What it is

In November 2021 (23 November 2021), UNESCO’s 193 Member States adopted the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the first global standard on AI ethics. It is non-binding. The English edition was published in 2022.

Four values: human rights and dignity; just, peaceful and interconnected societies; diversity and inclusiveness; environment and ecosystems.

Ten principles:

  1. Proportionality and do no harm
  2. Safety and security
  3. Privacy and data protection
  4. Multi-stakeholder and adaptive governance
  5. Responsibility and accountability
  6. Transparency and explainability
  7. Human oversight and determination
  8. Sustainability
  9. Awareness and literacy
  10. Fairness and non-discrimination

It also covers 11 policy areas.

  • Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM): more than 70 countries have implemented or are implementing it, now under RAM 2.0.
  • Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA) tool.
  • The Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory.

Reuse terms: stricter than you might expect

  • The Recommendation is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO: non-commercial use, with attribution, and share-alike. Commercial reuse is not covered.
  • UNESCO’s Terms of Use (Section 9) reserve text and data mining rights and forbid AI training without formal authorization. They allow real-time AI retrieval with credit to UNESCO but no retention or training, and they forbid bulk or automated extraction.
  • Where no licence applies, personal non-commercial use is allowed with attribution, quotes are capped at 1,000 words or 25% of the source, and unofficial translations must be labeled.

This is why we flag editions and translations.

Using the Recommendation in AI and RAG

  1. Do not train or fine-tune on UNESCO content without authorization.
  2. For commercial RAG, check whether your use fits the licence; the NC term excludes commercial use.
  3. Link rather than store where possible, and credit UNESCO.
  4. Map your ethics policy to the ten principles using your own text.
  5. Label unofficial translations.

Common mistakes

  • Assuming CC BY applies; it is CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
  • Bulk downloading UNESCO pages for indexing.
  • Quoting long passages beyond the cap.
  • Using unofficial translations without labels.

Checklist

  • Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
  • No training on UNESCO content
  • Commercial use reviewed
  • Quotes within limits
  • Translations labeled

How AskDona helps

AskDona maps your AI ethics policy to the Recommendation’s principles using short, cited references, rather than storing or reproducing UNESCO text.

Run a sample AI ethics policy alignment check

AskDona shows the evidence; your ethics and governance teams decide.

Editor’s note. This article is general information, not legal advice. The “check required” rating comes from our source list and is a first-pass judgment, not a legal opinion.

FAQ

When was the UNESCO Recommendation adopted? November 2021, by all 193 Member States.

How many principles are there? Ten principles, built on four values.

Can I use it in a commercial AI tool? The licence is non-commercial, and UNESCO forbids AI training without authorization; check with UNESCO.

What is RAM? UNESCO’s Readiness Assessment Methodology, used by more than 70 countries.

References

All pages opened and checked by October 26, 2026.

SourceWhat it supports
UNESCO: Recommendation on the Ethics of AIAdoption, values, principles, policy areas
UNESCO: Readiness Assessment Methodology70+ countries
UNESCO: Recommendation, English PDF (IGF copy)CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
UNESCO: Terms of useAI training and TDM terms