CERN and UNESCO celebrate anniversary of CERN Convention

The sixth session of the CERN Council took place in Paris, from 29 June to 1 July 1953. It was here that the Convention establishing CERN was signed, subject to ratification, by 12 states. Front page image and above image both courtesy CERN. Click for large version.

Last week, in a ceremony held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, CERN and UNESCO commemorated the signature of the CERN Convention and the subsequent 60 years of science for peace.

On 1 July 1953 in Paris, under the auspices of UNESCO, 12 founding member states signed the Convention that led, in 1954, to the establishment of the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

The Convention entered into force on 29 September 1954, the official date of the laboratory’s foundation. CERN was created with a view to relaunching fundamental research in Europe in the aftermath of the second world war, and 60 years on it has become one of the world’s most successful examples of scientific collaboration. For 60 years, CERN has brought together scientists from all around the globe and has provided society with numerous benefits through research, innovation, and education.

“CERN’s philosophy of openness and transparency is expressed in its Convention,” emphasises Rolf Heuer, director-general of CERN. “CERN’s commitments, as laid down in the text, to carry out purely fundamental research and to make all of its work public, have made an important contribution to the laboratory’s attractiveness. These commitments have ensured peaceful collaboration between scientists from all countries.”

“In the light of the many successes that have defined CERN’s history, it is a great source of pride for UNESCO to have contributed to the organization’s creation. The initiative proves that international scientific cooperation, which is at the heart of UNESCO’s mandate, is essential and should be strengthened all over the world to enable the construction of the CERNs of tomorrow,” says the director-general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova.

Read more in the original version of this article by Corinne Pralavorio on the CERN 60th Anniversary website, here.