london

Unesco officials may ask the United Nations (UN) general assembly to declare the first decade of the millennium the ‘Decade for Science’, as a follow-up to the forthcoming World Conference on Science.

The idea has obvious appeal as a way of boosting follow-up to the conference. But support for such a declaration will not be easy to obtain, as the UN has already named that period the international decade for the culture of peace and nonviolence for the children of the world. Similarly, 1997-2006 is the decade for the eradication of poverty, 1995-2004 is the decade for human rights education, and 1995-2004 is the decade of indigenous people.

A second option would be to declare a single year the ‘year of science’. But the UN calendar is full until 2006. Peace and thanksgiving will be observed in 2000, with volunteers, mountains, racism and xenophobia, ecotourism and ‘small loans’ pencilled in for the following years.

David Wardrop, honorary secretary of the UK-Unesco Forum, says that the idea of parallel themes is becoming less popular with governments, as multiple themes make less of a global impact than one. The current decade, for example, has no fewer than five separate themes: eradication of colonialism; development; natural disaster reduction; drug abuse; and international law.

UN annual and decadal themes are designed primarily to raise public and political awareness on social and environmental issues. Wardrop says that decadal themes are more likely to lead to practical policies than single years devoted to issues, as there is more time for governments and non-governmental organizations to mobilize action. The decade for the disabled, for example, is widely considered to have been a success.

Full text: http://helix.nature.com/wcs/a29.html