Jaime Torres Bodet

Jaime Torres Bodet

Jaime Torres Bodet (born April 17, 1902 in Mexico City , † May 13, 1974 ) was a Mexican politician and UNESCO Director General between 1948 and 1952 .

The professor of French literature , poet, writer and diplomat was Mexico's foreign minister in Beirut at the time of his election to the 3rd UNESCO General Conference in 1948 . His extraordinary and personal commitment as education secretary of the government of Mexico (1943–1946) against illiteracy in his country had made him particularly well known. He had been committed to the goals of UNESCO since participating in the London Founding Conference in 1945.

He paid particular attention to the fundamental questions. Drawing on his diplomatic experience and with reference to the goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 , he endeavored to reconcile the interests of the economically less developed member states with those of the developed countries.

At the 5th General Conference in Florence in 1950 , he advocated significant budget growth with reference to the military budgets of the member states. The organization should be able to use its program as an effective contribution to world peace. Bodet wanted to counteract the escalation in the East-West conflict with a balanced program . When faced with rigorous budget constraints at the 1952 general conference, Bodet resigned as director general.

In 1952, Bodet was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1956 he was accepted as an external member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts . In 1971 he was awarded the Medalla Belisario Domínguez del Senado de la República .

Web links

• Literature by and about Jaime Torres Bodet in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Die kleine Enzyklopädie , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich, 1950, Volume 2, page 768