News

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova today condemned the deadly attack at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, and expressed her support and solidarity with Tunisia and the families of the victims. Ms Bokova spoke of the assault during a meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The two leaders were addressing media on the destruction of cultural heritage by ...

“The Elephant Collaring Project Team” from Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an initiative which aims at strengthening the safeguarding of elephants using radio tracking with specially designed elephant collars. The Park’s goal is to reach 120,000 USD in donations, within 10 weeks. Donate now to Virunga National Park to reinforce vital resources needed to ...

The first management planning workshop in a series of five will take place on 25 and 26 March 2015 in the Korça region, Albania. The workshop is carried out in the framework of the 36-month European Union-funded project “Towards strengthened governance of the shared transboundary natural and cultural heritage of the Lake Ohrid region”. The project is designed to address the main threats ...

Upcoming 39th session due to take place in Bonn, Germany. The annual highlight for the World Heritage community is drawing near: From 28 June to 8 July approx. 1200 delegates, observers and NGO-representatives from 191 countries will gather in Bonn, Germany, to attend the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee. During its session last year in Doha, Qatar, the Committee elected Minister ...

UNESCO, in partnership with the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA), the Japanese National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH), ICCROM and ICOMOS has organized a special session on "Resilient Cultural Heritage" within the framework of the Third United Nations World Conference Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR), which has taken place between 14 and 18 March at Sendai, Japan. The ...

Since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq, in addition to the tragic loss of human life and the humanitarian crisis associated to the persecution of cultural and religious minorities, cultural heritage has been the target of intentional destruction. The goal has clearly been to erase the history of the country along with the identities and diversity of its people. UNESCO Director-General ...

Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office and Chair of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee Maria Böhmer issued the following statement in Berlin on 9 March following the destruction of Iraqi artefacts in Nimrud by the terrorist group ISIS: “The ongoing barbaric attacks perpetrated by the ISIS terrorist group in Iraq are devastating. In particular the abductions in Tikrit, the burning ...

Since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq, in addition to the tragic loss of human life and the humanitarian crisis associated to the persecution of cultural and religious minorities, cultural heritage has been the target of intentional destruction, with the aim of erasing the history of the country and thus undermining the peaceful coexistence of diverse communities. Attacks against the ...

“I condemn in the strongest possible manner the destruction of the archaeological site of Nimrud site in Iraq. This is yet another attack against the Iraqi people, reminding us that nothing is safe from the cultural cleansing underway in the country: it targets human lives, minorities, and is marked by the systematic destruction of humanity’s ancient heritage,” said UNESCO Director General ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has welcomed the UN Security Council's statement denouncing the attack on the Mosul Museum. "This statement is a strong testiment to the unity of the international community regarding the tragic destruction of irreplaceable heritage for all mankind," said the Director-General. "The members of the Security Council have reaffirmed the deep ...

"The reopening of the Baghdad Museum is a powerful symbol, coming in the wake of the destruction perpetrated in Mosul. To fight violent extremism and attacks against cultural heritage, we need more than ever to nurture the power of culture, supporting its fundamental role for dialogue and for social cohesion in Iraq and around the world." "I welcome this historic reopening, coming just a few ...

"It is time to get serious about wildlife crime" This year’s theme for World Wildlife Day is right in line with one of the key goals of the World Heritage Convention: protecting sites which are home to threatened plant and animal species. These invaluable sites are threatened more than ever, and illegal human activities such as poaching and illegal logging are some of the most worrisome. ...

“I was filled with dismay by images of the attack on the Mosul Museum, as well as on other archaeological sites in the Nineveh region in Iraq,” said the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova. She spoke at a press conference following the release of a video showing the devastation of the Mosul Museum in Iraq. Terrorists based in Iraq defaced many statues and bas-reliefs with an ...

“I am deeply shocked by footage released today showing the destruction of statues and other artefacts of the Mosul Museum. I condemn this as a deliberate attack against Iraq’s millennial history and culture, and as an inflammatory incitement to violence and hatred,” said the Director General. “This attack is far more than a cultural tragedy – this is also a security issue as it fuels ...

A major international conference was organized by ICOMOS Oman at Dhofar University in Salalah, Sultanate of Oman to review archaeological heritage identification, management, and conservation, and to explore new approaches. Among the participants were experts from different parts of the world, representatives from Ministries and heritage agencies, Ambassadors of UNESCO Member States, the ...

Established as a Category II Centre under the auspices of UNESCO in October 2009, the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) is an inter-governmental organisation which was jointly initiated by the African Members States of UNESCO and the African Union. Its mission is to support the effective conservation and protection of natural and cultural heritage of outstanding universal value in Africa. ...

Prior to the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee, a Young Experts Forum will be held from 18 to 29 June 2015 in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage site and in Bonn, former capital of Germany. Young heritage experts from around the world from 20 to 30 years old will exchange ideas and provide input to the theme of this year’s Forum Towards a Sustainable Management of World ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova, welcomed the adoption of a new UN Security Council Resolution 2199 that condemns the destruction of cultural heritage and adopts legally-binding measures to counter illicit trafficking of antiquities and cultural objects from Iraq and Syria. “The adoption of resolution 2199 is a milestone for enhanced protection of cultural heritage in Iraq ...

Over 900 participants, including over 45 Ministers and Vice Ministers of Tourism and Culture, international experts, speakers and guests from 100 countries, gathered at the UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to explore and advance new partnership models between tourism and culture (4-6 February 2015). Tourism, moving more than one billion people ...

With support from UNESCO’s World Heritage Marine Programme, the Banc d’Arguin National Park in Mauritania organized a series of educational activities for students from four local schools who are located in the park. Throughout 2014, about 100 students participated in three-day excursions in which they learned about the biodiversity, the socioeconomic importance of the Park and the need to ...