UNESCO adopts recommendations to protect cultural heritage

Senior Researcher Frederik Rosén contributed to UNESCO’s Expert Meeting on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ in Paris, 26-27 November 2015. The Meeting resulted in the adoption of recommendations, which have now been published.

In light of the egregious intentional destruction and misappropriation of cultural heritage in the ongoing armed conflicts in Iraq and Syria, a phenomenon described by UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova as ‘cultural cleansing’, the need for deeper discussion and evaluation of the concept of the ‘responsibility to protect’ has emerged.

In response to this, the Secretariat organized an expert meeting to exchange ideas on the application of the doctrine of the ‘responsibility to protect’ to the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflict and to draft recommendations for the Director-General.

The meeting was attended by 22 experts and representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations, including Mr Adama Dieng, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide.