthe Secret of Tomorrow's Weather"

Editor.

IN THE CLOUDS ?

Sir,

The letter from Dr. Hildensheimer and

her 311 co-signatories (January 1973),describing your issue on the origins ofman (August-September 1972) as a one¬sided version of the question, mightwell have been written in the Middle

Ages.The "Unesco Courier" rightly gave

a straightforward presentation of scien¬tific findings, tracing the emergence ofman from the forerunners of Homo

habilis down to Homo sapiens.I wonder how much longer the minds

of some will be clouded by non-scien-tific theories.

Guillermo Duran Duran

Girador, Colombia

20TH CENTURY MALADY

Sir,

Your issue on the abuse of drugs(May 1973) leads one to reflect deeplyon our present century on which themisuse of drugs and its dangers haveleft their mark.

Most of the articles deal with efforts

to meet this problem through educatio¬nal programmes in hygiene, biology,chemistry, etc. and the pros and cons

of such education. But the fact remains

that we still face an alarming situation.The "Unesco Courier" deserves

praise for its campaign on behalf ofmental health.

Manuel Grien do CampoLa Coruna, Spain

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Sir,

I find your June 1973 issue "Music ofthe Centuries" fascinating. Such pro¬found studies of the musical cultures

of different nations are sources of

invaluable information in particular forteachers and students of musical

culture.

How lovely are the photos : Indiansof the Maquiritare tribe listening tothe music of Mozart, Beethoven and

Ravel moved to ecstasy! And themusicians of Africa, Tibet, Central Asiaand "The Angel of the Maracas"...

I feel, reading this article and lookingat the pictures, a reader himself canbe lifted to ecstasyl

Emerging from a national source theinspired musical genius when full-grownexpands into the universal pool ofmusic. Music is the universal languagefor the heart!

Linda Spacele-Jung,New York, U.S.A.

HANDS OFF

FIVE-FINGERS MOUNTAIN

Sir,

Here in Cyprus a small but dedicatedgroup of individuals are fighting theenvironment battle. They are striving topreserve the beauty of the island byfighting off the invaders and the destro¬yers of the natural beauty of Cyprus.

One of these fighters is Dr. DimitriSouliotis, an eminent Cypriot radiologist,who has been striving with many sup¬porters to stop the issuing of permits tocommercial enterprises which by quar¬rying and taking away the whole sideof a mountain are leaving scars for allto see and deplore. This is happeningto one of the most beautiful sites of the

Kyrenia range of mountains in the northof the island : the Pentadaktylos or FiveFingers Mountain, so called because itsshape recalls a human hand.

I enclose photographs which showonly too clearly how man is wantonlydestroying the beauty of nature. (Be¬low, the huge hole gouged from themountain by quarrying operations).

Alfred H. Mackenzie

Resident RepresentativeU.N. Development Programme

Nicosia, Cyprus

birthrightof MAN

Í/S-"

AN ANTHOLOGY OF TEXTS

ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Prepared under the direction of Jeanne Hersch. thisanthology illustrates how people throughout the agesand all over the world have asserted and claimed the

" Birthright of Man "

Contains over a thousand fragments culled from every epochbetween 3000 B. C. and 1948 A. D., the year the UniversalDeclaration was adopted.

Brings together texts from every continent, every latitude andlongitude, from fable and tragedy, legislation and proverb,political treatises and ritual texts, from funerary inscriptionsand popular songs.

Presents the broad canvas of themes which have inspired theUniversal Declaration : the human person, power and limitationsof power, civil liberty, truth and freedom, social rights, education,science, culture, . servitude and violence, law against force,national identity and independence, universality, sources andends of rights.

12 full-plate illustrations, including 4 in colour,and 21 textual illustrations

592 pages Cloth bound - 35 F.

In the United States co-edition with Unipub, New York

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The man who explored Africa's soul

The famous German anthropologist and explorer Leo Frobenius, the 100th anni¬versary of whose birth is being celebrated this year, travelled the length andbreadth of Africa studying the ways and customs of its different peoples witha love and understanding seldom if ever equalled (see article page 14). This rockpainting from a royal tomb, discovered by Frobenius in Rhodesia, depicts a deadking wrapped in a cowhide shroud, one of the many forms of ancient royal burial.

Photo Frobenius Institut, Frankfurt, Fep. Rep. of Germany