News

The Director-General is visiting Mali today with French President François Hollande, with the goal to launch the assessment of the state of Mali’s cultural heritage and manuscripts after the recent fighting and tensions and to define a plan of action with the Government of Mali that will guide UNESCO’s support to its reconstruction and safeguarding. Irina Bokova will be ...

2 February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Each year since 1997, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at ...

In January 2013, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Turismo de Portugal (the Portuguese Tourism Authority) concluded their joint project on capacity-building for tourism management in World Heritage sites of Portuguese origin and influence. The project culminated in a final event at the School of Tourism in Lisbon, Portugal, where were showcased the project’s publication and case ...

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova today announced that UNESCO will do everything possible to safeguard and rebuild Mali’s extraordinary cultural heritage, which she described as “a vital part of the country’s identity and history and fundamental for its future. Its restoration and reconstruction will give the people of Mali the strength and the confidence to rebuild ...

Are you a youth organization and want to sensitize the young people more about the value of World Heritage sites?  Or are you an NGO and wish to organize a work camp to preserve and promote a World Heritage site, with young international volunteers? Here is a way to do so! The UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee for ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova launched an appeal to all military forces in Mali: "I ask all armed forces to make every effort to protect the cultural heritage of the country, which has already been severely damaged”. Invoking the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of armed conflict and its two Protocols, Irina Bokova sent a ...

Within framework of the World Heritage Earthen Architecture Programme (WHEAP), an international colloquium on the conservation of earthen architecture was organized at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, in partnership with CRAterre-ENSAG, on 17 and 18 December 2012. This conference, which brought together 240 participants, including experts, professionals and students, was the first international ...