Established in 1950, it fosters the promotion, liaison, information, consultation and execution of UNESCO programs in Italy. It works through the Assembly, which sets the general strategies, and the Governing Council, which is the governing body of the Commission, and implements the strategic guidelines set by the Assembly.
In particular, the Italian National Commission for UNESCO:
● Gives opinions and makes recommendations to the Italian Government and Public Administrations on the development and evaluation of UNESCO programs;
● Collaborates with the relevant bodies to implement decisions made at the UNESCO General Conference that takes place in Paris every two years;
● Spreads UNESCO ideals by promoting Italian initiatives;
● Organises and promotes meetings, conferences, courses and other training and study activities in the subject within UNESCO’s competence;
● Strives to actively associate with the work of UNESCO people and entities carrying out activities in the educational, cultural and scientific field;
● It grants patronage to initiatives that have high value in scientific, educational or cultural terms and contribute to the dissemination of UNESCO’s values and strategic priorities;
● Launches processes for UNESCO sponsorship of international initiatives;
● Makes proposals on the choice of members of Italian delegations to the UNESCO General Conference and other meetings or events promoted by UNESCO or related to it;
● Delivers opinions and suggestions at the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on educational, scientific and cultural aspects of projects to be carried out under the development cooperation policy;
● Assumes the task of protecting the name, acronym, emblem and internet domain names of UNESCO or its specific programs and monitors their use, being the liaison body between UNESCO and the Italian Government for all matters affecting the Organization.