The role of the legal adviser in UNESCO

UNESCO’s contribution to peace, through education, culture, and science, is unique in the UN system. Given the Organization’s broad mandate, the responsibilities of the Legal Adviser are diverse and require the Office to intervene on a wide variety of issues. After a brief overview of UNESCO’s legal framework, mandate, membership, and structure, the chapter describes the function, structure, and role of the Legal Office: stressing the crucial independence of the adviser and the office they lead and the important roles of the Office’s three sections and their work on, inter alia, privileges and immunities; the admission of States; drafting; and the interpretation and application of rules, regulations, policies, and contractual clauses. The chapter also clarifies the Office’s negotiation and litigation roles, the Office’s depository functions relating to treaties and other standard-setting instruments, and the advice it provides during sessions of intergovernmental bodies. Finally, the chapter details the Office’s role as the Secretariat of the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations, which examines communications relating to individual human rights violations within UNESCO’s fields of competence.