Entrance to UNESCOOn 16 October 2017, following the announcement by the governments of the United States and Israel of their intention to leave UNESCO, IFLA released the following statement: 

 

Education, Science and Culture: Shared Objectives Need Shared Effort


The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) regrets the announcement by the US and Israel of their withdrawal from UNESCO, and encourages all parties to work together to find a positive solution.
 
Libraries play a vital role in promoting education, advancing science, and preserving and celebrating culture. IFLA, as a global network, is built on the basis that our institutions, and our activities, gain from discussion, and cooperation, across borders. We advance faster and in a more sustainable way towards these objectives – as institutions and as societies – when we do it together.
 
IFLA, as the global voice of libraries, therefore affirms the value of UNESCO as a global intergovernmental organisation in the field of education, science and culture, working with libraries to achieve our common goals. We encourage all governments to join us in this.  

This statement has also been endorsed by the African Library and Information Association, the Association for the Development of Documentalist Services in Benin, the College of Chilean Librarians, the Cuban Association of Librarians, the Finnish Library Association, the German Library Association, the New South Wales Public LIbraries Association (Australia), the Association for the Advancement of Documentary Sciences and Techniques (Canada), the Panamanian Library Association, the Spanish Federation of Societies of Archivists, Librarians, Documentalists and Museologists (FESABID), the Latvian Library Association, the Mexican National College of Librarians (CNB Mexico), and the Australian Library and Information Association and the Australian Public Library Alliance.