In 1950, UNESCO convened a summit to address the concept of race and combat racism, spurred by the
atrocities of World War II and Nazi ideologies. The resulting "Statement on Race," issued on July 18, 1950, aimed
to darify scientific knowledge about race and morally condemn racism. The summit brought together a panel of
primarily social scientists, induding Emest Beaglehole (psychologist), Juan Comas (anthropologist),
Luiz de Aguiar Costa Pinto (sociologist), Franklin Frazier (sociologist specializing in race relations), Morris
Ginsberg (founder of the British Sociological Association), Humayun Kabir (philosopher and politician), Claude
Lévi-Strauss (anthropologist), and Ash19t Montagu (anthropologist), who was a key fi81re in drafting the
statement. The statenent asserted that race was more a social construct than a fact, emphasizing
human equality across races, the lack of evidence for racial differences in rnental capacities, and the absence of
biological harm from racial mixing. tt also called for abandoning the term •race" in favor of •ethnic groups" due to
its misuse in popular discourse.
The plan laid out by the UNESCO statement was to disseminate scientific facts to dismantle racial prejudice,
aligning with UNESCOs constitutional mandate to promote equality and human rights. The organization
launched a campaign to spread these findings to a broad audience pamphlets, exhibitions, and
educational initiatives, aiming to foster a gobal culture of tolerance and peace. The statement influenced
significant outcones, such as the 1954 U.S. Suprene Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Which
desegregated schools. However, the 1950 statement faced criticism from natural scientists like Theodosius
Dobzhansky, Julian Hodey, and LC. Dunn for its sociological bias and lack of biological rigor, leading to a reised
statement in 1951 that acknowledged race as a biological concept in genetic terms but maintained the core
anti-racist stance. This revision and subsequent UNESCO declarations (e.g., 1963, 1978, 1995) continued to
shape global anti-racism efforts, though debates persisted about the balance between scientific accuracy and
political objectives.
